Restoring the Classic Editor on free Word Press blogs

  • Unknown's avatar
    mfrood · Member ·

    I have several free blogs for the different war memorials I have researched. When creating another blog for a fresh research topic today, I found that, once named, it ‘landed’ requiring a Block Editor, and worse, that I’d simultaneously lost the Classic Editor option for all my voluntary blogs. I haven’t downloaded WordPress, for these blogs, and they are hosted via wordpress.com. I see there is a plugin for Classic Editor, but I wonder how the plugin can be activated if you are not using the Word Press app.

    Is there a way I can reverse this change and recover the Classic Editor? I really struggled with the Block Editor when we were all upgraded to it, until I found the option to use it in the Post lists. But I can’t even see that in the classic format.

    Thanks for taking the time to read this. I am using WordPress on a laptop, running Windows 10.
    Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

  • staff-totoro · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    We will be eventually retiring the classic editor, so the option to use it still exists and you can find it by following the steps here: https://wordpress.com/support/classic-editor-guide/

    Please note that it will not be possible to use the classic editor indefinitely, so if you are having trouble with using blocks we’d be happy to take a closer look at that and see if we can help you get accustomed to the new system, and at the same time see if there are any ways you use the classic editor that are difficult to do in the block editor, so we can add that feedback for our product team to address.

    If I can ask, what about the block editor has been giving you trouble? Thanks for the additional info!

  • Unknown's avatar
    mfrood · Member ·

    Issues I’m experiencing.

    I am poised not to do anything more with a new blog, because I am wrestling with the Block Editor. While I have a professional blog, managed by a web designer, he has helpfully restored the Classic Editor so that I can write my blog posts.

    I was recently able to revert to Classic Editor once I’d created a post on Block Editor. It seems I’ve lost that.

    All of my blogs in support of voluntary causes were, in a malign swoop, converted to Block Editor when I created a new blog intended to cover the ‘stray’ war graves I came across. I now feel that I can’t add posts to the other blogs, and that it is very difficult to set up the new blog using Block Editor.

    Here are two key issues for me.

    I like the ability within the Classic Editor to resize images. I can’t work out how to reduce the images in Block Editor so that I can have a block of text side by side with an accompanying image.

    I like the ability within the Block Editor to insert special characters like the en dash and the em dash. This is important to me, and yes, I know one can use a Character Map, say, but that involves several extra steps—l don’t have a numeric keyboard so I can’t use the usual Alt plus type of commands. If this exists within the Block Editor, it has eluded my searches.

    I’ve looked at the clips you have for new users, but they cover none of the issues that bug me.

    If you can tell me how I can replicate these, I might cheer up a tad and stay onboard.

    Thank you for the offer to look into the aspects of Block Editor that bug me.

    Regards.

  • Unknown's avatar
    mfrood · Member ·

    Also, how do I restore to a previous revision using the Block Editor, please? I’ve lost a chunk of work today.

  • Unknown's avatar
    helper-heroponriki · Member ·

    Thanks for the details! I’d recommend trying the Classic block: https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/classic-block/

    I can’t work out how to reduce the images in Block Editor so that I can have a block of text side by side with an accompanying image.

    Instead of an image block or a paragraph block, you could use the Media and Text block:

    https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/media-text-block/

    Otherwise you can use the Classic block for this as well in addition to having access to the Ω menu that you’re used to for inserting em and en dashes.

    Also, how do I restore to a previous revision using the Block Editor, please? I’ve lost a chunk of work today.

    In the post editor, click the “post” settings tab and click the revisions section as shown here in this example: https://d.pr/i/M5JKal

    I hope that helps! Let us know if you have any questions or need help with anything else.

  • Unknown's avatar
    mfrood · Member ·

    Wow, that was a quick response. Thank you for the suggestions. It’s quite late where I am, so I’ll try your suggestions out tomorrow morning, when I’ll feel a bit more tuned in.

    Thank you so much for your advice. I will get back to you if I have any problems.

    I really appreciate your help with this!

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