I got my first taste of the new WordPress.com editor today, and I spat it out faster than the worst food I had ever tasted! Blah!

For those who don't like it, either, here are a few "hacks" to still get access to your WordPress Classic Editor, for new posts, old posts, and old pages.

Creating new posts in Classic Editor

I had devised a solution below that is still good for editing old posts, but a reader who goes by Suso SM shared with me an even better solution for new posts. Thanks, Suso SM! Here was his solution.

  1. Copy the entire coloured URL below and paste into a new browser window, but do NOT hit Enter
    https:// your-site-name .wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.php?action=edit&classic-editor
  2. Change the text in red bold italics to whatever your site name is your WordPress account. You should be able to see that once you log in (and choose your site if you had more than one to your account).
  3. Now hit ENTER, and you'll be prompted for a new post in the Classic WP Editor! If not, please check your site name you substituted in red. Everything should be the same until, or unless, WP takes away the Classic Editor or changes how to access it.
  4. I would also recommend bookmarking the URL if it works so you don't have to do this every time, even if you didn't post a lot.

Thanks so much Suso SM!

Editing old posts in the Classic Editor

How to Enable WordPress.com Classic Editor (click to enlarge)

  • Paste the following into your browser URL bar https://your-site-name.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.php in the same way as above and you should get a list of posts.
  • Mouseover your post title you want to edit. This will give you some editing choices like in the photo, one of which will be Classic Editor. When you click on that, it will take you to the Classic Editor, which I am working with now as I type this post. There is a pop up dissuading you from it, but you'd get the same pop up every time you made a block a Classic Block in the new Block editor anyway, so this is nothing!

Then edit away and post as before!

Editing old pages in the Classic Editor

In addition to editing old posts in the WordPress Classic Editor, you can still edit old pages in the Classic Editor, as mentioned by Pointman's, by pasting the following into your browser URL bar:

https://your-site-name.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=page

Thanks very much Pointman's!

Creating new pages in the Classic Editor

There's probably an old school way to do this, but for simplicity of instruction, I would recommend to create the new page in the current WordPress editor, give it a name, and save it. Then go to the instruction above to get your list of pages and edit it with the Classic Editor.

For those of you not wanting to post blank pages or partially completed pages as you write, write the content in a word processor first, then copy and paste the moment you go to edit and fix up a few things to minimize the page's live time with nothing on it. If you can figure out the URL for how to edit Page drafts in the Classic Editor, then you can always save your new page as a draft to start with and edit it until done before publishing. However, I don't know that link.