What Is a Visual Editor in WordPress?
A visual editor is the rich text (WYSIWYG) editing mode in WordPress’s Classic Editor that shows content roughly as it will look when published. Instead of writing HTML, you format text and insert images, links, and other elements with toolbar buttons. Since WordPress 5.0 (December 2018), the default WordPress editor has been the block editor.
More About Visual Editors
In WordPress, the visual editor is the Visual tab of the Classic Editor, and it provides a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) content editing experience. Like a word processor, it lets you write and format posts while seeing roughly what they’ll look like on the front end.
You’ll find it on the post edit screen (the post editor). Formatting, styles, colors, alignment, links, blockquotes, and special characters are all handled from a toolbar of editing icons: one row shows by default, and clicking the Toolbar Toggle button at the end of that row reveals a second row of advanced options. Built-in keyboard shortcuts cover common actions such as paste, undo, redo, and select all.
Is the block editor a visual editor?
Yes. The block editor (Gutenberg) is also a visual, WYSIWYG editor, and it has been the WordPress default since version 5.0 shipped in December 2018. When people say “the visual editor” as a proper name, though, they usually mean the older Classic Editor’s Visual tab described here.
That classic experience no longer ships with WordPress itself. To use it on a current site, install the official Classic Editor plugin, which the WordPress team still maintains: version 1.7.0 added a compatibility fix for WordPress 7.0. For where block editing is headed, see our rundown of the state of WordPress in 2026.
Visual editor vs. text editor
The Classic Editor gives you 2 tabs in the top right corner of the editing box, and both edit the same post:
- Visual tab: shows formatted output close to what readers will see, with toolbar buttons for formatting, links, and images. You never touch the markup.
- Text tab: shows the raw HTML in a plain text editor, with fewer toolbar buttons but full control over the markup.
Use the Visual tab for everyday writing, and use the Text tab when you paste embed codes or hand-written markup. Switch with care: flipping from Text back to Visual can strip or rewrite custom HTML, so add raw markup as your last step before publishing.
If you want the classic visual editor on a current WordPress site, install the Classic Editor plugin and pick your default under Settings > Writing. And if the editor ever loads as a blank white box or loses its toolbar, check your profile settings first, then follow our step-by-step fix for white text and missing buttons.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Start with your profile: go to Users > Profile and make sure “Disable the visual editor when writing” is unchecked. Then clear your browser cache. If it’s still broken, deactivate plugins one at a time and switch briefly to a default theme to find the conflict.
- TinyMCE, an open-source rich text editor, powers the Classic Editor’s Visual tab. Visual editing is a category, not one product: the block editor and drag-and-drop page builders like Elementor are visual editors too.
- Yes. The Classic Editor plugin lets administrators pick a default editor for all users, allow each user to choose their own, and even allow a choice per post. Each post opens in the editor it was last edited with.
- Not exactly. WordPress calls it a semi-WYSIWYG editor: it shows your formatting and images, but your theme’s fonts, colors, and layout govern the final page. Click Preview before you publish to see the true front end.
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