WordPress Visual Editor - Do you Use It?

21 Sep
2007

Posted by David Peralty as WordPress Tips

Weblog Tools Collection asks the question “do we use the WordPress visual editor?”

I know that myself, and many other people I know, are just like Mark and Jim from WTC in that right after installing WordPress, we turn it off.

Why do we turn it off? Well, mostly because it doesn’t work as effectively as doing things by hand for people that understand how to make text bold and add in image code.

I enjoy seeing that the HTML code is being properly formatted, and that nothing extra is being added. I love controlling how my text is presented, and I feel that the visual editor hinders me in that respect.

The flip side though is that people without any understanding of HTML tags and whatnot love the editor, as it gives them an interface more like the ever prevalent Microsoft Word.

Where do you stand? Is the WordPress visual editor on or off on your installations?

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17 Responses

James Pegram

September 21st, 2007 at 12:26 pm
1

I use the visual editor most of the time. I got over myself and needing to be hardcore about writing something a few years ago. The visual editor lets me see what the formatting is looking like as I write it. Sure, there’s a few quirks that are annoying in it but nothings perfect. I think it handles the standard stuff like bold, indent, italic, center, images, links, etc, just fine, not sure why you think it doesn’t do that or why coding those tags by hand are better.. curious.
David Peralty

September 21st, 2007 at 12:50 pm
2

This whole notion of it messing up is really an old one. I am sure they’ve fixed many of the bugs that plagued the very early versions included with the first visual editor, but I feel more comfortable doing things by hand. Especially when it comes to images, not so much with simple things like bold, italic and whatnot…
gr

September 21st, 2007 at 2:53 pm
3

Mine is actually broken. Things I type into the visual editor do not get saved when I hit ’save’ or ‘publish.
Caitlin

September 21st, 2007 at 6:06 pm
4

I don’t use the visual editor because the tags I do need aren’t listed in the tool bar. I cross post my entries on one of my blogs to LiveJournal, and use their cut tag pretty frequently. There are also a few other regular tags that I use fairly often. I tried using the visual editor for awhile, but it gets in my way because I still type html snippets out of habit. The plain text editor is faster for me.

The only time I leave it on is when I set up a WP install for friends who don’t want code to get in their way.
ben

September 21st, 2007 at 7:59 pm
5

I started giving it another chance when 2.2 came out. I don’t mind it, but I do think the older method is probably the preferable one. It’s not a “hardcore” issue with me, I just like the performance of the plain text editor better.
Jim

September 22nd, 2007 at 9:01 am
6

I use ecto to post to WP anyway, so I don’t care what they do with the Web interface. However, I think they should always have the WYSIWYG editor available.
Robert Nelson

September 23rd, 2007 at 10:32 am
7

Mine is unchecked
www.Gratis-Ideen.de

September 23rd, 2007 at 1:15 pm
8

I use it because it is fast and comfortable. But sometimes it is better to use the simple input area to fix problems
Shawn

September 24th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
9

I use the visual editor most of the time for setting up my post. I do find myself having to go into the code view and make tweaks to fix stuff. At times the editor does create some less than desired results.
Malin

September 24th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
10

I have it turned off since I like to control the coding in the posts.
Jon

September 24th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
11

I do just about everything manually even though there are probably reasons to use the advanced editor. I think I’m a throwback from the days when frontpage would toss in extraneous code into HTML.

Plus, if I can’t see the tags, I feel like I’m cheating.
Mark Penix

September 27th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
12

It’s not really my cup of tea because of my history with html/css… i was a notepad kid… and the visual editor kind of robs me of my xhtml youth
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October 1st, 2007 at 6:09 am
13

[...] WordPress Visual Editor - Do you Use It? [...]
imGem

October 5th, 2007 at 4:35 am
14

Visual editor never do what i want, it’s a pain to see my post created by visual editor. Always turn it off now and looking for a plugin to enhance the code editor to include more function.
Marc

January 6th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
15

I do use it. Pretty new to Wordpress but I am find the visual editor pretty good.
Durkin

March 25th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
16

I use the visual editor for most of the writing and then switch to HTML to make sure everything is looking tidy.
Mark

May 5th, 2008 at 6:01 am
17

I’ve been using the code editor for some time, as the visual editor is capable of some very odd things. Having said that, I’m constantly frustrated by the quirks of the code editor, as it interprets HTML in its own, peculiar fashion. Anyone thoroughly familiar with HTML will wonder why WordPress doesn’t follow the rules!