Regression for those who prefer the text editor

For those who prefer using the text editor, Gutenberg is a regression. You need to do a lot of useless clicks or typing to achieve the same goal under Gutenberg. A lot of functionality has been removed. A few examples:

1. Using the old text editor, if you want to add an image you simply click the Add Media button. Then you select or upload the image you want to add and that’s it. Using the Gutenberg text editor (called Code Editor) there is no such button. Instead, you can click the + button at the top left and then choose Image. This however, does not add an image, but the following code:

<!-- wp:image -->
<figure class="wp-block-image"><img alt="" /></figure>
<!-- /wp:image -->

So it adds a lot of cluttering code that you do not want, but it doesn’t add what you do want and that is an image. Apparently you are supposed to type src= and then the exact URL of the image you want to add. That is a lot of work. Now of course you can return to the Visual Editor to add an image, but constantly switching around is also more work than before Gutenberg came along. It worked fine in the old text editor. Why remove functionality that was useful?

2. Same thing if you want to add a link to let’s say another page on your website. In the old text editor you could select the text your want to turn into a link, then click the Link button and select the page you want to link to. Not so using Gutenberg. The little plus button at the top left also leaves you in the cold this time. You simply cannot insert a link but have to type a href= and then the exact URL of the page you want to link to. This once again is a lot more work.

Amusingly, you can add <p></p> with the little + button. I don’t think people proficient enough to use the text editor need a helping hand with paragraph tags. We do not, however, know all the URL’s of images and pages we want to know by heart.

Please do not go the Gnome 3 way. Please stop removing functionality.