When I use the editor in its normal mode (not full-screen) I've essentially trained my eyes to ignore the wp-admin toolbar and sidebar. Removing these elements by default seems like a good move to me — especially so if we consider adding better ways to toggle the wp-admin elements.

Yep, agreed. This change helps bring people into the editor without keeping all the other visual distractions. It provides so much more focus!

Size Change: +6 B (0%)

Total Size: 865 kB

_{compressed-size-action}

The other efforts in #20603 help provide a nice connection between the two interfaces, helping enable this change.

Outside of the space/focus related benefits this brings, there are some benefits to scrolling as well, especially visible on small screens, 13'' or smaller.

More focus is fine, but somehow it was also great that you can quickly click through the admin menu. Directly from the editor. Wouldn't you have to rework the whole admin menu in this context? And above all please simplify :-)

I'm not opposed to the change but this is extremely last-minute, and making a fairly substantive change to the editor's behavior hours before RC does not make much sense to me. Why couldn't this have waited for 5.5?

Granted it's a bit late in the cycle but this change has been considered a quick win by release leads and not impactful as recent user tests have shown that it leads to better User experience.

There's still the possibility to revert it if there's anything wrong about it.

I am VERY opposed to this change and am deeply saddened by this happening so late in a release. One hour before RC1 you commit something that changes the way people's edit screen looks, and thus force loads of people to update training materials etc. I think this should be reconsidered for a next release and then properly discussed, and reverted as soon as possible now.

We had a lot of feedback suggesting that the Fullscreen mode is a better experience

recent user tests have shown that it leads to better User experience

Would you be so kind to make these data public? Specifically:

• where and when the feedback was collected and where other contributors can examine it
• where and when specific user tests on fullscreen mode ran and where the collected data can be consulted now

Making these data public would greatly help other contributors to make well informed judgments on this change. Thank you.

Additional context for why to include this, even if late in the process, is being discussed in https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/03/03/fullscreen-mode-enabled-by-default-in-the-editor/
Let’s continue the discussion there, to increase visibility and not fragment the conversation.

Commented there, thanks for the note @youknowriad

It is too late to add this feature during a RC, and it should be punted to WordPress 5.5.
No one should be able to trumph through a feature at this time. The higher ups in this hierarchy should show respect for the WordPress release process.
@m

Hi @paaljoachim,

It is too late to add this feature during a RC, and it should be punted to WordPress 5.5.

This PR is not adding the feature. The feature already existed; this PR is just enabling it by default for users that don't have a preference for fullscreen currently set on their local storage.
This change was included before the first RC was released, so the feature was added during the beta period.

Hi Jorge. @jorgefilipecosta

Thank you for the response!

I phrased it in the wrong way. I should instead have said adding a visual UI change this late should not be allowed, but rather given more time to do research on how this will affect new users. Anyhow it needs a good discussion and hopefully that will be done during Wednesdays Dev Slack chat.

Cross-posting:

Results are in, and they're not even close.

Of 244, 85 don't use the block editor yet. Anecdotally, this is because they're afraid that converting their content is going to break it. This is because there’s a lack of good tutorials, and news that the kinds of unprofessional shenanigans going on like this thread.

This leaves 159 people using the block editor

If we're generous and lump the last 2 groups together, 11 of 159 people support the idea of defaulting to full screen without the sidebar and admin bar. That's 7%.

That leaves 93% of people using the block editor against this change.

This is the first and only public survey taken on this so far from PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY USE THIS PRODUCT, not some unsubstantiated "uh we thought it was a good idea internally".

On average, I’d say that these respondents public 1-2 times per week, spending 3-4 hours per post.

Please listen to your users.

@feastdesignco it would help if you showed the source of this little piece of research? I assume you didn't do it in the "I hate the block editor group" but where you did it does kind of matter :P

@feastdesignco it would help if you showed the source of this little piece of research? I assume you didn't do it in the "I hate the block editor group" but where you did it does kind of matter :P

@jdevalk I removed personally identifiable information from the responses for privacy reasons, but I'd be happy to share the source privately for verification with @youknowriad and the reviewers involved here.

Email skylar@ our domain dot com

It is annoying it reverts back to fullscreen mode allways after cookies (or what) expire. Why force it ?
On multiple installations, so it is not some plugin making it.