Classic Editor

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

August 23, 2020
Today I was also checking the back end WordPress and trying to create some new pages and looking for the "parent" page option under Page attributes in WordPress. To my surprise, it was gone and missing! I did not use it for 8 month's and probably after all the WordPress updates, the developers of WordPress forget to implement this important function. Luckily I still had the plugin classic editor So I switched back to the old classic version on the back end and I got the "parent" page option back. Compliment for the developers of this plugin. Thanks for that! You saved my website. [Signature removed by moderator per forum guidelines.]
August 23, 2020
A fatal problem has occurred since the WordPress 5.5 update. After the WordPress 5.5 update, you cannot preview all'classic editors' in'Edit Post'. Disabling the'Gutenberg Plugins' solved the problem. Do I have to wait for the Gutenberg Plugins to be updated? The current Gutenberg Plugins version is 8.8.0. Note -Installing Enable jQuery Migrate Helper Plugins (By The WordPress Team) didn't solve the problem. -There is no problem in the WordPress site status.
August 18, 2020
I think this plugin deserves 5 stars however I am giving 4 stars because it doesn't work properly with wordpress 5.5 does anyone knows if future releases of it will fix the issue of not working with wordpress 5.5 ? or is it a theme issue with wp 5.5 version? I managed to go back to wp 5.4.2 and now classic editor works but hosting support said I have to update to the latest version of wp sooner or later if I don't want trouble with them and my site. I'm afraid of updating later and face the same behavior again.
August 16, 2020
After the last update the Classic Editor couldn't work properly and I had to go to a previous version of my website to fix all the technical issues. FIX THE PLUGIN ASAP, PLEASE
Read all 876 reviews

Contributors & Developers

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

Contributors

“Classic Editor” has been translated into 56 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

1.6

  • Updated for WordPress 5.5.
  • Fixed minor issues with calling deprecated functions, needlessly registering uninstall hook, and capitalization of some strings.

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.