It’s been over eight months since the last major release, but now WordPress 3.6 has been released, which meant an update marathon for me – and I haven’t even checked out the new features like the media player! After each major upgrade, I have to redo a couple of small alterations in the code to make working with the built-in editor more comfortable. I had last described the changes in December in a German-language article, but this time I’m translating the updated tips into English.
HTML-Editor: The HTML source editor has been using Consolas as a fixed-width font since version 3.2, but the line height is still a bit to generous especially on smaller screens. The corresponding CSS definition can be found in the file wp-includes/css/editor.css, in which it is possible to change line-height: 150%; in the definition wp-editor-area (formerly textarea.wp-editor-area) to 120% or another desired value.
Visual Editor: The display font of the visual editor is still Times New Roman, but it can be changed in the CSS file wp-includes\js\tinymce\themes\advanced\skins\wp_theme\content.css by changing the font definition in the main .body tag from font: 13px/19px Georgia […] to another font like Verdana.
Get Shortlink: The shortlink button next to the permalink line sometimes pops into the next line on smaller 1024x displays, but the button description can be changed into something less big. Search for the string “Get Shortlink” in the file /wp-admin/edit-form-advanced.php and just change it into something else. The button can, of course, also be completely removed by deactivating the Jetpack module WP.ME-Shortlinks, but this is of no use if the feature is needed and the button is still too big.
And, of course, it needs to be said that I do not provide any guarantee for these “hacks” – you have to know what you’re doing if you are tinkering around in the innards of the WordPress system files. But if you’re careful and know your way around, these changes will not harm you WordPress installation at all – they are only a cosmetic makeover and no change in the program code is made.
