WP Visual Editor, hell for the end user. Can this be worked around?

Hi Guys,

When setting up a WP based site for a client we all love digging in there and setting up the templates, tweaking the PHP, adding useful plugins and all that. Sometimes we get lost in the minutia and tech. BUT there comes a time when one is handing the site over to the client / end user who wishes to add / edit their own content. Enter the VISUAL EDITOR Nightmare!

THIS IS WHERE WORDPRESS FALLS DOWN .. Frankly the Visual Editor is rubbish, from a non tech end user perspective.

Before anyone goes off on – “Oh disable it, use the HTML Editor” .. HAVE YOU LOOKED AT WHO I AM TALKING ABOUT ABOVE?

No Client / End User WANTS to know about, IS NOT interested in the art of HTML Coding. Nor should they have to.

A biggy is the BLANK LINE between paragraphs for example. NO ONE has a non coding solution in Visual Editor to this issue yet.

OK, I have added Tinymce Advanced ( mainly to add blank lines ). This sorts some of the issues but adds more. Try adding tables and then formatting the page around them. Try adding images and aligning them properly WYSIWYG. Try the Unordered List Bullets, they cling to the left margin regardless of indent. Certain things on paper should work, the button is there but when clicked .. welcome to the twilight zone.

( I do not think Tinymce Advanced works with the new add_editor_style(); feature in 3.0? )

SO, I am asking here for work arounds, fixes that will give and enduser / client a reasonably uninterrupted, pleasant experience when using the visual editor to add / edit their content.

OF COURSE – if I am wrong about all of this – disregard or chastise me and tell me where I need to fix things. Maybe its a CSS issue to be sorted on my end for example.

This experience is over a few sites, so not site specific. Its about a common wordpress feature called the Visual Editor.

Aidan