… a host of other things that I’ll discuss later. Just BEAR with me okay?
It was with a lot of trepidation that I decided to tread into Gutenberg, the much-ballyhooed new editor for WordPress, though, if I’d have had my druthers, I would have stayed in “Classic Editor” forever, BECAUSE why confuse my BRAIN with just a BIT more, especially as I must embark on another adventure: Windows 10 at work this week, i.e., a new Windows 10 laptop for home, desktop at work and a BRAND-spankin’ new accounting program … sigh … much BRAIN-drain is on the horizon for this writer. I’m kicking myself in the BUTT since I still haven’t learned how to use my camera with the manual settings, a task that was on my Winter BUCKET list of new things to try, er … learn, er … master, … ya master (right) during the long, cold and snowy Winter season.
So, I mused over my coffee this morning, while muttering about all that rain and no walk, then I confronted myself. I said “Self – why do you always procrastinate on learning new stuff? Do you just resist change or is your BRAIN getting lazy? Or BOTH?”
BABY steps I tell ya …
So, I drained that coffee cup, ate some oatmeal, ruminated some more and came online to visit with all of you and check in at work (crossing my fingers everything went okay after the new server install yesterday). I meandered through social media, and whew … where did the morning go? (The fact that I slept in much later might have had something to do with that.)
I decided to eat lunch. Fortified with Tostitos dipped in medium salsa, a roast beef sandwich on marble bread and a cookie or two (okay three … and a half), I came here to WordPress to embark on learning the Gutenberg Editor. By the way, the goodies are not my usual fare, but once in a BLUE moon I throw caution to the wind and have goodies since I eat way too BLAH and BORING most of the time.
So, how did I fare?
Well, it’s very different and I really wasn’t all that adventuresome – you see one picture only and the “undo” button was my friend. Right now, I’m saving my draft fiendishly, lest a pinky finger should hit a stray key and wipe out the entire post. To be on the safe side, I set the “publish” date to April 30th just in case I launched it prematurely. So, who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?
What a BUMMER that I had no photo of Parker sitting at a computer, so this is a squirrel-free post, but I’ll work on getting that image for the next WordPress upgrade, okay?
Photo courtesy of Pixabay.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
YAY!!! You did it and it looks great!!! I’d say it had something to do with Tostitos, but that’s just me ;-)! You deserve a few more to gear up for the rest of the computer changes for the week!!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yay me, however, I thought it odd you only liked my post as you were waiting on me to finish and guess what – you went to SPAM – two comments, one here and one on another post and I’ve had several bloggers tell me I went to their SPAM filters in the past few days. WordPress must have tweaked the sensitivity of the SPAM filters recently. Anyway, I just fished them out. This was not too fancy, but just enough to get a taste for Gutenberg. When I have a bunch of pictures and paragraphs, I’d better be prepared to spend a few more hours than usual until I get the hang of it. Although I think you could load one Word document and split it into “paragraph boxes” there – that might be faster than transferring them one paragraph at a time. The pictures will take awhile – I may need to be more selective about including so many pics in one post. I think the Tostitos helped so thanks for the recommendation. 🙂 It helps to be a texture eater when undertaking new projects – I have the rest of the bag at the ready for the new stuff I must learn in conjunction with work – not enough to learn the camera too though.
LikeLiked by 3 people
There must be something going on with SPAM for sure. Grr. Glad the Tostitos helped. I may need to break into my bag for breakfast today! xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Monday – one needs caffeine and a 1/4 bag of Tostitos!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Or more!
LikeLike
NO! Not you too! I’m in the classic editor and love it, so I’m resisting all attempts by WP to entice me with their fancy new doodads and confusing text boxes and whatever else they’re promoting. I have no time to learn new techie stuff, I barely have time for what I do now…
LikeLiked by 3 people
I’m with you Ally – I am dreading all this Windows 10 stuff at work and that’s really the only reason I took a stab at it today. I thought I don’t want to get bombarded with new “techie stuff” all at once. I discussed it with Shelley as she was going to try again and I gave her a link from Hugh on why you should do it plus a couple of more links on Gutenberg. I greatly resist change. Like you, I barely have time as it is … every Friday night I say to myself “I’ll get this, this and this done over the weekend” … ask me what I have accomplished by Sunday night.
LikeLiked by 2 people
If I could spend a week just learning this new system without interruption, I’d be cool with it. But I doubt that I’ll get that opportunity, so if I do tackle Guttenberg I’ll be learning it in bits and bites. Which will make it ever so much more complicated for me to grasp. 😑
LikeLiked by 1 person
Same for me Ally – I decided to devote this afternoon to it – it was that or housework – Gutenberg seemed the lesser of two evils. But I didn’t get too fancy with it and I usually upload all my pictures into the draft post, then move them around the narrative which I draft in Word and asterisk where I want the pictures and cut-and-paste it at WordPress. That is much faster for me. I will need to move each paragraph, one by one from Word over here, or put it in one block and create new blocks for each paragraph. Each paragraph and each image is a “block” … the suggestion by Hugh was to practice in a draft document and get the hang of it … I will do that and set it to launch at a later date in case I publish it accidentally. I lack the patience I had when I was younger and we’ve been busy at work too, so I’m less inclined to want to tackle new technie things at night or the weekend. The entire Winter passed without me picking up the camera manual to learn manual settings and how to use the video feature. Here is Hugh’s post and some links that are included on tips – I sent this to Shelley yesterday as she was gung ho on giving Gutenberg another try.
https://hughsviewsandnews.com/2019/03/04/have-you-used-the-new-gutenberg-editor/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks. Will read what he has to say. When I’m fresh in the morning.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds good – I had to deal with it when I was fresh too – otherwise it might not sink in.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Linda, you are Bold!!! I have yet to attempt anything in Gutenberg. I usually liked to try all the new technology stuff when I taught, but for some reason, I am dragging my heels about this. I know there is a deadline. I have a free WordPress site but am also thinking about moving to a paid site too for more flexibility. Not sure what I want to do there. My son (who has a PhD in computer science and teaches at the Oregon State University) helped me set up my blog over a year ago. I have made very few changes since then!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I set up my blog in 2013 and I picked the easiest theme at that time and I know my “2010 Theme” is no longer available to choose if starting a blog. I’m hoping they don’t discontinue it for people who currently use that theme. I’m also hoping the roll-out of the 5.2 version of WordPress does not alter the appearance of my blog at all. In my comment on your blog post, I sent you the link I got about the roll-out of the new version. I couldn’t disable Gutenberg as I did not have the place to check to disable it – I must have a lower version of WordPress. I wonder if you should ask one of the Happiness Engineers if your site will undergo changes after the roll-out and if it would be better to go to the paid version now? The only change I made to my site since 2013 was making the font larger – I know they changed the theme and the font was smaller, so I enlarged it and made a gallery of my favorite park photos and that’s about it. I am slow to change. I remember you said your son had computer skills but I thought he was an I.T. tech and didn’t realize he had a PhD and was a professor too – a smart cookie! You could ask his advice too about disabling Gutenberg.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Because I just have the free site, I don’t have access to plug0ins or to Happiness Engineers. I just have to kind of figure stuff out for myself. I may wait until the next time we go out to visit my son in Oregon.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That may be the best idea or if he has your logon info maybe he can just do it from there?
LikeLike
I’m passing along the Hugh blog post as it has two more articles inside it – they are really helpful and when I go back and try again, and I’ll set aside a block of time, I’ll try some of the things that are explained in the two links, especially the second link which has detailed pics and demonstrations (I like visuals): https://hughsviewsandnews.com/2019/03/04/have-you-used-the-new-gutenberg-editor/
LikeLike
What!?! No squirrels!?! I’ve tried the new editor a few times, but keep coming back to the classic one. I suppose I’ll have to switch over at some point. Have a good week, Linda!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I asked Parker to pose so it looked like he was typing but he would not comply (even when plied with peanuts)! I’ll have much more acclimating to do with the new editor when I do a longer post with more pictures. There will be an adjustment as you saw when you tried it out.. As long as the option to toggle back and forth is there, we’ll use it as a crutch. Just before Y2K our law firm got Windows. Before that we were on dummy terminals with no access to the outside world, just internally and a form of internal e-mail called “Pine Mail”. Our computer guy was worried about Y2K, so we got Windows and we had to learn how to use a mouse, and Microsoft Word, and access the internet, among other things. We had been using Word Perfect which was very different than Word. We were allowed to keep using our old system for everything and gradually get acclimated to Word and using Windows, so that was nice having the ability to toggle between systems. I am glad I only had one picture for today – usually on a weekend, I may have 20-25 pics. We had a rainy weather day like you’ve had Sabine and there are more to come later in the week. Parts of Michigan had snow this afternoon and we may have a dusting tonight. You have a good week too Sabine – happy trails to you and I hope they are not all soggy ones!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I think you’re right, Linda! At some point we probably won’t have a choice!
LikeLiked by 1 person
For when you are ready to embark on Gutenberg, I’m passing along Hugh’s informative blog post as it has two more articles inside it – they are really helpful and when I go back and try again, I’ll set aside a block of time and be more adventurous. Today was a crummy day outside and I decided it was a good day to try it out. When I come home loaded up with photos and a post bubbling around in my brain, it may not be the right time. I like visual descriptions and the second link in Hugh’s post gives detailed info and visuals: https://hughsviewsandnews.com/2019/03/04/have-you-used-the-new-gutenberg-editor/
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll check out the link. Thanks Linda! I need to make some time too for working on my photos and giving the Gutenberg another try. We had a dry morning and I got all kinds of yard work done. Now it’s raining again. 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
I understand from a fellow blogger that the slideshows don’t work for her – she does a daily blog and is very good with her photos of her pets, around her home (took many pics of snow during Wisconsin’s record snowfall this Winter) so she is not happy about that. I’ve not looked outside yet – they promised rain at drive-time this a.m. and through the day, and every day this week, maybe Saturday … they aren’t sure about Saturday yet. The grass is greening up, but that is about it – temps in the 30s yesterday! Hopefully Easter Sunday can be counted on for a walk and photo expedition.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perhaps you’ll even spot the Easter bunny! He’d probably love a peanut too! 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
I tried putting baby carrots out for the bunnies in the yard and they didn’t eat them, I thought rabbits all liked carrots – I will try offering some peanuts next time I see one at the Park.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Our resident bunny loves dandelions in the grass and Peruvian lilies tat I grow. He’s never ventured anywhere else and I don’t offer him any food. I figure it’s better that way.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Eating the dandelions is good … the lilies not so much, but they are so cute to have around. My yard is a safe haven for critters as I have bushes, the perennials I never lost in the polar vortex about five years ago, and all my rose bushes lining all the sides. They have plenty of places to hide, especially now that the Cooper’s Hawk circles over head all the time. They must have a nearby nest – I see them often. I bought some bleeding hearts for my mom years ago – two plants to have a nice display in the yard. The bunny ate all the hearts, then the stems that held the hearts, and eventually both plants. I tried once again as my mom liked this plant and the same thing happened. They’ve never chomped on any other plants though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
😊
LikeLike
So is that a yay or nay? Just change or challenging and would prefer not to use it? I haven’t tried it yet. I tried to set up a revolving picture gallery on one of my posts and that was a disaster! Usually I get it after a few attempts but I’ve been lazy on WP.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hadn’t done anything on my blog except creating a photo gallery of my favorite pictures on my blog site and that was it and I just did that last year and added a few more yesterday (after a lapse of one year). It was a yay today but I didn’t do as long as a narrative or use as many pictures – every paragraph or image is a separate “block” so must be added separately. I draft my posts in Word and cut-and-paste them into a draft at WordPress, so for me, it was painstaking this way. I follow this blogger from the UK and he wrote a post about the new editor and he has some pointers and a few links in here. I know they are phasing it out eventually.
https://hughsviewsandnews.com/2019/03/04/have-you-used-the-new-gutenberg-editor/
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are braver than I am. Congrats for your bravery.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, thank you Anne and I’ll see whether I toggle the button to Classic Editor or Block Editor when I come home on a weekend with a post bubbling around in my brain and a slew of photos! I figured on this rainy day it was wise to try out Gutenberg or do housework. Gutenberg seemed to be the lesser of the two evils.
LikeLike
I would have voted for Gutenberg over housework, too. I erased John’s old phone to give to David to play with. He has his own phone, but he plays games on my old phone and might put music on John’s.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are light years ahead of me on the phone Anne. I only ventured into smartphone territory briefly after AT&T no longer supported my cute little 2G cellphone that I had since 2002. It was not even as big as a pack of playing cards. The smart phone, also by AT&T and bought because I got a voucher toward a new phone, dropped calls, and I tried to learn to text and it dropped texts as well and I couldn’t get the “swiping” down pat. I could never advance to a new screen so I returned to a flip phone and I’ve not read the book on it yet – all I do is have it for an emergency. A walker at the Park played with it so I can speak text or speak a number and it dials – whoa, that was too advanced for me. Every so often I call myself at the house and leave the phone on so I can deplete the battery and then recharge it to keep the battery in good shape. I turn the phone on and go to recent calls – it speaks my number in a robot voice. I don’t like learning new things as I don’t always have patience for it.
LikeLike
I’ve learned lots of things about the phone by accident.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s the best way and it’s always funny if you find out something after you’ve been wishing there was a way to do it all along!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Linda you are a Brave woman! I did read Shelley’s post which inspired me to at least want to give it a try, whereas before all I read was mostly negative. I usually write a first draft in Office and past the whole thing into Word – Can I post the whole thing in one block and then cut and paste it into smaller blocks? If everything has to be in a Block, do you find you write shorter paragraphs then or longer ones?
LikeLiked by 2 people
I do the same thing Joni. I write my post in Word and paste it over too. Because I use so many pictures, I do the draft with asterisks where I want to insert each of the pictures. Then I upload the pictures and move them all into my draft post. I used to do those pictures one-by-one, but since I have been adding more and more photos, I find it easier to just move them around that way and match them to the asterisk right in the draft. Yesterday I just did the post in WordPress as I really only intended to play with it for now, then ended up doing the post … Shelley and I had commented back-and-forth before she began her post and afterward. She only does her posts right in WordPress. Because I also post in my local newspaper (Patch.com) I need to continue doing it in Word. I have to determine whether it is easier. Read Hugh’s post and his two links as they are helpful and I’ll try doing more the next time, maybe next weekend. I’ll take Hugh’s advice with the practice document to preview when I’ve done … set it for a publish date well into the future so it doesn’t accidentally launch. That’s not so bad if you’re only publishing for other Word Press folks as you can delete it, but you/I have e-mail subscribers … one time I published a post with no title … I never even noticed it … I used to follow my own blog so I could see how it turned out for subscribers, but stopped doing that as ever comment would go to my e-mail. I honestly don’t know what I will write about this week as we now will have your same weather – they are saying rain every day until Friday. I worry this will turn into a rainy Spring/Summer like 2018. I’m still on the fence about registering for those 5Ks … I missed several events due to the rain. I’ll try walking in a light rain, but not what we had yesterday … very rainy and very windy!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Linda, all that info will be useful when I do attempt it, but probably not this week as Cogeco is coming today to install cable and switch the internet over. Good luck with your Windows 10!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Joni – he hasn’t called me about dropping it off yet – whew. A little reprieve. Hope your install went well today.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No, it didn’t – see other comment. But thanks for asking. I hate learning new tech stuff – it’s always problems.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It sure is – and especially when the tech is late for his next appointment and not cooperative – you have new equipment and things to learn. Sigh.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Linda,
To be honest, I don’t see much difference between the previous and the Gutenberg flavored post except that this seems more colorful and attractive but that’s just me.
I am happy that you took the leap of faith into Gutenberg. I am one for change always. I love it. My husband on the other hand would always revel in the status quo. You should tell us your experiences with the Gutenberg in a separate post- there will be many who want to learn it. Thanks for sharing all the links from Hugh’s post.
I am glad Spring is inching towards you or is it summer?
We had a few rainy days last weekend( the day before yesterday)- so we are happy-Very happy. I hope and pray this cloudy weather lasts until June- I have reached a stage where I can’t face the glare of a summer’s day outside until the latter part of the year. Is that funny?
Susie
LikeLiked by 1 person
I didn’t experiment too much with this post Susie and after reading Hugh’s tips, as well as the embedded links guides/tips, I will make a practice document and preview what I am doing to learn more before I launch another post. I figured I had a rainy afternoon and I was determined to hunker down and try it. I am like your husband – I revel in the status quo. I do like seeing a visual and the link with the visuals was very helpful. When I have to learn something new anymore, I jump over to YouTube as they have so many videos on everything. I plan to view some of these videos before trying Windows 10 … I did look at a few already, but decided it was pointless until I had the laptop in front of me. Luckily we are doing the upgrade at work in two stages, so the laptops first and we can still use our Windows 7 computers until we get the new workstations/desktops and then it will be only Windows 10. So I have a few weeks to get up to speed with the new laptop as well. The accounting system will be new and very different … our last one was installed in 2004 and it still works, but we cannot upgrade it as it is too old, so we will run two systems concurrently. My brain does not like all this techie stuff … like I said in the post, I wanted to learn more about the camera over the Winter so I could take better pictures and videos while on my walks … didn’t try any of those things. We have a week of rain … it began yesterday which was very ugly – an entire day of rain and windy. I did not even step outside. We have some rain this morning and I was going to try walking in the rain, but it is only 37 degrees last time I heard. Not nice weather at all – perhaps it will stop by the time I go out to run the car. That rain will be present all this week except Friday! We are still coming off a very cold Winter, so the Spring is not pleasant yet Susie and on top of it, the grass may be greening up a little, but nothing else is green or colorful – no trees out … nothing. At leasdt you have flowers and a butterfly – a beautiful one. We have a long way to go to get to butterflies and blooms.
LikeLiked by 1 person
everyone knows squirrels prefer APPLES
LikeLiked by 1 person
Now that was clever Wayne! I’ll need to lure Parker with an apple, then get a prop … a mini keyboard to give to him while he is hunched over enjoying his apple. That would be a fun photo. I wish we were using Apple computers at work and I would not need to go through this Windows 10 ordeal.
LikeLike
good luck with the photo shoot!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have to put my thinking cap on for that one!
LikeLike
I try to figure things out to get the shot and many times I have only seconds to do it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Or in my case, they may not show up. The first trip to the Park with the cookies and no squirrels were there … it was cold and gray so I ate them on the way home. Sometimes I have several squirrels being cute at one time – which one to take the photo of, as they may their treat up to their tree and that’s the end of that.
LikeLike
your going to have to take them to the Dentist soon. I bet others feed them sweets as well. Sugar is not in their normal diet so I wonder how it affects them physically?
LikeLiked by 1 person
These are not really sweet cookies and have peanut butter inside so they are getting some protein and peanut butter to boot. My mom and I made peanut butter sandwiches for the squirrels years ago in the middle of Winter and they ate the peanut butter and left the bread and I had to go pick it up. I really only see a few people giving them peanuts – I do this for a special treat, but I think they enjoy apples better than the cookies. At Elizabeth Park a week ago Saturday, I passed by an area where people feed the critters – there are bird feeders, suet holders and people drop by this area and put food out. Someone had put Captain Crunch cereal and the birds were liking that and someone had put out Cheetos and the squirrel was enjoying a Cheeto – it was cute and I was happy to get a shot of him enjoying a large Cheeto … https://lindaschaubblog.net/2019/04/06/slightly-askew/
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like the classic editor. The Block system is too squirrelly. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Now I wish I had said that in this post Tom!! For me who uses a lot of pictures to accompany the narrative, I’m going to be taking a lot longer to put those posts together until I get the hang of it, that is for sure.
LikeLike
Ok! I will bear with ya 🙂
I am with you on the avoidance of the newness and updates- especially when it comes to technology ! I still have a yahoo e-mail address, lol!
Can’t wait to read that post on April 30th!
I do miss our friend Parker. But I guess distance makes the heart grow fonder *sigh*. Hehe. Have a great week, Linda!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You have a great week too Mackenzie! I’m still counting on learning this camera just like you want to do with yours – it will happen, someday.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Linda, you brave thing! I have clung to Classic with all my might. I daren’t venture into unchartered waters. I’ve had instant wipe-outs too frequently on WordPress – too many, too often! Perhaps the munchies helped! Have a great week. Hugs xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not usually brave Selina … I just was afraid they’ll roll it out and I’ll go to do a post and can’t figure it out … baby steps I told myself. The munchies helped … one of the other bloggers got me trying the Tostitos. She said every time she was wound up about something she ate Tostitos. So I thought I’d get some! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Keep me posted, please! There’s a new thing called the block editor that keeps demanding I try it out. No way … sireee!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is exactly what Gutenberg is “the block editor” and that Gutenberg name was like a “prototype” name they were using until it is fully rolled out. I didn’t even click on it – I was afraid it would change my theme – I don’t want to make a new theme, I have the easiest one there is and they no longer make it. Hugh has explained about the editor here and there are some helpful hints in the two links he shared. Nope, I don’t embrace change either. I’m not looking forward to all the new computer stuff at work either – I work from home, but I worked on site at this law firm for 6 years, then was laid off and my mom was sick, then I was hired back and now work from home.
https://hughsviewsandnews.com/2019/03/04/have-you-used-the-new-gutenberg-editor/
LikeLike
Way to go on learning something new! Blessings on the rest! Hope this week goes well for you, and if it does, celebrate with another cookie…or two! 😋😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I did so reluctantly but thought I should try it out. I gave up so many treats and sweets over the years and am just starting to give myself some wiggle room now. What I did was, beginning in 2010, I gave up something different for Lent every year, and never went back to eating it. These were things I enjoyed eating, so it was a sacrifice for me. But I ran out of things to give up, and never treated myself to anything tasty anymore and eating smart is not always fun – that is why all your dinners and desserts you feature every Tuesday draw me like a magnet! Moderation is the best way to live now I think. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
When I think of eating healthy (with “non-fun” food) and eating in moderation, I can’t help but think of Ego on Ratatouille, “…if I don’t love it, I don’t swallow!” 😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was thinking about our conversation this morning and since it is ugly outside and the chance for walks with photos is slim to none, I came up with a post about food and treats I’ve given up for Lent through the years and how I didn’t give up food for Lent this year and I failed, for the first time – ever. Next year I’ll give up food and/or treats again.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ooo, I’ll have to go read it! 💕
LikeLiked by 1 person
well I have seen a few others mention that they have used this new editor – and change can be hard – but i do like the very old classic one best
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me too Prior – I always cling to the “tried and true” … I hate if they roll it out and it’s not ready and buggy! Hopefully they correct all the issues soon before we all begin using it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Miss Linda………………………I can feel your anxiety learning new things on the computer………………….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Ann Marie – not looking forward to this, especially the accounting which will be very different.
LikeLike
So much change! Your poor brain.
I hope you’re able to breath easier by now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Unbelievably, the computer tech just installed the Windows 10 desktops in the last few days! And he only delivered the laptop to me because there was a problem with Comcast and I couldn’t remote in to work. I am shaking my head – that is the only reason I thought I’d try Gutenberg … I anticipated everything at the same time … this old dog was not so willing to learn new tricks! I went to try the new laptop the other day and the cord that goes into the wall was not long enough to stretch to the table where I work, so he had to order a longer computer cord … something tells me I am not supposed to use this equipment!
LikeLiked by 1 person