Category: Editors

The Classic Plug-in

Been struggling to catch up with my “real” WordPress feed today, because I have been playing with the standalone version of WordPress I installed this morning.

The good news is that I got it all going. I created a new account on this standalone version, then created a post. I then logged in again using the wordpress.com account I usually use for this site, and was able to comment as Mister Bump.

Success. What that means is that other wordpress.com users can seamlessly comment on the posts.

On a roll, I then installed the classic editor plug-in onto my standalone version. This was the result. Click on the image for more detail.

Is this the “classic editor” people used to use?

If so, I can tell you exactly what I did, but anybody wanting to go down this route must do the following:

  • buy hosting somewhere on a site which allows WordPress, and also allows plug-ins.
  • install the JetPack plug-in. JetPack offers a free plan. You will also need to instalhe Akismet plug-in. Akismet expect a donation, but it looks as it that donation can also be zero
  • Then, you need to export/import your existing site, to pull all the posts across. You will need to export / import the design, too. I’m not even sure that can be done automatically.

They don’t make it easy, do they?

For Mel

What you see above is a block called a “post carousel”.

You can tell it to only display so-many posts.

You can also set it to just display posts in a certain category. In my example, I have a category called Quizzes.

The images you see are the Featured Image of each individual post.

The text that you see is the title of each individual post.

Might this help you?

Did you see the “Columns” block?

[I should say at the start, you’ll need to view the post on my site to appreciate this.]

Well, first of all, did you see the quiz I post yesterday? It went something like this:

1.blah blah blah

In fact, to get there, I had to select a Table block and edit it manually. If I’d have just created a table from the editor, and used it as is, I’d have got:

1.blah blah blah

See how it mangles the widths?

So I sent a message to WordPress and asked if there was any way to do this visually, without faffing around with the underlying code. Turns out, there is a block called the Columns block instead. This allows me to create my columns, entirely within the visual editor. Set the widths, and all.

I thought I’d mention it for two reasons. First, this appears to be quite a powerful block. After you’ve said how many columns you want, you can not only set their widths, but you can also fill then with whatever other blocks you like. I mean, I was only interested in writing a bit of text, but you could put images, or lists, or (I guess) loads of other things, if the fancy takes you.

Second, this is the one time I have to go beyond the block editor and fiddle with the underlying code.

I’ve seen/used these blocks where you can display media and text side-by-side, but it’s clear to me now that that is just a special case of a Columns block. So, this is what my quiz would’ve looked like if I’d have used the Columns block.

1.

blah, blah, blah

or

The quick brown fox

  • blah
  • blah
  • blah
2020-12-25T00:00:36

  days

  hours  minutes  seconds

until

Christmas

and all done visually!

Reblog: Addled

There is a feed on here goes by the name of WordPress News, it is an “official” feed for wordpress.org. wordpress.com, the platform on which we write, is built on wordpress.org.

For better or worse, they have big plans for Gutenberg. They have an idea called Full Site Editing, where Gutenbery is gradually doing more and more. They envisage Gutenberg expanding and encompassing even things like the Customizer, say. So I think the writing is on the wall.

But for the moment…

Nan's Farm

“Confusion is a word we have invented for an order not yet understood!” – Unknown.

Over on Weekly Prompts this Saturday the Weekend Challenge from GC and me is Coming or Going.

Coming or Going – is a state of confusion and has been the way many of our blogging colleagues have felt during this first week of the Gutenberg Editor. Some of us have opened new pages to find Blocks as the default editor, while others have seen no change whatsoever! Confusing isn’t it? What was your experience on that first day?

I’d assumed that those bloggers with little interest in using the Gutenberg Block Editor would have found their way back to the Classic. It seems I was wrong about that, and there are still bloggers out there having a good old shout about not being able to find their way back.

Those who study human…

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Part Two – Don’t Panic

Reblogging this post, in case it is any use to anyone. Sue wrote another post, which she highlighted a few days ago, and which I also shared.

Weekly Prompts

  ‘A Guide To The Gutenberg Blocks Editor” Part Two.

This post is a second response to the Block Editor concerns of some of our blogging colleagues

Links to the printable and downloadable guides, Parts One and Two are located at the end of this post.

Both guides are basic introductions to the Blocks, intended for bloggers who simply want to write a blog post and insert a few images, pretty much what most of us want! And as said previously, don’t let the amount of blocks put you off, most of us will only ever use two or three.

Part One dealt with composing a post using the Block ‘Classic Editor’, this is a version of the old Classic Editor previous to the existing Classic.

Two Editors named Classic – what were they thinking? Confusing to say the least!

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