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In the past month or so, sometimes when I edit a question or answer I get the same editor I've been seeing for years, other times I see a different one which is, well, uglier and more cumbersome and I'd rather never see. So far I haven't figured out a pattern for when I see one vs the other.

For example, at How to batch convert ODT files to PDF with a LibreOffice AppImage in Linux if I click the "Edit" button under the question I get put into an editor that looks like this (the one I like):

enter image description here

while if I click the "Edit" button under the answer I get put into an editor that looks like this (the one I dislike);

enter image description here

Note the difference in the buttons on the menu line of each one.

Why are there 2 different editors and how can I avoid getting put into that second one?

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    The top one is the 'old'/classic editor. The bottom one is the stacks editor - I think they're testing the latter at SO? Commented Apr 7 at 11:46
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    meta.stackoverflow.com/q/433034 - the new editor is only for answers. Also, only for SO. You can disable it from your user settings. Commented Apr 7 at 11:46
  • @VLAZ I just checked and I have "Enable new editor" set to "off" in my profile. Is there something else I need to do to stop seeing it? Commented Apr 7 at 11:54
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    @EdMorton looks like the option says "Disable new editor", so you have to turn on to disable it. Commented Apr 7 at 11:56
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    Oh.... my profile on SE has "Enable new editor" set to "off" but in SO the equivalent option is "Disable new editor" and THAT is set to "off". Nice introduction of double negatives there by SO to make it harder to navigate. Commented Apr 7 at 11:56
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    Having set "Disable new editor" to "on" now in my SO profile, I no longer see the undesirable editor when clicking the Edit button under the answer I mentioned in my question. Thanks all. If anyone would care to post an answer about this I'll accept it, otherwise I'll add my own answer summarizing the above later. Commented Apr 7 at 11:58
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    @EdMorton the setting to disable the new editor on SO. Everywhere else has "Enable new editor". Commented Apr 7 at 12:09
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    "Oh.... my profile on SE has "Enable new editor" set to "off" but in SO the equivalent option is "Disable new editor" and THAT is set to "off"" it's not even exactly an equivalent - you can change both settings individually. If you have "Disable new editor" that takes precedence everywhere on the network and even if you've opted in to the new editor on other sites, you'll be using the old one. But turning off "Enable new editor" doesn't apply to SO. It's not very intuitive. The double negative also contributes to that. Commented Apr 7 at 12:11
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    @VLAZ sounds like our wellbeing is in good hands :-). I assume at some point the options will be removed and the new editor will be inflicted unconditionally on all of us. Shame. Commented Apr 7 at 12:20

1 Answer 1

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As mentioned in the comments under the question apparently a new editor is being tested, see Stacks Editor development and testing, and SO users are presented with this new editor when attempting to answer questions but not to ask questions. Meanwhile on all other SE sites use of this new editor is entirely disabled by default.

This new editor is the uglier, more cumbersome one I mentioned in my question and it is apparently buggy and lacking functionality, e.g. it can't run code snippets.

On SO you can disable it by editing your profile and setting "Disable new editor" to on. On other SE sites you can enable it by editing your profile and setting "Enable new editor" to on. Apparently if you set Disable on SO but set Enable on other SE sites, the Enable will be ignored and the Disable will take effect across all SE sites.

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  • Unfortunately, the option to disable the new editor is only temporary. Eventually, the old editor will be retired and we'll have to use the new editor. I guess we can just edit stuff offline... Commented Apr 24 at 8:05
  • Back to the good ole <kbd>CODE</kbd> Commented May 16 at 6:12

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