WordPress Easter Egg Defies Logic by Removing Styles
February 16th, 2007 | Posted in blog 38 Comments »
As a technical writer, I use styles for almost everything. That’s why I almost died when I learned about this WordPress Easter egg in the visual editor.
Go to where you would write a new post and look at your visual editor. Press alt+shift+v. You’ll suddenly see an additional toolbar appear that wasn’t there before.
Uhm, isn’t restricting heading tags and other formatting options one of dumbest omissions in a WYSIWYG editor? If it’s possible, I’d love to modify and add style options in the drop-down box. If someone knows how to do that, please share that with me.
[2/22/07 Update: You know, the more I think about the omission of this toolbar, the more I agree with the WordPress team for excluding it. Matt's philosophy with WordPress is to keep it as simple as possible. Adding these extra buttons that are used by just a few goes against the 80/20 rule of software. One should design a UI and functionality that will please 80 percent of the people. One shouldn't burden the 80 percent with extra features, plugins, buttons, etc. that only 20% want. It'll only make the application more complicated. This is one reason why WordPress is so successful. The basic platform is simple. Then you add the plugins you want to insert the functionality you need. Given the hundreds of plugins, it becomes like a cafeteria style blogging experience. You choose what you need, and aren't bothered by what you feel is irrelevant.]
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That’s what the Advanced WYSIWYG Editor plugin is for!
http://blog.labnotes.org/2005/12/26/advanced-editing-for-wordpress-20/
Thanks Brian. I wasn’t aware of that plugin. It’s nice — even though it shows all buttons on one long row, overlapping with the Categories section.
You know, in looking more at those extra buttons, I’m not so sure they are that essential. Maybe simplifying the toolbar was a good idea.
One plugin I recently found that I think I’m going to love is the wp-table plugin. I haven’t needed to use tables in the WYSIWYG editor on this personal blog, but I could sure use them on the Suncoast chapter site.
There are far too many useless buttons that come by default with that plugin. The author did a pretty good job of assigning Englishey names to the buttons in the code so that you can add or remove whichever you like. I removed about 2/3 of the buttons which trimmed it down, but unfortunately I believe buttons are tethered to the button bar they reside on, so I’ve got one whole row dedicated to a solitary button. Regardless, everything I need (but blockquote) is on icon bar.
Incidentally, your easter egg doesn’t seem to work with the plugin installed.
The blockquote button is really the indent button, I believe. It’s on the regular icon bar.
Yeah, the easter egg only works when you deactivate the advanced editor plugin.
I was a bit surprised at the editing interface in 2.1. Because I only had 2.0 for about one month before upgrading to 2.1. I can hardly remember what the visual editor was like. The code editor is much different that the previous html editor. It only shows “special” tags and not basic ones like the p. Only seeing some of the code makes me a bit uneasy. But then I am the type who prefers to write in the code view Dreamweaver, and I am happiest writing in HomeSite+.
However, I think they are aiming for less extreme geeks. I have seen a CMS back-end interface that looked somewhat like this. Maybe a simpler interface with less clutter is a matter of keeping out the not-so-vital stuff to eliminate confusion for some (the majority?) of users?
Karen,
“I think they are aiming for less extreme geeks”
You’re definitely right. There’s actually some controversy about the visual editor: the geeks hate that it’s the default, but requiring all users to write in code is an “elitist” decision, says Matt Mullenweg (one of the WordPress founders).
I like the ability to flip back and forth between the Visual editor and the Code view. Is there ever an instance where you needed to go into the HTML view because the Code view didn’t allow a certain tag?
By the way, did you know there is a WordPress podcast? http://wordpresspodcast.org It’s very worthwhile. I always listen to the episodes when they come out.
What version of WP? Mine doesn’t work when I do that.
I’m using 2.0.6 (I haven’t ugraded because my favorite plugins don’t work in 2.1 yet).
Paul, version 2.1. What are your favorite plugins that don’t work yet? I’m always on the lookout for cool new plugins. (course if they don’t work…)
Tom,
Sorry to come back to an old thread, but this is the place I know has the shortcut to the easter egg and I can never remember the key combination when I want to get there. (I gave up resisting, and upgraded to 2.2 when it came out. I had to upgrade some of my plugins, but the plugins that I really liked either worked with 2.2, or had new versions. I had some old plugins that I replaced with other options in order to get everything working in 2.2.)
Anyway, I was reading your paragraph update today, and I think you are partially right when you say WP was wise to not have the advanced toolbar on by default because WP tries to be as simple as possible.
However, where I think WP may have done users a disservice is in making the toolbar so difficult to enable in the first place. The toolbar has a button to toggle it off, but that toggle button doesn’t exist on the regular tool bar to turn it back on. There are no options in the user controls to turn the advanced tool bar on or off, even though there is an option to use the visual editor when writing. In short, unless you stumble across a website (like yours) that points out the feature, users will never know that it exists; in fact, I found a plugin with numerous downloads that was designed to fix this omission. Users are still downloading the plugin, even though 2.1 and above have the toolbar in the core code.
WP would do users a favor by making the editor off by default, but by providing a method to make the editor easier to turn on. My general rule-of-thumb for interface design is that if users have to read the documentation to know that a feature EXISTS in the application, then the developers didn’t do a good enough job designing the feature in the application.
Anyway, now if I can just remember Alt + Shift + v, I’ll be in good shape….
Paul, you can revisit old posts anytime! I have been mulling over the omission of the extra toolbar for a while tool. The only button I need from that second toolbar is the styles menu so that I can create subheadings in my posts. They ought to put an H3 button directly in the main toolbar.
Also, the More button is totally unintuitive, but I have no suggestions for improving the graphic on that one.
I also agree with you that there should be a simple way to turn the extra features on, rather than installing a special plugin that is not well-advertised.
This plugin doesn’t work with my WP… Is it still working?
Hey look at me! I’m spamming your blog with my comment! Can you do the same? – Howie
O.O
Any new plugin up for a super duper editor mates?
Nice Site. I am new here but will be visiting more often as you have done a good job.
Thanks
Interesting point of view. I’ll consider changing my mind about this but for now I still don’t see things the same way you do.
Any new plugin up for a super duper editor mates?
hey, love the blog – i will try and keep up with it!! please keep more coming
I wish I could start a blog but I don’t have much time 
Thanks, nick
Decent article dude, keep on comming with such informative stuff. Infact i use this plugin couple of months before, any ways nice work..
Все об отпусках, каникулах, выходных и просто качественных уикендах
My thoughts exactly!!!
The blockquote button is really the indent button, I believe. It’s on the regular icon bar.
Yeah, the easter egg only works when you deactivate the advanced editor plugin.
nice blog
Regards
Dimple
http://doctors-job.com
i was really confused before reading your article, now i agree
Hey Brian.
Thanks for your post. I wasn’t aware of this plugin. It’s really nice — even though it shows all buttons on one long row, overlapping with the Categories section.
You know, i am also looking for more at those extra buttons, I’m not so sure they are that essential. Maybe simplifying the toolbar was a good idea.
Can you provide more information on this? I was looking for this additional information, just bookmarked to check the updates
Nice post! I really like your site design. Just thought I’d drop a line, take it easy!
thnx dizi izle
good information. thank you very much
There must be more to this story….
There are far too many useless buttons that come by default with that plugin. The author did a pretty good job of assigning Englishey names to the buttons in the code so that you can add or remove whichever you like.
There are far too many useless buttons that come by default with that plugin. The author did a pretty good job of assigning Englishey names
could you tell me details about it?
Interesting, never hear this before but don’t assume that just because you agree with.
a very good text. Thanks for article. I wish you continued success.
Expression was very good with pictures. Thank you to those who prepare. I wish you continued sharing.
thanks for article and share. a good text. very good.
Thank you for sharing your plug-ins.
Great Blog, Thanks for Sharing