Skip to content

Learning to Love the WordPress Text Editor

Note: If you’re interested in learning how to use the WordPress Text editor, I’ve included the Text contents of this post as a PNG image and a .txt file. Follow along with the post and you’ll learn just about everything you need to know!

WordPress gives you two ways to edit your posts: the Visual editor and the Text editor. Both are designed to make it (somewhat) easy to do rich-text word processing in your web browser. However, the two editors work quite differently:

The WordPress Visual editor is an attempt at a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) text editor, produced as part of a third-party software project called TinyMCE. It requires no special technical knowledge and allows you to create posts using an interface similar to Microsoft Word and other text editors. However, there are also many things you can’t do with it, because of the limits of WYSIWYG editors in general, and the TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor in particular.

The WordPress Text editor is an almost straightforward HTML text editor (it has a few quirks, which we discuss at the bottom). You must know basic HTML to use it properly, but it allows you to directly control the layout and appearance of your posts and pages, and to solve many problems that the Visual editor can’t address.

The WordPress text editor and visual editorYou can switch between these two editors as you edit any post, using the tabs at the top right of the post editing window. Clicking “Text” lets you edit the post in the Text editor, and clicking “Visual” lets you edit the post in the Visual editor.

Yay! 🎉 You made it to the end of the article!
Fred Meyer
Share:

10 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Elizabeth Jamieson
June 24, 2015 11:14 am

I am always trying to encourage people to use the text editor as well. You are not alone!

Formatting WordPress Post Content: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly | WPShout.com
February 17, 2015 4:08 pm

[…] turns out there are a lot of things that WordPress’s default post editor (both the Visual and Text editors) can’t do. For […]

CIS 197 Skill Share | Carley Brantley Asn03
February 2, 2015 1:57 am

[…] WP Shout WPMUDEV […]

Why the WordPress Front-End Editor is Going to be Amazing | WPShout.com
December 16, 2014 9:51 pm

[…] editor is a third-party package called TinyMCE. Specifically, it’s the TinyMCE Visual editor; TinyMCE also has a Text editor that gives you access to the raw HTML that the Visual editor […]

WP Tutorial: How to Remove TinyMCE Buttons • RachieVee: Rachel's Blog
November 10, 2014 11:18 pm

[…] I recently read a blog post by Tom McFarlin titled, Remove TinyMCE Buttons. For the confused, TinyMCE buttons refers to the buttons available in WordPress’ text-editor toolbar for formatting and styling your content. Here’s more on how to use the text-editor along with learning to love the text-editor. […]

Jacquelyn Butler
October 8, 2014 6:22 am

Why does the code below does not work in my text editor in WP?

Welcome
to: PATIENCE: Love Thy
Neighbor As Thyself

 

A
Non-Profit Organization created to help promote balanced,
respectful, and enriched relationships between people focusing on relationships
and relationships improvement.

Unfrustrate Your Image Formatting with the WordPress Text Editor | WPShout.com
October 7, 2014 5:06 pm

[…] This post follows up on a post from a few months ago detailing the differences between WordPress’s Visual and Text editors. […]

Tweet Parade (no.26 Jun 2014) - Best Articles of Last Week | gonzoblog
June 28, 2014 9:02 am

[…] Learning to Love the WordPress Text Editor – WordPress gives you two ways to edit your posts: the Visual editor and the Text editor. Both are designed to make it (somewhat) easy to do rich-text word processing in your web browser. […]

Or start the conversation in our Facebook group for WordPress professionals. Find answers, share tips, and get help from other WordPress experts. Join now (it’s free)!