WordPress 5.0 was released on Thursday, and many people (those who are self-hosting, for example) were in for a nasty surprise: their entire way of adding a new post will have changed dramatically. The new release replaces TinyMCE with Gutenberg; a completely new way of adding content to your blog or website. In case you’re unfamiliar with the lingo, here is what TinyMCE looks like:
A Block, but not the Writer’s Kind
Gutenberg introduces a so-called Block Editor. Users of Elegant Themes’ Divi’s Visual Editor or even MailPoet or MailChimp will be familiar with the concept of composing posts through blocks. Basically, you build the page by selecting among a collection of premade kinds of content like Images, Text etc:
Still confused? Perhaps the following video will shed some light:
Thanks But No Thanks
If you are not ready to use the new WordPress 5.0 post editor, that’s ok. You can simply install the Classic Editor Plugin and your WordPress website will function just like it did before. The Classic Editor plugin restores the previous WordPress editor and the Edit Post screen. It lets you keep using plugins that extend it, add old-style meta boxes, or otherwise depend on the previous editor. To install, visit your plugins page and click the “Install Now” button next to “Classic Editor”. After the plugin finishes installing, click “Activate”. That’s it!
Support for the Classic Editor plugin will remain in WordPress through 2021, so you can use that time to familiarize yourself with the new system. I hope this helps restore some sanity to your life, if Gutenberg has stolen it from you 🙂
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I just published with the new “editor” and hated it. Much harder to use. Glad I read your article and went back and chose the classic editor.
Yay! So glad to have helped 😀
I hate it! But I was prepared a few months ago. I did the search and found the classic editor plugin and downloaded it but didn’t activate it. A few writer friends said they were faced with the ‘block’ a few weeks ago. Me, I opened my blog last Thursday and went to write a post when I shouted WTF? Lol. Within seconds I activated that baby – classic editor. And blog life resumed, despite my friend changing my theme which I love now but my site is lagging bad now. I even spent 2 hours on the phone with my webhost. I know I can’t stand the wait times so I imagine my readers aren’t thrilled. Any suggestions are welcome:) Oh, and I did clear the cache. And, sorry I digressed on the intended subject, lol. 😉
Thank you for sharing that, Debby! As for speeding up your site, I was going to suggest using a cache plugin but it sounds like you’re already doing that. Since you recently cleared it, it could be that you simply need to wait for it to finish preloading all posts and pages. Caches only improve with time!
Use ClassicPress: https://www.classicpress.net
It is a business focused version (fork) of WordPress, without Gutenberg.
There is a free migrator plugin: 2 minutes and your site is running on ClassicPress!!
Thanks. Someone else mentioned it, too. I’m happy to accept a guest post about it, if you have any experience with it!
I’m using WP.com …and as of a few seconds ago, (I just checked) it’s still the classic editor. 10.40pm Monday – west coast of Canada.
They’re going to have to prise it out of my cold dead hands before I relinquish it in exchange for that abomination!!! … somewhat kidding-ish. 🙂
Lol–fair enough 😀
Thank you for this! I haven’t done the update for that very reason. This time of year is too busy to start learning a new system. Cheers!
I so know what you mean! It’s the last thing we needed right now 🙂
Thank you, Nicholas, I was pulling my hair out trying to use Gutenberg. I’m back to using the classic editor. I gave it a try, but when I couldn’t insert an image where I wanted it to go, I lost patience with it.
I completely understand. Hopefully these wrinkles will be ironed out by the time we have to take the leap.
I’m not contrary to Gutemberg, mind. When I first saw it, I thought it was a nice way to organise posts. So I tried it… and discovered that doing what I want to keep doing was harder than I thought. So I switched back to the Classic Editor.
I don’t know. I might try it again and see whether in these months it had become easier to use. After all, if this is going to be the future of WP ditor, I’d better get used to it.
I admire your attitude! Thank you for sharing your experience with it 🙂
My days at WP may be limited. Not known for my patience, this sounds like a hassle I don’t need.
Most of us feel the same way. I still like WP better than any of the alternatives, though. Which means I may have to learn to use Gutenberg. Sigh…
I have been dreading this! So far, I have resisted all suggestions to ‘update’, and still use the editor from 2012, the one I started out with. I hate change for the sake of it, and will adopt this ‘ostrich’ attitude until they force it upon me. Even watching your video and reading this didn’t help, but that’s just me, I expect.
I fear I may have to pay to upgrade to get that ‘Classic’ plugin. But if need be, that will be preferable to trying to get my head around those pesky blocks!
Best wishes, Pete.
You’re not alone in this, Pete! Even I, a professional web developer since 1995, have been dreading this and dislike change for the sake of it. And yes, I know I’m just dating myself now… 🙂
I always appreciate your WordPress tips! Sadly, this one only works if you have a paid account. Recreational bloggers who can’t afford to invest in the platform are stuck with the “upgrade”.
Thank you, Jules! I still don’t know if Gutenberg will be installed on WP.com as well. Is that the case? My nicholasrossis.wordpress.com blog still uses TinyMCE.