Stay Away from WP5

Hiya,

It sounds like you had a bad experience with the new update, would you like to go through it with me? I’d love to see if I can help resolve the problems you experienced.

Heard.

No updates will happen on any of my sites. I don’t have the time to fix a dozen broken sites.

Thanks WP for ruining a good thing. ??

If 5.0 doesn’t work for you then restore from your backups and keep running 4.9.X.

Easy fix!

Unless you have a backup that you can restore from, downgrading is a dangerous process, which is why backing up before upgrading is strongly recommended both in the upgrade instructions and automatic upgrade interface.

It would be better to solve your current problem. Would you please describe what is wrong?

If you’ just not a fan of the new editor, install the Classic Editor plugin: https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/classic-editor/

Here’s why I hate WP5.
1 The blocks.
They force paragraphs far apart from each other, the equivalent of triple spacing or more.
It makes your text look childish.
And if your posts are text-heavy, as mine are, the blocks repel viewers. They make every post into a long, long scroll.

Is there any way of being able to paragraph within a single block? Or even move the blocks closer together?

2 Insert images
I used to be able to insert images by putting the cursor at the start of the paragraph in which I want the image to appear. I’d pick an image from the media library, and indicate whether I want it to go to the right of the post, to the left, or to be centred.
WP5 doesn’t seem to offer this capacity at all. It is extremely annoying.

Is there any way of having a graphic beside the text, to the right or to the left, rather than underneath, in WP5?

3. Fonts
I used to be about to say, easily, that I wanted my text to be 12 point, and to be white, because the background of my site is black.

In WP5 it’s a pain in the arse to get it down to 12-point, and when I request white text against a black background, I get blocks of black around the white text, quite visible, against the background black.

How can I simply get white text against a black background, in WP5?

4. Picture captions
When I wrote a caption to a picture, I used to able to make it white, so it was legible against the black background.
WP5 doesn’t seem to offer this option.

Is there, in fact, a simple way of choosing the colour for caption texts, in WP5?

5. Links
I used to put links onto certain images, so they can be clicked as links to relevant content on someone’s else’s site.

I can no longer figure out how to make an image clickable so it links to elsewhere in the web.

Is there any way to do this, in WP5?

General comment
I’m sure there are many other things wrong with WP5. It’s a clumsy, non-intuitive, functionality-hidden nightmare to use.

I’m a writer, not a programmer. I do simple things, simply. I don’t want to become a “sophisticated” WP user. I just want WP to do what I want, very simply, as WP4.98 did, for example.

In the meantime I’ve re-UPgraded to the older version. But if there’s a simple way of fixing those problems, then I’d persevere with WP5.

Can anyone help?

I do simple things, simply.

Perfectly put. This is the essence of why I chose WordPress for me and my clients.

Is there any way of being able to paragraph within a single block? Or even move the blocks closer together?

This is a function of your theme. The theme decides on things like spacing, not the editor.

Is there any way of having a graphic beside the text, to the right or to the left, rather than underneath, in WP5?

Of course. Make an image block. Put an image in it. Put a paragraph block with your text below it. Now, set the image block to align left or right using the image block’s toolbar. It will magically have the text below it wrap around it.

Here’s a demo for you:

There is also the “Media and Text” block, which puts an image directly beside some text. Not sure which way you prefer it, generally the floating image is nicer and allows you to size it as you see fit.

How can I simply get white text against a black background, in WP5?

Well, if you want the whole site to be like that, then that would be the theme’s job. However, if you only want a small section like that, then you can simply select the colors in the editor.

Is there, in fact, a simple way of choosing the colour for caption texts, in WP5?

No, that’s sort of on the theme too. If the background is black, then the color for text should default to not black. WordPress doesn’t set the color of captions to any specific color, so they will be whatever the theme defaults them to.

Your theme controls the look of the site as a whole, and it can also control the editor’s look too, in order to match the site’s look. It sounds a lot like you have a theme that doesn’t have editor styling. Maybe try a better theme?

I can no longer figure out how to make an image clickable so it links to elsewhere in the web.

Select the Image block with your image in it, and on the right hand sidebar, look for the Link Settings dropdown area. You can give it a “Custom URL” to link it to anywhere you want.

1
You say:
“This is a function of your theme. The theme decides on things like spacing, not the editor.”
But my theme worked perfectly, before WP5. I could fix the spaces between paragraphs, in my current theme. With WP5, it seems I cannot. Am I correct?

2
You say:
“Of course. Make an image block. Put an image in it. Put a paragraph block with your text below it. Now, set the image block to align left or right using the image block’s toolbar. It will magically have the text below it wrap around it.

There is also the “Media and Text” block, which puts an image directly beside some text. Not sure which way you prefer it, generally the floating image is nicer and allows you to size it as you see fit”

I’m sorry, but my eyes glazed over. That is beyond me. I do what, now? This used to be simple. WHY WAS SIMPLICITY PREVENTED?

3
You say:
“Well, if you want the whole site to be like that, then that would be the theme’s job. However, if you only want a small section like that, then you can simply select the colors in the editor.”

I’m sorry that’s my aesthetic choice; white text on black. WP used to work fine with it. Now it doesn’t. I think my only answer, if WP doesn’t come up with something better than WP5, is to use the classic edit as long as it lasts, and then find something other than WordPress. I will bitterly resent this, as I do not want to spend my time with programming. I’m a writer.

4
You say:
“No, that’s sort of on the theme too. If the background is black, then the color for text should default to not black. WordPress doesn’t set the color of captions to any specific color, so they will be whatever the theme defaults them to.

“Your theme controls the look of the site as a whole, and it can also control the editor’s look too, in order to match the site’s look. It sounds a lot like you have a theme that doesn’t have editor styling. Maybe try a better theme?”

I’m damned if I’m going to spends days developing a new theme when the current one works fine. WP5 is the problem, not my theme.

I say this because you are incorrect. In reality, WP4 allowed me to set the colour of my image captions. It is WP5 that, it seems you are saying, has removed this functionality.

5
You say:
“Select the Image block with your image in it, and on the right hand sidebar, look for the Link Settings dropdown area. You can give it a “Custom URL” to link it to anywhere you want.”

I don’t know whether this will work, because the blocks make my posts look stupid, as noted above. So I’ll wait until WordPress gets rid of blocks, makes them optional, or allows you to paragraph within a block, so that you can effectively ignore them. Otherwise, I’ll use the classic edit until it’s unsupported, and then move to better a better system.

WP5 is a nightmare. It is a disaster for WP.

It’s a disaster for me, too. I wanting to spend my time writing, not tearing my hair out.

But my theme worked perfectly, before WP5. I could fix the spaces between paragraphs, in my current theme. With WP5, it seems I cannot. Am I correct?

No, you are mistaken. The theme works exactly the same before and after, and it sets the paragraph spacing. If you were manually spacing out your paragraphs before, and want to do that still, then good news: There’s a block built in called “Spacer” which you can use to add blank space between any other blocks that you like. Just click above a block, add the Spacer block, and use the handle to make it as tall as you want it to be.

I’m sorry, but my eyes glazed over. That is beyond me. I do what, now? This used to be simple. WHY WAS SIMPLICITY PREVENTED?

It is simple. I even gave you a video. It’s like 50 seconds long. It’s very easy to do. Obvious, even.

I’m sorry that’s my aesthetic choice; white text on black. WP used to work fine with it. Now it doesn’t.

Yes, it still works fine with it. You can either have the theme do it by default over the whole site, or you can do it individually yourself in the editor. The text color and the background color are options in the block section on the right hand sidebar.

I’m damned if I’m going to spends days developing a new theme when the current one works fine.

Why would you need to develop a new theme? Your existing theme works exactly the same as it did before. The editor doesn’t change how the theme works. The editor just makes HTML for the theme to use.

So I’ll wait until WordPress gets rid of blocks

Sorry, that’s not happening. The next phase will be to make the sidebar widgets and menus into blocks too. Blocks are the future. If they are such a horrific and massive problem for you, then I suggest you start looking for an alternative to WordPress. Drupal is a neat project. But they might be adopting the new editor too, so maybe keep looking.