How To Disable GutenBerg and Switch To The Classic WordPress Editor?
WordPress version 5.0 has been set to be released in November 2018 . With it, we will be provided with the integration to Gutenberg WordPress editor. The editor plans to streamline and ease the process of post writing using various blocks built for specific purposes. You can read more about Gutenberg, and it’s strength compared to WordPress’s Classic editor here.
But the main issue lies that many users feel that Gutenberg is not ready to be pushed as a core part of WordPress itself. The reviews page itself shows what the general consensus on this decision is. With over 780 1 star reviews vs. 330+ 5 star reviews, you can clearly see where the community stands on this change decision.
Users feel that Gutenberg itself is buggy in its current state and lacks core features such as some of the core styling and formatting features that other popular Visual builders, as well as TinyMCE, provides. Users have complained about issues with older posts, lack of features popular Visual builders already have and many more.
Similarly, the change might be difficult for some users and users may have difficulty adapting to the new builder after using the default WordPress editor for so long.
While the WordPress development team has ensured that there will be an option to disable Gutenberg by default, it can’t be a bad thing to prepare for otherwise. So today on Beautiful Themes we’ll be introducing some plugins that aim to disable Gutenberg and switch to the classic editor instead. These WordPress disable editor plugins provide users with simple options to switch back to the Classic editor, even after WordPress 5.0 update.
Plugins to Switch to the Classic editor
First of all, let’s take a look at a list of Gutenberg WordPress plugins that are made specifically to disable Gutenberg post editor itself. These are plugins we’ve chosen based on their simplicity and the added features they add on top of its functions as a WordPress disable editor tool.
1. Classic Editor
Classic editor is one of the most popular WordPress post editor plugins created for disabling the Gutenberg WordPress integration. The plugin provides you with a simple option to change Gutenberg WordPress editor back to the classic editor with just a click of a button. This changes back the entire Edit post template of your WordPress admin dashboard. Furthermore, you can also instead opt to enable Gutenberg WordPress editor as a whole and open specific Posts in the classic editor instead.
Classic editor also has a plugin addon made to disable the option to change back to Gutenberg itself. This completely blocks off users from changing back to Gutenberg WordPress editor accidentally by blocking off the Writings setting option.
Key features:
- Provides a simple option to disable Gutenberg WordPress editor entirely
- Lets you open specific posts in the Classic editor instead of using Gutenberg
- Easy to use and doesn’t change anything related to Post editing
2. Disable Gutenberg
Disable Gutenberg is a simple plugin that aims to restore the classic editor and disable the Gutenberg WordPress integration. Using this user-friendly plugin one can simply disable Gutenberg entirely. The plugin also lets you disable Gutenberg for posts, pages, roles, post types, and theme templates as well. This means that you can selectively disable Gutenberg for a specific type of content or website element if necessary.
The plugin also ensures that you can continue using plugins and add-ons built specifically for the Classic editor and ensure that your content creation process remains smooth, even after the WordPress 5.0 update. Using Disable Gutenberg you can use classic editor features such as Meta boxes, Quick tags and Custom fields, etc. For pre WordPress 5.0 users, you can use this plugin to disable the annoying Gutenberg popup that requests you to install it.
Key features:
- Selectively disable Gutenberg for posts, pages, roles, post types, and theme templates
- Allows you to use an addon for the Classic editor as is without any changes
- Disable WordPress Gutenberg tag/pop up
3. Gutenberg Manager
Instead of just allowing you to use Classic editor only and replacing Gutenberg WordPress editor, Gutenberg manager lets you disable Gutenberg to instead use different Visual editors. This includes Elementor, WPBakery page builder and many more. The plugin also has features to allow you to disable specific blocks in Gutenberg if necessary.
Gutenberg manager not only has features to disable Gutenberg on Pages and Posts but also custom post types you’ve created. Specifically, if you want only specific Gutenberg blocks to be disabled, you can do that as well. For theme and plugin developers, you can use API hooks to use in your themes so you can disable specific functions of Gutenberg as well.
Key features:
- Let’s you disable Gutenberg manage to use a different Visual builder instead
- Can disable Gutenberg for specific post types, both standard, and custom
- Can disable specific Gutenberg blocks as well
For this tutorial, we will be using Disable Gutenberg WordPress plugin as it allows us to achieve our core purpose: disable Gutenberg WordPress integration and use the Classic editor instead.
So first, we recommend you go ahead and install the plugin. If you don’t know how to consider referring to this article here.
Using the Disable Gutenberg WordPress plugin:
Once you’ve installed Disable Gutenberg WordPress plugin simply hover over the Settings section on the Admin Dashboard. Click on Disable Gutenberg to move to the plugin’s page.
Here you can simply click on the option that says Complete Disable to turn off Gutenberg entirely.
If you choose to instead selectively disable Gutenberg on specific post types, you can do so as well. For this, instead of ticking on the Complete disable option, scroll down and tick on the specific elements you want Gutenberg disabled on.
Using Gutenberg Disable plugin, you can disable Gutenberg for:
Specific roles:
Using this you can disable Gutenberg for specific roles only. This means you can allow specific roles such as Administrators, editors to use Gutenberg only and keep it disabled for others.
Post types:
Using this you can disable Gutenberg for either Pages, posts or both.
Templates:
You can also disable Gutenberg for specific template files as well. Simply enter the template file name to disable Gutenberg on them. Enter multiple template files by using commas between them.
Post IDS:
To specifically disable Gutenberg on individual posts, simply type in the Post id onto this field to disable Gutenberg for it. You can disable multiple post IDs by adding them using commas.
The additional tools you can use are:
- Disable nag: Disables the annoying “Try Gutenberg” pop WordPress displays for Pre WordPress 5.0 users
- Plugin Menu item: Hides the Disable Gutenberg option from settings so you can disable Gutenberg entirely and forget about both Gutenberg and this plugin.
- Gutenberg menu item: Hide’s Gutenberg’s plugin listing.
Once you’re done disabling the correct items or choosing the right options, simply click on Save changes. This will enable all the changes you’ve made and thus, disable Gutenberg.
Concluding:
Thus, using these procedures, you can prepare yourself for Gutenberg’s integration onto WordPress. While Gutenberg doesn’t seem completely usable in the current state, we recommend you stay hopeful towards its development.
For more updates on Gutenberg and future WordPress updates, do consider checking our blogs more often. If you want to learn more about enabling or disabling cool features on your Website related to post creation and WordPress site management, consider checking out some of our other articles:
- How to effectively put your WordPress website in Maintenance mode
- How to remove Author from WordPress posts
- Password Protecting a WordPress Page or post
