How do I get my WordPress “kitchen sink” back?

Question:

I’ve some how managed to completely get rid of my “kitchen sink”.  In fact, the entire toolbar is missing.  There’s no show/hide button I can find anywhere. I’m using wordpress.org 3.0 now my post editting looks like this http://narrazeevisualscom.ipage.com/Picture%202.png

I would like it to look like hot it was, which looked like this http://narrazeevisualscom.ipage.com/Picture%201.png

Thanks heaps in advance!

Answer:

I’ve had this happen to me before.  You have to start trouble shooting.  Do a backup of your database before you start messing around with it.  Go into your iPage control panel into phpMyAdmin to do an export.  DO NOT use the Tools: Export because it will only backup the WordPress tables.  You want to do a full export in phpMyAdmin so it also gets other tables that were created by plugin-ins.

FYI:  If you have multiple WordPress installations, you can check the wp-config.php file (FTP to it or use your control panel File Manager).  Open the file and scroll down a bit to find the database name DBNAME.  There’s a number on it.  In phpMyAdmin, look for that database number.  Click on it, then click on the wp_options table to make sure that it’s the correct database.  You’ll see your blog’s name on the second record where option_id = 2.

Ok, now start trouble shooting.

1. If you have changed the theme recently and the kitchen sink gone, then revert back to some other theme and see whether you get the kitchen sink back.

2. If you have added any new plug in recently and the kitchen sink is gone, then disable all the plug ins and see whether it comes back. If it comes, then activate the plug ins one by one to see which one is preventing kitchen sink.

3. If you have accidentally reset your profile to “Disable Visual Editing”, then uncheck it, then make sure you save the changes and see whether kitchen sink appears back.

4. If none of that works, then click on the Dashboard link to expand it, then click on the Updates link.  There are a couple of buttons in there.  One of them is to re-install WordPress.  That will re-install WP and over-write any files that may have been damaged or altered.

If they don’t work, you might probably do a fresh installation or try some other editor.