Note: the following post contains affiliate links. I receive a portion of any purchases made through these links, at no additional cost to you. —TPP
Last week I wrote about adapting to blocks in WordPress.com, as well as looking at some other changes WordPress.com has introduced recently, like badges and/or achievements for reaching certain milestones. My overall verdict was that, while I miss the Classic Editor, blocks do offer a degree of versatility that make editing easier, even if there are some shortcomings to them.
While writing and researching that post, I noticed that there is a plugin native to WordPress.com that restores the Classic Editor—indeed, an almost even more “classic” version of it than I realized!—and realized that I had to give it a whirl. Could it be that WordPress.com still had the coveted feature that many bloggers still crave? And how would it stack up to the new block editing regime?
Everything you’re about to read is possible in any of the paid WordPress.com plans, including the Personal plan, which is $4 a month when paid annually (or $9 a month otherwise). I use the Premium plan, which $8 a month when paid annually (or $18 a month otherwise). I’m not sure if the Classic Editor plugin can be re-enabled in free plans; that said, if you use a free plan and it works, let me know!
Activating and Using the Classic Editor Plugin
In WordPress.com, it’s easy to find: just click on “Plugins” and then “Installed Plugins,” and it should be in the list of juicy WordPress.com plugins:
After that, it was literally one click to activate the Classic Editor plugin:
I’ll admit, dear readers: I feared some kind of total disruption to my old posts, or some cascading of now-incompatible plugins once I re-enabled the old editor. I’m happy to note that did not happen.
What did catch me by surprise is how the Classic Editor now loads. In the past, clicking “Add Post” under “Posts” in WordPress.com would load up a separate screen (that’s how it works when using block editors). Now, the editing loads up as a frame in the WordPress.com admin view:
Some users might find this view a bit cramped. I’m currently writing on my little laptop, which has a very small screen, but it actually feels pretty good. I’d be curious to see how it looks on my PC with its two large monitors. In some ways, the large banners on the left and right actually seem to help focus my eyes on the most important part of blogging: the actual writing. Other users, however, might find it to be a bit overwhelming visually.
(At this point, the vet called for me to pick up Murphy—don’t worry, she’s fine, we’re just getting her on some medication for her stiff joints—and I am not back on the desktop PC. The “framed” appearance pictured above still looks good, and is a bit more commodious. —TPP)
A Big Advantage: Robust Linking
One of my gripes with the block editor is that linking feels needlessly unwieldy. When linking in, say, a paragraph block, if I want to link directly to a post, I need to have the exact URL ready to go. However, the search function pulls up not just posts I’m looking for, but everything that might have that title—tags, images, etc.
This abundance of results is inconvenient because, as regular readers know, I have several “series” I run each week, like Monday Morning Movie Review and Lazy Sunday. While it’s convenient if I’m trying to link to the tags for those series as a whole (which is rare), it’s unwieldy if I’m trying to link to a specific installment. Instead, I have to go to another tab, pull up my website, use its search function to find the post that I want, then copy-paste that URL into the WordPress.com hyperlink function.
I also like links to open in a new tab, so that readers don’t have to navigate away from the page they’re reading. That is also more unwieldy with blocks. It requires going back to the link and selecting a box to open a link in a new tab.
The entire process only takes maybe twenty seconds if I really have to dig for a link, but it’s unwieldy enough that it seriously disrupts the flow of my writing. I think it’s the single largest downside to block editing.
Contrast that with the Classic Editor. I highlight the text I want to link, click the “hyperlink” button in the editing ribbon, select the little gear icon, and I can quickly search for the specific post that I want to link. In the same window, I can tell WordPress.com to open the link in a new tab.
Here’s a screenshot of the “Insert/edit link” window in Classic Editor to illustrate what I’m attempting to explain:
Again, the block editor linking system is great for linking to tags, but how often is anyone linking to a specific tag (yes, I do it in this very piece, but that’s the exception that proves the rule)? I’d wager that the vast majority of links are to specific posts. If WordPress.com could restore this style of linking to blocks, it would dramatically improve the user experience.
A Note on Saving
When I was still holed up at Starbuck’s, I saved my draft when I got the call to pick up Murphy. I briefly panicked, as when I clicked “Save Draft,” the entire page reloaded, and briefly displayed a word count of “0.” I thought I’d lost the morning’s work!
However, my browser quickly loaded up the text I’d written up to that point, and everything was there, nicely saved and ready to go. If you’re used to using the block editor, one thing that might irk you is that, after clicking “Save Draft” in the Classic Editor, the button is not “ghosted” out until you make changes. If you’re a bit “OCD” (like I am) about these things, it can be a little disconcerting—“wait, I haven’t made changes since saving; did it really save if the button isn’t ghosted out?” Rest assured it is saved, but note that difference.
To demonstrate how the “Save Draft” function works, I made a quick video, only to find that on a faster computer and network, the delay in repopulating your written text is almost imperceptible:
It’s like taking your car to the mechanic, only for the problem that’s been dogging you all week to disappear. D’oh! But it also means that you’re unlikely to ever notice the “Save Draft” reload delay I experienced earlier unless you’re on a slower device and/or Internet connection.
(I’ll also note: I was pleased to see that the above YouTube Short embedded properly with a simple copy-paste of the URL into the Classic Editor. I seem to remember the Classic Editor having an issue with embedding Shorts in particular, so it’s good to see that WordPress.com has that functionality now. —TPP)
Closing Thoughts: Classic versus Blocks
So, is Classic Editor the One True Editor for WordPress.com? Or is Blocks the New Covenant between WordPress.com and bloggers?
While I have a soft spot for the Classic Editor, and while I think it does links way better than Blocks, I think Blocks offer greater versatility and functionality. It’s clear that WordPress.com is embracing the block editor as the “proper” or “preferred” way to blog, and that’s where future improvements are likely to focus.
That said, kudos to WordPress.com for offering the Classic Editor as an option, even if it is buried in the “Plugins” menu. I think the best compromise approach, however, would be to restore the Classic Editor as a block in the block editor. Other bloggers I’ve spoken with seem to agree that this hybrid approach is the most accommodating to all users. Instead of an “either/or” scenario (with apologies to Kierkegaard), offering the “Classic” block again would give users the most flexibility to fit how they blog.
For all the reasons I detailed last week, though, blocks are the way to go, albeit with some caveats. That said, some users will likely enjoy the Classic Editor. For me, it was a nice little trip down memory lane—and a reminder of how nostalgia often comes with a rose tint.
The Portly Politico is me, Tyler James Cook. I’ve been blogging on WordPress since 2018, and daily since 2019. I love to write about politics, culture, and music, and frequently feature my original music. Check out my musical creations here on the blog or on Bandcamp. —TPP