New admin panel 3.8 is terrible

I have already addressed the plugin fix. It’s not a solution which you would have seen in previous responses in this thread. The overlay creates problems with other plugins as reported by a commenter here, and in the intro to the plugin where they list the problems it creates, ask for help resolving them, and to be notified of others. So it’s only a visual overlay (maybe, at best)= I’m not a developer of plugins and don’t seek to spend my time fixing a plugin that is required because of a seemingly frivolous design change and troubleshoot all the problems it will create. Furthermore I have found some of the functionality in my calendar plugin disabled since the update and this plugin won’t address that. Given that there has been so much negative feedback (some deleted to make it seem less) and no good reason given for making the change, it certainly does seem like you operate in a vacuum.

Furthermore I have found some of the functionality in my calendar plugin disabled since the update

That may be something that can be addressed. Which calendar plugin is it?

It’s my calendar

https://www.joedolson.com/articles/my-calendar/

I even had trouble finding my calendar plugin – couldn’t find the plugins on the dashboard, then had to scroll up and down, up and down, looking for it, whereas in the past they all (12) fit on one page. It all just seems so unnecessary

Following that link it looks like it’s this one.

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/my-calendar/

I’ll install it on my test WordPress installation and take a look at it tomorrow to see what issues I may have with the 3.8 admin GUI and that plugin.

Do you have any other plugins active besides that one or is it just the admin part for that plugin that is causing you grief?

I tried to add a recurring event and could not, it wouldn’t save it. I have to do it over and over for each month. I used to be able to ‘add another occurrence’ and do it all in one step. I don’t know yet what if any other functionality has been disabled.

I just started working on my new site. Installed the “Hero” theme (ThemeTrust), then created my child theme. Decided to update both the theme and WP. Big mistake.

While I wasn’t in love with the previous version of WP, I miss it now. Prior to this update, I had a “Projects” tab in the admin panel. Now, I don’t. The prior version of WP was perfect for this theme. I could select my project and on that page was an option to “show on the homepage”. That is gone.

There is no point in an update if the UI/UX requires users to invest time in figuring it out. We don’t have time to relearn the cms, so it’s better to not make changes unless the change makes building a website or blog more seemless and intuitive.

@mspa, if you’re looking to troubleshoot why you’re missing that tab create a thread here: https://www.ads-software.com/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting#postform

Off topic for a minute:

The user christinabarefoottrimmer has a tangible problem and that’s really the point of this topic. This topic belongs to that user and when people join to toss commentary at the 3.8 admin GUI that really doesn’t help.

If you want to assist this topic then please do. I’m going to install that plugin and see if I can replicate the GUI issue on an installation with no other plugins activated and using the Twenty Fourteen theme.

Hopefully I’ll get a AHA! moment and then perhaps the problem can be posted to the plugin author’s sub-forum for that plugin.

But if you want to just add to the 3.8 admin GUI commentary then please don’t. That sort of commentary doesn’t do anything to solve this user’s problem.

Back on topic:

I’ve just installed it and started poking at it.

I tried to add a recurring event and could not, it wouldn’t save it.

Can you share the admin URL that is giving you a problem for recurring events? For example when I select Add New Even I hit this URL.

https://my-test-url-here/wp-admin/admin.php?page=my-calendar

I think it’s very telling and sad that you’re discouraging people from adding their negative experiences with the new Admin panel. That is what this thread is about and ‘my problem’. The calendar issue is a minor insignificant one that I discovered after starting the thread, you have latched on to in an attempt to fix something. I would prefer that the actual problem, the admin panel, was addressed.

I don’t get any error message. It just doesn’t save it. When I create a single event, it then saves it. Not sure how to provide a URL to this.

I think it’s very telling and sad that you’re discouraging people from adding their negative experiences with the new Admin panel.

I’m trying to stay positive and solve a problem that I believed you had with that plugin when combined with the 3.8 admin GUI.

A little reminder here: I and everyone who is attempting to help you is a volunteer doing this on their own time and out of the goodness of their heart for free.

Honest.

If you want to focus and encourage others to just complain about the 3.8 admin GUI then you do not need my help. To be fair you didn’t ask for my participation and I’m sure I can find something else to do today.

If you’ve got a problem as in something does not work in the 3.8 admin GUI then I am willing to try and replicate your problem and work with you to solve that specific issue.

I don’t get any error message. It just doesn’t save it. When I create a single event, it then saves it. Not sure how to provide a URL to this.

On my installation I went to My Calendar -> Add New Event and setup a test event and made it recurring.

I didn’t have any problems doing that or saving the event.

You have to now ‘force’ it to be a multi-day event to make it work. It’s not a multi-day event. You can no longer create separate occurrences of each event.

Is there a way to change the typeface in the admin panel back to the original one? Is there also a way to make it dark and the background light , like it used to be?

I installed the ‘WP-Admin Classic’ plugin. It does not got back to the pre 3.8 look. All it does is chaange the background color to grey and the typeface to black. It doesn’t go back to the original typeface and it does nothing about the gradients or the spaces in between blocks. The type still takes up more space and extends past the bottom requiring constant scrolling. And when you type something the type still does that irritating and distracting shadow-disappearing thing.

I wonder if people even checked out the plugins before copy/pasting the url to them into their messages.

As far as the calendar problem – I created my event as a single event with multiple dates/times rather than the correct single event for each occurrence (because that is the only way that it works now) and on my front page calendar widget it shows the events as one long ongoing event from January 18 – April 19, which of course it is not. It’s one day in each of Jan, Feb, Mar, April. But it won’t let me create it as separate events unless I do a new, manual entry for each one.

When I remove the WP Admin classic plugin and go back, the Widgets are all displayed in two long vertical columns that I have to scroll down to see all of them, instead of having them go all across the page and be able to see them all at once. It is impossible to see them all which is necessary to do in order to find and choose which one I might want to add, or delete. This makes it really, really, really, hard to work with widgets.

Plus it is really difficult to impossible to grab a widget from the bottom and push it to the top to try and drag and drop it, because you can’t scroll when you’re holding down the mouse button.

I think it’s very telling and sad that you’re discouraging people from adding their negative experiences with the new Admin panel.

Agreed, negative feedback is what this section of the forum is for. The primary topic of this thread is the “feedback” that the 3.8 interface is absolutely horrible and the “request” that the old interface be brought back as a part of core.

If you want to focus and encourage others to just complain about the 3.8 admin GUI then you do not need my help.

Then let the “Requests and Feedback” posted here in this part of the forum be seen by those who shall help us and add it back into the core.