Wikipedia:Don't use the VisualEditor
 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Be careful when you are using the VisualEditor, as it can sometimes create problematic changes to wiki syntax that go beyond purely cosmetic changes. |
 | This page is aimed more at experienced users who have yet to switch to source editing. New users will still find the VisualEditor quite useful. |
The VisualEditor is a great way for new contributors to dive into editing. It allows for new editors to easily make minor changes to articles.
However, for editors who regularly edit Wikipedia, or who want to make significant or complex changes, the VisualEditor comes with serious limitations. Most frequent editors should use the source editor for most edits, using the VisualEditor only for minor or specific kinds of changes.
Differences between the VisualEditor and the source editor
[edit]The VisualEditor is a bit like Microsoft Word, or a bit like using Wix or GoDaddy to build a website. Just as these tools are great for casual editors, the functionality is limited and often poor for more advanced users. Using the source editor to edit the wikitext markup language on a page provides far more power and control than WYSIWYG editors.
Some problems with the VisualEditor include:
- misaligning comments in templates
- changing the format of tables constructed in a specific manner
- messing with line breaks after multiline parameters and comments
- adding or removing spacing in:
- template parameter names
- lists
- headers
- tables
- adding extraneous numbers to reference names (see T375306)
- issues with copying and pasting ISBNs and other identifiers (see T174303 and T162291)
- deletion of HTML comments (see T247498)
Most of these are cosmetic changes, but they make it difficult to view what actually changed in diff view. It comes down to the fact that a WYSIWYG editor will always utilize a predefined format in programming.
Problems documented with the VisualEditor
[edit]See this sandbox edit as an example of some problems caused by using the VisualEditor.
Making the switch
[edit]- Go to this section in Preferences.
- Uncheck "Enable the VisualEditor".
- Click Save.
Alternatively, you can enable the source editor inside the VisualEditor, but that can have performance issues for long pages.