MRW Simplified Editor

Description

Help your site’s editors create semantic content and style it with the theme for consistent formatting and portable content. This plugin removes blocks and other styling options to help editors focus.

I built this plugin for use on client sites. I hope you’ll find it useful! This is an opinionated plugin. Read an in-depth reasoning behind the decisions made by this plugin in the post “A WordPress Formatting Manifesto.” If you find it compelling, then you’ll probably like this plugin!

Contribute on Github.

Block Editor Features

This plugin greatly simplifies the block editor by hiding all of the following features. Filters are provided for developers to adjust what is hidden (including making it easier to hide additional blocks).

• Infrequently Used Core Blocks such as Verse, Table, Audio, Video, etc., and all Query- and Site-related blocks. See FAQ for full list of hidden blocks.
• All Core Block Styles and the “Default style” feature
• Some Block Editor Settings: Drop Cap, Heading 1, Heading 5, Heading 6, font sizing by pixel, open links in new tabs (mostly hidden), duotone, text styles like line-height and letter spacing, inline formats including Highlight and Inline Image, etc.
• Default color, gradient, and duotone settings (Custom theme palettes/settings are never hidden)
• Core Block Patterns (WP 5.5+)
• Block Directory (WP 5.5+)
• Infrequently Used Jetpack Blocks – See FAQ for full list of hidden blocks.
• “Upload” and “Insert from URL” image options to encourage use of Media Library

The plugin also improves the editor by:

• Increasing prominence of contrast errors
• Styling “Save draft” as a button

Classic Editor / Classic Block Features

Reduces editor to a single row of buttons: “Styleselect” (Headings 2-4 and Blockquote as well as Strikethrough, Subscript, Superscript, Preformatted, and Code), Bold, Italic, Add/Edit Link, Break Link, Horizontal Rule, Paste as Plain Text, Remove Styles, Special Characters, Undo, Redo, Help, Distraction Free Mode.

Note on WordPress version Support

Due to frequent changes to the block editor, features are only guaranteed for the latest version of WordPress.

Screenshots

FAQ

Full List of Hidden Blocks

Hidden Core Blocks:

• Text & Media Blocks: Audio, Classic/Freeform, Code, Details, Footnotes, Next Page, Preformatted, Shortcode, Spacer, Table, Verse, Video
• Widget Blocks: Archives, Calendar, Categories, Latest Comments, RSS, Search, Tag Cloud
• Query-Related Blocks: Query, Archive Title (Query Title), Post Title, Post Content, Post Author, Post Date, Post Excerpt, Post Featured Image, Post Tags & Categories (Post Terms), Term Description
  Page List
• FSE Blocks: Login/Out, Page List, Site Logo, Site Tagline, Site Title, Navigation, Next Post, Previous Post, Post Comments, Comments Query, Read More, Avatar, Post Author Biography, Post Comments Form

Hidden Core Embeds:

• Amazon Kindle, Animoto, Cloudup, Crowd Signal, Daily Motion, Hulu, Mixcloud, Polldaddy, Reverbnation, Smugmug, Speaker, VideoPress, Wolfram Cloud, and WordPress.tv

Hidden Jetpack Blocks:

• Markdown, Star Rating, Repeat Visitor, OpenTable, Revue, Eventbrite Tickets, GIF, Calendly, and WhatsApp Button

Plugin Filters

The plugin provides numerous filters that allow developers to hide or unhide additional blocks, block styles, or editor settings.

Code Examples for Plugin Filters

Visit the GitHub wiki for examples of filters to show/hide a block, block style, or editor setting.

Reviews

Improve the block editor UX; set editors free

Bjarne Oldrup December 13, 2023

Show only the options and blocks you need in the Gutenberg block editor, making it simpler and cleaner for editors, authors, and you. WordPress core, along with my theme, offers me a total of 106 blocks, of which I use 22. By disabling unused blocks, the block insertion workflow gets a lot simpler. Furthermore, I avoid situations where an editor or post author uses blocks that are not styled properly or that I cannot support. I style components (patterns) globally instead of styling the individual block on every page. Now I can enjoy a much cleaner and faster block editor experience. Thank you, Mark! ??

Makes TinyMCE More User Friendly

crowinck June 4, 2018

It’s easy to underestimate how much skill goes into formatting content to look nice in the WordPress editor. This plugin not only makes it easier for users to learn how to work with tinyMCE, but it also helps them get better results by removing buttons that really shouldn’t be there in the first place. With this plugin, I don’t have to spend my time explaining to every client why they should never use the color tool, the underline tool, or heading 1. Plus, no one will ever get confused because the second row of buttons is hidden, and they don’t know where it went. Developers can configure this plugin as they need to, everyone else can just activate it and let it do its thing. It’s a great plugin.

Removing the Crud From the Text Editor

Patrick Boehner September 30, 2017

The title of the plugin might be a mouthful, but it does exactly what i wanted. Simplifies the tinymce editor to a single line of the most useful options and removes everything thats not. This is something you could do on your own, but in situations where you don’t want to maintain your own code, this plugin is darn simple and useful.

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

2.13.0 (March 12, 2024, Released on a train somewhere between Seattle and Portland ??)

• [New] Hide new default box-shadows design feature. Should not interfere with theme-defined shadows. Enable default shadows via mrw_hidden_block_editor_settings filter.
• [Fix] Hide Headings 1, 5, and 6 in WordPress 6.5+
• Add new blueprint.json file to support plugin repository playground feature

2.12.1 (November 30, 2023)

• Fix ability to unhide newly-hidden inline formats (Footnote, highlight, inline image, inline code, and keyboard)

2.12.0 (November 3, 2023)

• WordPress 6.4 compatibility
• Fix error that hid custom theme duotone options
• Fully hide Footnotes inserter unless the block is unhidden via mrw_hidden_blocks filter
• Hide “Highlight”, “Inline Image”, “Inline Code”, and “Keyboard” toolbar inline formats. Can be re-enabled via mrw_hidden_block_editor_settings filter.
• Hide “Upload” option in “Replace” media menu
• Remove background color options from Cover block placeholder
• Hide new Background Image option on Group block
• Hide new “Text Orientation” / writing mode option

2.11.0 (August 21, 2023)

• Requires WordPress 6.0. Legacy code removed
• [New] Show all Post- and Query-related blocks in the Site Editor
• [New] Hide Classic (aka freeform), Details, Footnotes, Comments, and Post Author blocks
• [New] Hide Group / Cover width settings and Group child blocks Justification settings and min-height setting (does not impact Cover min-height setting). Can be shown with mrw_hidden_block_editor_settings filter.
• [Dev] The mrw_hidden_blocks and all mrw_hidden_*_blocks filters now support a second $context parameter that contains the current screen’s ID so you can target the block editor (post), site editor (site-editor), or widget editor (widgets).
• [New] New Jetpack blocks hidden including AI Assistance, all form blocks, and payment-related blocks
• [Fix] WordPress 6.3 compatibility (re-hide media upload buttons, default gradients, comments block)
• [Fix] “getBlockVariations(…) is undefined warning in Widget and Site Editors
• [Meta] Removed “Formerly MRW Web Design Simple TinyMCE” now that the block editor is 4.5 years old!
• 2.11.1: Change layout-width-height value in the mrw_hidden_block_editor_settings filter to be accurate layout-width.

Full Changelog

• Changelog on Github