The Classic Editor is the legacy default editor preceding Gutenberg. You can still use it if you are accustomed to it or if your WordPress version is older than 5.0. WordPress continues to support the Classic Editor plugin, as there are over 5 million active installations worldwide.
The word goes that the support for this evergreen plugin will end in 2022, although with these usage margins, it may continue longer.
Classic editor is a simple text editor; most content is in a single block. It is a bit slower to work with than Gutenberg, and HTML competency is a must for SEO and editing. This legacy editor needs additional plugins for extra features. Thus, creating high-end posts can be a complex task.
Following the steps in this section, you’ll be able to create a competitive WordPress post with the Classic editor.
Title and Content Boxes
When you start creating your WordPress post with the Classic editor, you can create and format the text in a single block. Further down the page, you’ll see the content boxes you can add to your post.
You can add your title in the first field at the top of the page, and clicking away will save it as your post headline. Below the content editor, you can see the additional features you can add to your post.
Add Multimedia
With the Classic editor, you can add multimedia, like images and videos, directly into the content box. Click on the Add Media button on top of the content box, select an image from your Media Library, or upload a new one.
Alternatively, you can drag and drop image files from your computer into the content box.
Publishing options
You can find the publishing options on the top right-hand side of the screen. As you can see, there, you can find the buttons to save your draft or preview it. From there, you can also select who can see your post (Visibility) and when to publish it.
Categories and Tags
Under the publishing options, you can see the drop-down menus from which you can assign a category to your post or tag it.
Post Thumbnails
Post Thumbnails are practically the featured images you’d add to your WordPress post.
With the Classic editor, you can add a featured image from the right-hand side of the post-editing screen. Click on the Set featured image link, select an item from your Media Library, or upload a new one.
Screen Options
On the top right corner of the editing area, you will find the Screen Options menu. You can use it to select which elements can be shown or hidden from your editing options. Additionally, from the same menu, you can select whether the post layout will be decided in one or two columns or enable full screen.
Additional Post editing options
Just below the content box, you can select from a drop-down to edit a specific option.
- Post Excerpts menu to add an excerpt for your WordPress post. These are short summaries wrapping up the content of your post to display on your WordPress page.
- Send Trackbacks – Select whether you want to send trackbacks to sources you are referencing on your post, and scroll down the respective menu.
- Custom fields – Next, you can create custom fields for your WordPress post by expanding the corresponding menu. There you can add custom information to your post, like additional metadata.
- Discussion – Expand this section to enable or disable commenting on your posts. Enabling comments for your WordPress post will allow your readers to interact with your content.
- Slug – We recommend changing your post’s slug when your headline is rather long. You can edit it from the respective menu, as shown below.
- Author – Finally, share the post author’s name to make things a bit more personal with your readers. WordPress automatically assigns you as the post’s author; still, you may wish to change it with another registered user. To do that, load the Author menu from the button of the area below your content block.
