WordPress is racing towards their controversial 5.0 update which includes the Gutenberg page/post editor in its core.
Feedback from the WordPress community doesn’t seem all that promising:
Earlier today, I had Bhagwad share his thoughts on the blog, which he calls Gutenberg annoying as hell.
Personally, I’m old-school, and I’ve had a hard enough time adapting WordPress in the first place, so I don’t really care for the Gutenberg editor, but let’s discuss it.
What Is Gutenberg?
In case you haven’t been following the WordPress community, “Gutenberg” is the name of the project to create a new editor experience for WordPress. The goal is to create a new post and page editing experience that makes it easy for anyone to create rich post layouts.
They state their kickoff goal as:
The editor will endeavour to create a new page and post building experience that makes writing rich posts effortless, and has “blocks” to make it easy what today might take shortcodes, custom HTML, or “mystery meat” embed discovery.
Key takeaways include the following points:
- Authoring richly laid-out posts is a key strength of WordPress.
- By embracing blocks as an interaction paradigm, we can unify multiple different interfaces into one. Instead of learning how to write shortcodes and custom HTML, or pasting URLs to embed media, there’s a common, reliable flow for inserting any kind of content.
- “Mystery meat” refers to hidden features in software, features that you have to discover. WordPress already supports a large number of blocks and 30+ embeds, so let’s surface them.
How Does This Affect Your WordPress Website?
Once you upgrade your installation to 5.0, it will begin using Gutenberg as the default post/page editor.
The main compliant we’re currently seeing is it is breaking sites because they’re using plugins, themes, and framework that isn’t compatible.
The second compliant is the editor is a big change to how people are currently used to writing posts. I even admit, it’s going to take some getting used to, so I’m currently typing this post using the classic editor.
In short, before you update, you need to check with your plugin/theme developers to make sure everything is compatible with WordPress 5.0.
How Can You Test Gutenberg Before Going Live?
If you’d like to see the Gutenberg editor for yourself, you can play with their interactive demo here.
Remember, this is how you will soon create / modify your posts and pages inside of WordPress; it’s a big change!
Additionally, if you’d like to see exactly how it will affect your WordPress website before upgrading to 5.0, you can install Gutenberg as a plugin.
But once you update WordPress to 5.0 (coming very soon) it’s going to be there by default!
Good News: You Can Keep The Classic WordPress Editor (For Now)
Thankfully the WordPress community realizes such a huge change isn’t feasible for everyone overnight.
Therefore they’ve created a plugin that allows you to use the Classic Editor until you’re ready (or until your themes/plugins are ready).
Just like any other WordPress plugin, you can search for it in your wp-admin area or download it from WordPress.org and install/activate it.
I’m sure many people will choose to go this route until things settle in a bit more (me being one of them).
What Do You Think Of Gutenberg – Love It Or Hate It?
I filmed a video tutorial where I walk you through the entire process of setting up WordPress and installing Gutenberg as a plugin.
I also show you how to install the Classic WordPress editor plugin just incase:
What do you think? Do you love it or hate it? Maybe undecided?
I know a couple of people I’ve talked to are so mad they’re moving their sites off WordPress for good.
Look for much more content on the blog regarding this huge update as well as more tips and tricks to make the transition as smooth as possible!
Ryan Gray is the founder and CEO of NameHero, one of the fastest growing independent web hosts in the United States. Ryan has been working online since 1998 and has over two-decades experience in Internet Entrepreneurship.
I’m so confused as to why WordPress would do this?
Who is this update for, exactly? The novice blogger with no experience with WP whatsoever?
Are they trying to “compete” with builders like Elementor, Divi, or Beaver Builder?
Man! This move seems like it would be very risky for WordPress. 1) By “turning off” experienced users who are okay with the current system or professional developers who use other builders, 2) Run the risk of breaking a third of the internet…forget Y2K! How about WP2018?! 3) But, why not market it as something new?
Excuse the rambling, but I think G-berg is an insane move.
Thanks for your input!
I think WordPress is looking for a way to move “forward” as a platform overall.
Off the top of my head, I think of the folks over at ClickFunnels.com who utilize a similar block editor to create rich landing pages with very little experience.
I don’t think they’re so much trying to compete with builders already connected to WordPress, but more of platforms such as Wix, Weebly, etc.
It’s going to take a lot of getting used to for many of us, especially those that have decades of experience working with the classic editor.
I’m at least glad they’re leaving us that option while they iron things out.
Anyways, I guess we’ll see! Once again, appreciate the input!
Gutenberg is Garbage!!!!!
Great post!!
I was able to get the clasic editor thanks to this post.
Glad we were able to help 🙂
I just couldn´t find myself using the new editor. Let´s say I disapprove and it´s way too difficult to learn how to use it from one day to another, so it will take some time and I am glad there is the plugin “classic editor” to keep writing with the previous system. So I hate it the new editor to answer your question 🙁