If, like me, you run one or more WordPress blogs you want to hold off a bit before upgrading to version 2.8 (if you haven’t already).
I upgraded some of mine only to find the same repeated problem: the visual editor wouldn’t work correctly. The buttons disappeared, the text was whited out, and you couldn’t work in that mode.
I’ve also had another minor issue that comes and goes as it pleases. When I go into the theme editor, sometimes the stylesheet (which shows up by default) extends over the links on the right, meaning I can’t see or click the template page I want. Since one or two are usually visible near the bottom of the list, clicking on one of them clears up the issue. But it’s a royal pain in the neck.
Visual Editor Fix
I can’t say this will work for everyone, but if you did upgrade and you’re having a problem with the visual editor, here’s what worked for me.
Go to the tools section of your admin, and click on the “upgrade” link. Click the button to “re-install automatically.” After that, clear your browser cache and navigate back to your post edit page. At that point the editor worked fine for me.
If you know HTML and are comfortable writing in it, then you can do without the visual editor. But I know all writers here who blog don’t necessarily work in HTML. For those of you who don’t, I hope that fix works.
Other than that, I’m keeping my eyes open for other problems, but am hoping they come out with an update asap fixing these issues. *crosses fingers*
EDIT: The 2.8.1 beta release is available if anyone wants to use it. (Thanks Ed!)
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Krysha Thayer
Brie Wallace
Crystal
Lori
Lucy Smith
I haven’t experienced the problems you report, but did notice the annoying habit of some editor windows appearing in the lower-half of the screen. More reason to avoid the built-in editor and using Ecto or another application to compose and upload my messages. I did read 2.8.1 is available, which could fix the early bugs. WordPress 2.9 is slated for early this fall, I believe.
Thanks Ed. It does seem to be a hit or miss kind of thing, with some people getting them and others not. A client of mine has the same editor issue, but so far I haven’t seen most other problems mentioned in the update.
It looks like they released 2.8.1 beta1 for now, so if anyone wants to upgrade to that, here’s their blog post on it – http://wordpress.org/development/2009/06/wordpress-2-8-1-beta-1/
2.9? Blah. I don’t even want to think about the next big update yet! I’m always a bit worried about it, but knew I could count on the theme developers to come up with solutions if an upgrade caused problems. Since I’m moving more of my blogs to custom designs though, if there are theme issues on upgrade, it’s solely my problem to worry about. I’ll just keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best as always.
Thanks for this, Jennifer. I’ve put off updating the two dozen blogs I maintain because several bloggers have reported problems. Your post confirms my decision to wait.