Adding Content with the Visual Editor

Short url: https://ewp.guide/go/ce/adding-content-with-the-visual-editor

The editor used to enter content into your Page or Post is very easy to use. It’s much like using a regular word processor, with toolbar buttons that allow you to Bold () or Italicize () text or enter in Headings () or bullet points ( ). You can even use most of the basic keyboard shortcuts used in other text editors. For example: Shift+Enter inserts a line break, Ctrl+C/Cmd+C = copy, Ctrl+X/Cmd+X = cut, Ctrl+Z/Cmd+Z = undo, Ctrl+Y/Cmd+Y = redo, Ctrl+A/Cmd+A = select all, etc. (use the Ctrl key on a PC or the Command key on a Mac).

When adding content to your page, the Visual Editor expands to fit your content, rather than simply scrolling. On top of that, no matter how tall the Visual Editor becomes, the toolbar buttons will be available at all times by sticking to the top of the page.

By making use of special keyboard shortcuts, adding content is now even easier. When you want to add different size headings to your content, rather than having to select the heading size from the toolbar dropdown you can now start a line with two or more hashtags (#) and once you hit Enter to go to the next line, the Visual Editor will automatically convert your text to the appropriate heading. Like headings, you can also use * or – to create an unordered list, using 1. will start an ordered list, and > will create a blockquote.

The complete list of keyboard shortcuts available are as follows;

* – Start an unordered list
– – Start an unordered list
1. – Start an ordered list
1) – Start an unordered list
## – H2
### – H3
#### – H4
##### – H5
###### – H6
> – Add a blockquote
— – Add a horizontal line
`..` – Convert text into code block (replace .. with your text)

At the top of the editor there are two tabs, Visual and Text (). These switch the editor view between the Visual Editor and the Text editor. The Text view will enable you to view the HTML code that makes up your content. For the more experienced users this can be helpful at times but for those not familiar with HTML tags, it’s not recommended.

When creating a new Page or Post, the first thing to do is enter in your title in the top entry field where it says Add title. After moving the cursor down to the editor a new Permalink is created for your page. Permalinks are the permanent URL’s to your individual Posts, Pages, Categories etc.. Though not usually necessary, you can manually edit your permalink by clicking the Edit button next to it. Once you’ve modified it, click Ok to save or Cancel to cancel your changes.

At the top of the editor where your content is written, there are numerous formatting buttons. Clicking the Toolbar Toggle button () will show or hide a second line of formatting buttons which gives you extra functionality. The editor buttons perform the following functions:

 

	Add Media – Used to upload and insert media such as images, audio, video or documents
	Style – Used to format the Page text based on the styles used by the current Theme
	Bold – Bold text
	Italic – Italicise text
	Bulleted List – Create an unordered (bullet point) list
	Numbered List – Create an Ordered (numbered) list
	Blockquote – Used as a way of showing a quote. How this looks will be entirely dependent on the Theme that your site is currently using
	Align left – Align text to the left
	Align Center – Align text in the center of the page
	Align Right – Align text to the right
	Insert/edit link – Used to create an html link to another page or website. If no text is selected first, the URL that you enter will also be used for the link text
	Insert Read More tag – Inserts the More tag into your Page. Most blogs only display a small excerpt of a Post and you’re required to click the Post title or a “Read more…” link to continue reading the rest of the article. When you insert a “More” tag into your Post, everything prior to the tag is considered as this excerpt. Most times you’d only use this button when you’re creating a blog Post, rather than a Page
	Toolbar Toggle – Used to show or hide the second row of formatting buttons on the editor toolbar
	Distraction Free Writing – Clicking this button will enlarge the editor so that it fills the browser window. Clicking the Exit fullscreen link at the top of the screen will reduce it back to its original size
	Strikethrough – Add a strikethrough to your text
	Horizontal Line – Inserts a horizontal line into your page
	Text color – Use to change the color of text
	Paste as Text – Copying & pasting text from other sites or word processors sometimes leaves the text formatted differently to what you were expecting. The reason for this is that quite often the html tags or codes that formatted the original text are pasted along with the text itself. To avoid this, Paste as Text will strip all these formatting and html tags. The Paste as Text option acts like a toggle, staying on until you turn it off by clicking the button again or until you save your page content
	Clear formatting – Use this to remove all the formatting (eg. Bold, Underline, text color etc..) from the highlighted text
	Special character – Used to insert special characters not easily accessible via the keyboard (eg. ¼, ½, ¾, ©, €, Ö etc..)
	Decrease indent – Removes one level of indenting
	Increase Indent – Indents text by one level
	Undo – Undo your last action
	Redo – Redo your last action
	Keyboard shortcuts – Displays information about the WordPress visual editor along with keyboard shortcuts
	Visual/Text – Switches the editor view between the Visual Editor and the Text editor. The Text view will enable you to view the HTML code that makes up your content. For the more experienced users this can be helpful at times but for those not familiar with HTML tags, it’s not recommended