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Classic Editor

By WordPress Contributors

Description

Classic Editor is an official plugin maintained by the WordPress team that restores the previous (“classic”) WordPress editor and the “Edit Post” screen. It makes it possible to use plugins that extend that screen, add old-style meta boxes, or otherwise depend on the previous editor.

Classic Editor is an official WordPress plugin, and will be fully supported and maintained until at least 2022, or as long as is necessary.

At a glance, this plugin adds the following:

  • Administrators can select the default editor for all users.
  • Administrators can allow users to change their default editor.
  • When allowed, the users can choose which editor to use for each post.
  • Each post opens in the last editor used regardless of who edited it last. This is important for maintaining a consistent experience when editing content.

In addition, the Classic Editor plugin includes several filters that let other plugins control the settings, and the editor choice per post and per post type.

By default, this plugin hides all functionality available in the new Block Editor (“Gutenberg”).

Screenshots

  • Admin settings on the Settings -> Writing screen.
  • User settings on the Profile screen. Visible when the users are allowed to switch editors.
  • "Action links" to choose alternative editor. Visible when the users are allowed to switch editors.
  • Link to switch to the Block Editor while editing a post in the Classic Editor. Visible when the users are allowed to switch editors.
  • Link to switch to the Classic Editor while editing a post in the Block Editor. Visible when the users are allowed to switch editors.
  • Network settings to select the default editor for the network and allow site admins to change it.
  • The "Switch to Classic Editor" link.

FAQ

Default settings

When activated this plugin will restore the previous (“classic”) WordPress editor and hide the new Block Editor (“Gutenberg”).
These settings can be changed at the Settings => Writing screen.

Default settings for network installation

There are two options:

  • When network-activated this plugin will set the Classic Editor as default and prevent site administrators and users from changing editors.
    The settings can be changed and default network-wide editor can be selected on the Network Settings screen.
  • When not network-activated each site administrator will be able to activate the plugin and choose options for their users.
Cannot find the “Switch to Classic Editor” link

It is in the main Block Editor menu, see this screenshot.

Reviews

Perfect Editor

March 22, 2020
Works completely as advertised. Intuitive and great number of features.

Thank goodness this is an option

March 20, 2020
I am so glad they allowed for this. Without it, we would have been forced to do a very difficult and time-consuming migration from one fields plugin to another with no time to do it.

Essential for avoiding Gutenberg hell

March 18, 2020
My only complaint about this plugin is the fear that it won't be maintained past the end of next year. Please, please maintain this plugin maintained indefinitely. If WordPress abandons the Classic Editor, I'll have no choice but to abandon WordPress.

Thanks

March 16, 2020
Grateful for helping us get rid of the gutenberg nonsense editor

A Must-Have in Light of the BS They Did at WordPress

March 12, 2020
Man, am I grateful to have this Plugin in order to escape the BS they have done to WordPress by introducing this idiotic editor "upgrade". First I was falling back to "old" WP versions, then I was happy to find this classic editor "partial downgrade if you want, and that saved the day. We had distraction-free writing alright with WP, so I really don't see why this Facebook-style redesign of the default editor had to be done. Thank you guys for rescuing the great "old" editor for all of us!
Read all 793 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Classic Editor” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“Classic Editor” has been translated into 52 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Classic Editor” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

1.5

  • Updated for WordPress 5.2 and Gutenberg 5.3+.
  • Enhanced and fixed the “open posts in the last editor used to edit them” logic.
  • Fixed adding post state so it can easily be accessed from other plugins.

1.4

  • On network installations removed the restriction for only network activation.
  • Added support for network administrators to choose the default network-wide editor.
  • Fixed the settings link in the warning on network About screen.
  • Properly added the “Switch to Classic Editor” menu item to the Block Editor menu.

1.3

  • Fixed removal of the “Try Gutenberg” dashboard widget.
  • Fixed condition for displaying of the after upgrade notice on the “What’s New” screen. Shown when the Classic Editor is selected and users cannot switch editors.

1.2

  • Fixed switching editors from the Add New (post) screen before a draft post is saved.
  • Fixed typo that was appending the edit URL to the classic-editor query var.
  • Changed detecting of WordPress 5.0 to not use version check. Fixes a bug when testing 5.1-alpha.
  • Changed the default value of the option to allow users to switch editors to false.
  • Added disabling of the Gutenberg plugin and lowered the required WordPress version to 4.9.
  • Added classic_editor_network_default_settings filter.

1.1

Fixed a bug where it may attempt to load the Block Editor for post types that do not support editor when users are allowed to switch editors.

1.0

  • Updated for WordPress 5.0.
  • Changed all “Gutenberg” names/references to “Block Editor”.
  • Refreshed the settings UI.
  • Removed disabling of the Gutenberg plugin. This was added for testing in WordPress 4.9. Users who want to continue following the development of Gutenberg in WordPress 5.0 and beyond will not need another plugin to disable it.
  • Added support for per-user settings of default editor.
  • Added support for admins to set the default editor for the site.
  • Added support for admins to allow users to change their default editor.
  • Added support for network admins to prevent site admins from changing the default settings.
  • Added support to store the last editor used for each post and open it next time. Enabled when users can choose default editor.
  • Added “post editor state” in the listing of posts on the Posts screen. Shows the editor that will be opened for the post. Enabled when users can choose default editor.
  • Added classic_editor_enabled_editors_for_post and classic_editor_enabled_editors_for_post_type filters. Can be used by other plugins to control or override the editor used for a particular post of post type.
  • Added classic_editor_plugin_settings filter. Can be used by other plugins to override the settings and disable the settings UI.

0.5

  • Updated for Gutenberg 4.1 and WordPress 5.0-beta1.
  • Removed some functionality that now exists in Gutenberg.
  • Fixed redirecting back to the Classic Editor after looking at post revisions.

0.4

  • Fixed removing of the “Try Gutenberg” call-out when the Gutenberg plugin is not activated.
  • Fixed to always show the settings and the settings link in the plugins list table.
  • Updated the readme text.

0.3

  • Updated the option from a checkbox to couple of radio buttons, seems clearer. Thanks to @designsimply for the label text suggestions.
  • Some general updates and cleanup.

0.2

  • Update for Gutenberg 1.9.
  • Remove warning and automatic deactivation when Gutenberg is not active.

0.1

Initial release.

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Support

Issues resolved in last two months:

2 out of 20

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