[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #34005: Re-enable Visual Editor and Page Template dropdown on Posts page

[WordPress Trac]

#34005: Re-enable Visual Editor and Page Template dropdown on Posts page
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 Reporter:  ahortin      |      Owner:
     Type:  enhancement  |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Editor       |    Version:  4.3.1
 Severity:  normal       |   Keywords:
  Focuses:               |
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 Earlier in the year Ticket: #17470 was created which disabled the Visual
 Editor and the Template dropdown field in the Page Attributes panel. One
 of the reasons given was that it can cause confusion for end users.

 It is my belief that disabling these items causes more confusion. Instead
 of having a consistent user interface when editing all Pages, you're now
 presented with a completely different interface, for one Page only. As
 leading usability expert Jakob Nielson says "Consistency is one of the
 most powerful usability principles". I believe that a different experience
 when editing your Posts Page, interferes with this consistency.

 The ability to be able to choose a template for your Posts page is
 extremely useful. For example, if you didn’t want to display a sidebar on
 your Posts Archive page you could select a full-width template, which is a
 use-case that is extremely common.

 Since this change, when you edit your Posts page, you no longer have that
 as an option. An additional confusing issue is that you can still actually
 select a template for your Posts Page by using the Quick Edit link when
 viewing your list of Pages (Pages > All Pages). Having it available on one
 page and not on another, adds to this inconsistency and confusion.

 https://cloudup.com/cj2ugHkbkVm

 In regards to the Visual Editor, having this was also handy as you could
 use it to display some introductory content for your Posts Archive page
 (e.g. https://creativeportfoliodemo.wordpress.com/updates/).

 The ticket mentions that "Developers can elect to turn on the editor
 should they be using it for something", but it seems to me, that having to
 add code to your theme just so you can turn back on core functionality is
 a bit of a backwards way of going about things.

 I would like to ask if this change can be reverted so that we can retain
 this useful functionality, whilst also keeping the editing experience
 consistent across all Pages.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/34005>
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