Wikipedia talk:How to disable the VisualEditor

Opera
Opera (12.16 and earlier) is currently unsupported so won't show the 'edit source' tab. So at the moment the suggestion to use 'Stylish' is not relevant. I don't know whether the new Webkit version of Opera (Opera 15 and later) is supported, it may well be as it is a Chrome clone, but O15 has more bugs and shortcomings than VE and there is little reason to use it at the moment anyway. Dsergeant (talk) 06:30, 27 July 2013 (UTC)
 * It should be working now. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 20:13, 31 July 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes, so it is - however it tells me that I am using a browser that is not officially supported by VE even though it does seem to work. Having tried it and found it was so slow to load I very quickly disabled it again in my preferences. Dsergeant (talk) 05:47, 1 August 2013 (UTC)

Changing the user preference label
Hi. I've begun a discussion at MediaWiki talk:Visualeditor-preference-betatempdisable to discuss whether we should change the user preference label that completely disables VisualEditor. Please participate there. --MZMcBride (talk) 06:53, 6 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Let me offer my belated sympathies for the obtuse and unconstructive responses you encountered in that discussion, User:MZMcBride. CapnZapp (talk) 10:27, 23 February 2021 (UTC)

How do you open VisualEditor on the mobile devices?
I mean, if you want to edit with VisualEditor on a mobile devicertain, how can you possibly do that?🤔 PoulaChess1243 (talk) 21:34, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
 * You click on the pencil button, then you pick "Visual editing" by clicking on it again. Does it work, PoulaChess1243? (I am not 100% sure if you see the option if you have explicitly disabled it in your Preferences on desktop, can't test ATM, but if you don't get the option then that's probably why.) Elitre (WMF) (talk) 10:27, 11 January 2018 (UTC)

Can't disable it on Chromium
I followed the procedure but I still can't manage to opt out without disabling whole javascript on the page. Ogoorcs (talk) 12:26, 6 September 2020 (UTC)


 * Ogoorcs, which procedure did you follow? Did you change your settings in Special:Preferences? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:16, 8 September 2020 (UTC)

Permanently keep using the plaintext editor?
You state To remove your access to VisualEditor, go to the Editing section of Special:Preferences and check "Temporarily disable the visual editor while it is in beta".

But the wording of that option is phrased in a way that suggests "...but once it is out of beta, I want it enabled again."

This is unfortunate double-speak (in fact, it suggests the article was written by somebody employing Dark patterns. Whether this was done accidentally or intentionally is beside the point) and I would like to request greater transparency here.

A page called Opt-out needs to provide an answer to the following question: How do I permanently ensure editing will be done in the classic plaintext editor?

If your answer is "we don't plan on allowing this", fine*, but this then needs to be discussed in the article.

*) It's far from fine, but here I'm discussing the Opt-out article, not your decisions regarding the editing options.

CapnZapp (talk) 10:22, 23 February 2021 (UTC)
 * I've made a substantial edit consisting of the following:
 * a. Openly acknowledge there is no way to permanently disable the visual editor
 * b. The page is directed to a user looking for ways out of the visual editor.
 * b1. Therefore the order is changed - the (semi) permanent way is offered first
 * b2. Instructions to opt in are turned into a note only. On a page about opting out not having access to the visual editor should be considered a solution not a problem.
 * c. Specific details were previously commented out and have now been consigned to article history
 * d. The section on unsupported browsers were elevated from heading level 3 to 2 - it is unrelated to IP users
 * Cheers CapnZapp (talk) 09:26, 27 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Are you concerned that visual editing might someday become the only option? Because there aren't, and never have been, any plans to remove wikitext editing. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 16:36, 1 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Of course I'm concerned - why else phrase the option that way? Or, to ask you directly: why isn't there an option to plain "Disable the visual editor" full stop, Whatamidoing (WMF)? CapnZapp (talk) 17:37, 8 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Plus (again) a statement like "there are no plans to remove wikitext editing" could still be true if editors are asked to click the tab "Edit source" instead of "Edit" each time they want to avoid the visual editor. The real question is: is there any way to use the wikitext editor as the default to be used in all cases, with no visible way to accidentally invoke the visual editor (except going back into Preferences to re-enable it), and for this preference to be honored in perpetuity? Thanks CapnZapp (talk) 17:43, 8 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Are you actually having a problem with accidentally opening the visual editor, or is that a hypothetical concern?
 * In Special:Preferences, what does it say under "Editing mode"? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 20:55, 9 March 2021 (UTC)

Can I ask you to stop beating around the bush and provide direct clear answers?
 * a. Why is the option phrased "Temporarily ... while in beta?"
 * b. Why isn't there an option to just "Disable the visual editor" full stop?

Thank you, Whatamidoing (WMF) CapnZapp (talk) 13:08, 10 March 2021 (UTC)


 * a) Because when that specific prefs entry in the database was created in 2013, they believed that it might eventually be removed, and they did not want to make any promises that the specific prefs entry would continue to exist until the heat death of the universe.
 * b) I think you will find what you want under "Editing mode". Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 21:04, 10 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Can I ask you to simply acknowledge that the phrasing is easily interpretable as: "you can disable the visual editor... for now, but we aren't making any promises you will be able to keep doing so later on (thus removing your ability to use the wikitext editor unless manually chosen every time)!" Also, can I ask you to please stop addressing me as some lost user asking for personal help? I am here to improve the article, i.e. how to opt out of the Visual Editor. While I am sure it helps newcomers, many editors avoid it and just wish for a set of preferences where they can keep using Wikipedia as if the Visual Editor didn't exist. So my participation in this discussion specifically targets this rather reasonable concern. Currently, however, the questions a+b aren't satisfactorily and exhaustively answered in my opinion. If you have special insight that can help, your assistance is gratefully accepted Whatamidoing (WMF)! So let me ask what does the "it" in a) mean? (What might eventually be removed?) CapnZapp (talk) 22:10, 10 March 2021 (UTC)
 * I think that this page should be marked with Template:Historical and ignored. The visual editor was built before the Beta Features system; at the time, opting out of any new software difficult.  This page averages less than one page view per day, and it's only been linked to in one (1) discussion since 2013 (it was a request to update the page, not an editor looking to hide the visual editor's buttons).
 * As to your recent edits: There are ways to disable the visual editor.  For example, you can go to "Editing mode" in your preferences and click the button that says to only show the tab for a wikitext editor.  You can turn off Javascript in your browser, which will disable the visual editor (and lots of other things, but some editors prefer that).  You can write your own .css file to hide the buttons for the visual editor.
 * Are these permanent? That depends upon which definition of "permanent" we're using.  It's possible, for example, that if you write a .css line to hide the button, then the button's label might some day get changed, and you'd have to update your .css file to hide the new button.  That approach will permanently hide the existing button, but it won't hide all possible future iterations of that button.  (Notice that I said this is "possible"; I do not say that it is "likely".  The circumstance most likely to trigger this would be a decision to rename all the buttons in the tabs at the top of the page.)  Similarly, since software has a life cycle that is shorter than most humans', it's likely that the current visual editor will some day get replaced by some other visual editor; in that case, turning off the current one is not necessarily a guarantee that future versions would be turned off for you.  And even a prefs setting that explicitly says "Permanently disable the visual editor" is not a guarantee of permanence, because prefs settings are regularly changed, and several are removed each year.
 * What I'd like to understand is: Why is this important to you?  Are you having significant problems right now?  If you're having problems, I'd be happy to report your problems to the team and see if they can improve them. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:42, 12 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Oh, I forgot to answer your other question: In "they believed that it might eventually be removed", the word "it" refers to the prefs setting.  The antecedent is "that specific prefs entry in the database". Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:44, 12 March 2021 (UTC)

Never mind, you don't want to answer, discussion over. CapnZapp (talk) 19:18, 12 March 2021 (UTC)

Updated for curiousity
I updated for curiosity the article. If my editing is wrong, please revert, because I am bad in software science. PoetVeches (talk) 20:36, 17 October 2023 (UTC)