Last year WordPress announced that they were developing a new project called Gutenberg. And it’s been scaring the crap our of a lot of people. Why? Well before I go into that I have to explain what Gutenberg is.
What is Gutenberg?
Gutenberg is a new way of creating your posts. Right now as I’m typing this post I am using the “classic editor” which looks like your basic Word type software, with a toolbar above the actual editing space where you put your content. If you are a WordPress user this should seem familiar to you.
What Does Gutenberg do in WordPress
What Gutenberg, which is currently a plugin, does is replace the editor so that you use “blocks” to create your content. There are many types of blocks such as blocks for paragraphs, Images, Headings, Text Columns, Galleries, Lists, Block Quotes, and many more. So rather than typing into one big editor you select blocks in the editor window and arrange them like you want to. In theory this should make it easier for the user to visually build the page the way they want to. Take a look at the picture of the Gutenberg editor below.
The Gutenberg Editor in a post
After you add some blocks you might have something that looks like this.
Should I be concerned about Gutenberg?
I’ve been reading a lot of posts about how people are reacting to Gutenberg. Most of the positive reviews are coming from the WordPress camp. Imagine that! Their viewpoint is essentially that Gutenberg is going to change the way WordPress works, making it easier to visually see what the structure is inside the editor. Sort of a What You See Is What You Get, or WYSYWIG, experience which you don’t really have in the classic editor. Further down the line the thought is that eventually all of the structure within WordPress will be built with blocks. This would include widgets, menus and such.
On the other side of the fence are the people who are use to using the classic editor and how it works. Those people have sites that are built using the classic editor and they’re comfortable with it as it is. Why fix something that isn’t broken? Add on to that all of the people who are using themes or plugins that have built in page builders, like Elementor or Beaver Builder, or my go to theme which is Divi. These page builders allow designers to create pages quickly, some with drag and drop elements, which is sort of what Gutenberg will do. But in a much more limited ability. At least for now.
But what about the plugins?
WordPress is able to add functionality through the use of plugins. These plugins can be for sliders, contact forms, newsletters, e-commerce, security, and as mentioned above, page builders. There are literally thousands of plugins available right now and you can be sure that the developers have been scrambling to make sure their plugins will continue to work. But with so many plugins out there it is inevitable that some won’t. I have been checking the Gutenberg Plugin Compatability database to see which plugins I use on our sites are safe. Since I only use plugins which are kept up to date I feel pretty confidant that they will continue to work. Other sites that are not kept updated may not be so lucky.
Why should you be concerned about your site?
So why are people freaking out over the upcoming upgrade to 5.0 which will have Gutenberg become the default editor. Well, they’re afraid that their sites won’t work anymore, plain and simple!
I’ll admit that I was one of those people until I did some research and tested Gutenberg for myself. I had heard that I would still be able to use the classic editor but I couldn’t find it. If I made a new page or post it automatically displayed Gutenberg. After some detective work I was able to figure out that, if I went to the Page or Post list page, there is an option to edit using the classic editor. If I wanted to create a new page/post there is an option to use the classic editor. AND in the page/post itself there is a way to toggle to either editor.
Toggle classic selector in toolbar
selector under page title
Selector for new page
Wrapping it up
So I’m happy to report that, at least for now, my fears about the upcoming upgrade have been calmed. While Gutenberg will become the default editor sometime soon, it will not be the only choice for creating your pages. As for the sites built in Divi, their developers are saying that they are making changes to ensure that their sites will continue to work.
Current clients of Dang Good Graphics who have concerns about their sites should contact us. If you are not one of our clients but want to know if your site is in good shape feel free to contact us as well.