Put Back What’s Missing in WordPress 3.9 – Advanced Image Options and Text Color Picker

WordPress 3.9 came out last month and while the post/page editing screen has generally been improved there’s a couple of small features that have been removed. Chances are a lot of folks won’t ever miss them, but some of you will and already are.

The two main things I get complaints about are the missing border and spacing options for images, and the lack of color options for text. 

Advanced Image Options

In previous versions of WordPress,when an image was already inserted into your post/page and you clicked it to edit, you saw the following screen under the Advanced tab. Note the fields for image properties – border, vertical space and horizontal space.

In 3.9 those no longer exist. Compare this 3.9 screenshot:

So if for any reason you need to add a border or space to an image you would have to do that manually by adding code yourself. Bah!!

The fix is to add this plugin:  Advanced Image Styles
Here’s how your Advanced options will look post-installation:

Side note – also removed from previous versions are the Source field and the Styles field but I haven’t yet seen a way to add those back in 3.9.

No More Color Picker For Text Color

I believe this is a change that came as a result of the TinyMCE editor being upgraded rather than a decision made by the WordPress team. But in any case, in previous versions you could click the text color icon and select More Colors to get a color picker, like so:

In 3.9 that option is gone – when you click the Text Color icon you get a few colors to choose from, but no way to add any others:

The fix for this is to add the TinyMCE Color Picker plugin. After installation you get the option to “Add A Color” which gives you the following color picker:

Have you noticed anything else missing from 3.9? Leave a comment if so!