For reasons that are way beyond my knowledge, I can’t GET the block editor to work at all on my Mac. It simply will not come up. I have to fight to avoid it on my PC, but I can’t use it on my Mac. Too many bizarre glitches and this one’s a doozy.

Seriously, no kidding, their engineers need to fix the glitches. Then they need to make the GUI intuitive so that regular people can use the format without it becoming a major barrier to writing and photography. They need to put some intelligent planning into the graphics section in particular.

WordPress needs to overhaul the GUI so it can be managed by normal users who just want to write something, add a few photographs, and be done. It’s not supposed to be a marathon or unusable without a month of practice.

I can use it and sometimes choose it intentionally — but I still can’t figure out where to find categories and tags more than half the time and it’s so sensitive that hitting the wrong key — which I do a LOT because typos are us — will publish it when you’re not even finished with your first draft. They also need to unlock the graphics section so it’s functional — at least to the degree that the previous one was — which wasn’t great either. The photo section is a nightmare.

Function and sections of functions are buried under other functions. There’s NO reason to make it that complicated. Put a bar up top with functions clearly listed so users can and open the section they need. Every other word processing format does that and so should WordPress.

I have several folks who write on this site who can’t figure it out. They aren’t regulars and it’s too much work for a once-in-a-while user. It’s hard to blame them. The format is non-intuitive (maybe anti-intuitive). For occasional users, it’s not worth the effort.

By now, a lot more of your have been “hit” with “the new format” and discovered what a pain in the butt it is to use, especially for photography.

For those of you wondering why the “new format” in WordPress is called a block editor, it’s because each chunk of graphics or text is considered a “block” — whether it’s a picture, a collection of pictures, a paragraph, or a quote. The point of a block editor is it lets you move blocks around the page or the book — or even between multiple books — until you have exactly what you want. It’s a wonderful kind of function to have when you’re writing a book, or have finished a draft and are rearranging text and graphics for your next draft.

For a blog, a block editor is overkill. Few blog posts exceed 1000 words. More typically, posts run closer to 500 or 600 words. For a small piece like that, cut and paste is more than enough firepower. A block editor — if this were indeed a block editor — would rarely be warranted.

If you work on WordPress, there is no need for you to worry your head about dealing with a block editor because no matter what they call it, it is not a block editor. Calling items blocks doesn’t make them blocks. They remain what they always were: paragraphs, photographs, galleries, or some other preset design function. You get to have the complexity of a block editor without its benefits. More work for the same result.

To make this format function, you need to know what you’re going to do with your piece before you write it. If we could all do that in a first draft, it would make us highly efficient authors. Sadly, I have never been quite that efficient.

The point of a block editor is being able to move blocks without using cut and paste. It lets you write or design sections without having to reformat when you move them. That’s why block editors are wonderful when you are authoring.

It’s overkill for a blog but as I said earlier, this is not really a block editor. It’s just called that.

What’s the point of all this change if the end result looks pretty much the same as it did in the old editor, but now requires users to do twice as much work? And know in advance what to do before even beginning? I can’t write that way. I’ve been a professional writer my entire adult life. At 74, I don’t think I could — even if I wanted to — change my writing style to suit the great minds of WordPress.

While I’m writing this, I’m testing out graphics. I can’t use a picture unless it has been downloaded and titled. The captions STILL show up in the middle of the picture. Please raise your hand if you think this is a good idea!

I can load existing pictures, but not new ones. New pictures from folders won’t load at all. I can’t move photos once they have been inserted. I can’t work in any block without my mouse because you have to click IN the block. Merely moving your cursor there doesn’t do it. This must really irk people who are trying to work on an iPad.

Half the time I can’t find the categories or tags. Everything takes more effort than it used to. I can make it work, but I have to ask: why should I have to try this hard to do things that used to be simple?

So. Let’s say today I want to do some magic tricks in my blog. I’m going to use some presets and colors and fancy gallery patterns. Tomorrow, though I just want to write something, post it, and move on. Let’s say sometimes, I want the fancy stuff — a callout, a quote, a design. For that piece, I use the slow editor and have to do a lot of prep work before I even start to write. Most of the time, I have other things to do. I may not want to spend an hour writing a piece that used to take ten minutes. Unless WordPress is paying ME rather than me paying them.

I do not understand why WordPress feels aggrieved that some of us don’t want to use this format at all — and many of us don’t want it all the time. Would it ruin them to let us not use it?

Why drive users away? This is a bizarre business model. Normally, the primary goal of a for-profit company is to attract users, not convince them to give up on their product. Nonetheless, that is what they are doing and I really don’t get it. It makes no sense. They don’t even need to invent it because it already exists.

Add that to my ever-growing list of things that I don’t understand – like why people are willing to risk death rather than get vaccinated or make up ridiculously complicated reasons for why stuff happens when the truth is so much simpler and has the advantage of actually being true.

The list of incomprehensible stuff gets longer every day.

Categories: #gallery, #Writing, Author, Editing, WordPress, You can't make this stuff up

Tags: #Photography, formatting, graphic design, Graphics, Marilyn Armstrong, text, WordPress