I HATE this WP Editor

Scepter Marketing and Web Dev
(@pyrocode)

14 years, 1 month ago

Is it just me or has something seriously changed with the editor in WordPress now? I am in constant battles with it changing my html code and not only that, I can’t see my selectors anymore. Even in the html view if you add the “code” selector around something, it moves outside what I just wrapped. I am also seeing it strips out a lot of my own code…

As a web designer, it’s beyond me why these developers of editors feel they need to make editors change the designers coding. THIS DRIVES ME NUTS!!!!!!!!!! LEAVE MY CODE ALONE!!!!!!!!

This was the same issue with the Joomla cms until not too long ago a third party developer finally listened and provided the end-user the ability to turn off code cleaning so that the user can do their own without being worried as soon as they click Apply or Save, that their code would be stripped out or changed.

Whatever was changed with this editor plugin in WordPress, the developers need to listen to people and to stop messing with peoples own coding. Also, while on the subject, the most critical part of any CMS is the content editor, so why the WordPress one is so limited in features and functions is puzzling. CMS = Content Management (hence emphasis on “content”).

Just putting my two cents in…hopefully others will add their frustrations with the editor here too and let these developers know not to mess with a person’s own code.

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

gmltw
(@gmltw)

13 years, 10 months ago

I completely agree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is very frustrating.

Is there any way to remove this Word Press “feature”?

still giving
(@nonegiven)

13 years, 10 months ago

It has been raised before, you are entirely correct, for people that know their code WP have been surprising silent on the issue.

The new text editor is very depressing shite. Fact. It is far worse than the one before it.

It has so many bugs, errors and makes so many bad technical decisions I cannot even be bothered listing them all.

It is even worse than Microsoft product.

It requires a coder’s know how to fix them which kind of defeats the purpose of a WYSIWYG interface in the first place.

WordPress requires rescuing from it.

still giving
(@nonegiven)

13 years, 10 months ago

The obvious problems include:

the text editor is not even just a text editor. There is some invisible stuff going on that screws up with one’s content and code.

the text editor and the visual editor conflict with each other … VERY BIG BAD

the both expand their content modification beyond what it says on the page, e.g. if you put text and images nearby or together the editors screw with them

there is no simple ‘center’ for images, only a text center div

they’re default use of <p> tags instead of simple

Moderator James Huff
(@macmanx)

Volunteer Moderator

13 years, 10 months ago

To be fair, the Visual editor was not designed to edit code, that’s what the HTML editor is for. The Visual editor was added for non-technical users who want any easy way to style the appearance of their posts.

Both TinyMCE (the Visual editor) and WordPress are open source. Both parties would certainly welcome any fixes that you would like to contribute.

still giving
(@nonegiven)

13 years, 10 months ago

It is true. The WordPress is successful open source community off the back of which Auttomatic have raised in excess of $10 m and are paying themselves handsomely.

The problem is, the HTML editor – which is what I am mainly talking about – is not just that. It no longer does just plain text … and it conflicts with the Visual editor. Likewise, just saving re-edits the HTML. So there is something going on in the WordPress element of it that is not quite right, and not documented.

Beta testing and bug reporting are all part of “contributing” too.

Honest critical feedback is worth far more than fanboy waxing about how wonderful things are.

• There is another problem where it grabs elements one line above the selection parts and applies edits to them unwanted, e.g. around images and paragraphs.

The bottomline is at present we have a tool that is aimed at novice users which requires advanced understanding to make work … and the bit for those with advanced understanding is screwed up by the bit for novices.

The problem has gotten worse since the upgrade. Really it should have been noticed BEFORE it went into the mix. Because it should not have.

Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)
(@ipstenu)

🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

13 years, 10 months ago

The issue of ‘switching’ between Visual and HTML editor borking things is an ongoing, yes, we know, issue, and … No. There’s no good fix right now. TinyMCE eats things, and while it’s not perfect, it’s a better choice then a lot of other open source Rich Text editors (by the way, you get the same issues on LiveJournal and Blogger, so it seems to be endemic to the nature of web-editing).

The problem is, the HTML editor – which is what I am mainly talking about – is not just that. It no longer does just plain text

It doesn’t? I use it daily and I’ve never had a problem.

There is another problem where it grabs elements one line above the selection parts and applies edits to them unwanted, e.g. around images and paragraphs.

The HTML editor? Are you sure you don’t have a plugin or browser issue here? I’ve never see this one. Ever.

bvandrunen
(@bvandrunen)

13 years, 10 months ago

The best thing that I have found to work is to use a php plugin. If you really want to do sophisticated things in the text editor use a plugin such as “PHP Code Widget” by otto. Then just control it through your widgets.

This is what I do and it works great. If I am doing something simple I use the WYSIWYG editor or html editor and for something complicated I just use the plugin which gives me total control as well as the ability to write in php.

intenseblog
(@intenseblog)

13 years, 3 months ago

Agree with you, my site is about WordPress coding but anythime I put my code into WordPress post I must use some online web services to remove special HTML character like “<?php” in to “&gt?php” and also use WP plugin to display all of them to my visitor.

Why WP doesn’t include this HTML character convert?
[sig moderated as per the Forum Rules]

Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)
(@ipstenu)

🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

13 years, 3 months ago

Are you wrapping your code in <pre> tags? I use my site to talk about code and it works fine for me.

Jen
(@jenmylo)

13 years, 2 months ago

The HTML editor is not meant to be a code editor, it is meant to allow html tags to be added to text. If you want to do fancy code sampling, you should use a plugin that is optimized for it, like the one by Otto mentioned above. The reason it’s not in core is that it is functionality that the majority of WP users don’t need.

@stillgiving: Reporting bugs and testing fixes is definitely an important method of contributing. However, writing a rant will HATE in all caps and posting it here is not a bug report. This is a support forum. Once it’s established through discussion with others here that a bug is in effect, as opposed to a plugin conflict, server settings or some other non-core issue being the cause, an actual bug report should be filed. Bug reports are filed on Trac, according to guidelines posted here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Reporting_Bugs

I don’t think your sideline about Automattic has anything to do with reporting a bug, but if you look at the numbers, Automattic donates over 20% of its employee time to contributing to core and related free open source code (plugins in the repo, bbpress, buddypress, etc). Do you or your company donate 20% of your time to WP? If not, maybe scale back on the accusations against Automattic. For the record, I took a 12% pay cut to work at Automattic, so we’re not paying ourselves all that handsomely. I would make a lot more as a freelancer or working for an company that didn’t have contributing to open source as a major component of its business plan and cutting into its profit potential.