WordPress is a power house and the platform behind major sites like BBC, Sony, and The New Yorker. And it’s on the brink of a significant update, Gutenberg, WordPress 5.0, that will dramatically change the way that bloggers, writers, and business owners add content.
At first I was freaked out. Will Gutenberg break my site? How will this change my client processes? Can I still update old blog posts? Then I read a blog post on Elan Creative Co that said,
“those that don’t know how to code will be able to create beautiful pages in no time.”
And I got a teensy bit excited. Here’s the thing. I can follow a process, add shortcode, get basic formatting down. But I’m not a web developer. Certain things I’ve wanted on my website, like columns or a button that says “click here” allude me. Sure, I could spend time finding the answer… but time is limited. My return on that time isn’t worth it. Hence: no buttons.
What is Gutenberg?
WordPress offers a testing site and after playing around, plus reading a ton of articles, here’s my take on it.
The WordPress Gutenberg project has been in the works for a while. Right now users are testing, and bugs are being worked out. Some sites are reporting a September/October 2018 release date for WordPress 5.0.
It will change your WordPress experience.
Traffic Soda reports that “the system resembles the editing interface on sites like Medium, which uses a similar drag-and-drop system for inserting rich content into posts.”
If you’ve worked on Medium, then the update might feel more familiar to you. For everyone else, Gutenberg is a huge change.
Right now we insert everything into one box on WordPress. With 5.0 that big box goes away. Instead, WordPress Gutenberg is a collection of blocks.
Let’s look at this post. Currently, I type into the WordPress box. Clicking buttons to add media or insert a quote. With Gutenberg this changes into a series of drag and drop boxes. I recreated this blog post in Gutenberg using these blocks:
▪️Title
▪️Quote
▪️Paragraph
▪️Header
▪️Paragraph
▪️Image
I can move these blocks up and down. Or change a paragraph into a quote with ease.
Exciting stuff. Bloggers will develop all sorts of tricks to personalize their experience. Traffic Soda explores how food bloggers could utilize blocks:
“Drag and drop a ‘Recipe Block’ that generates fields for ingredients, instructions, and photos into your posts.”
Sound complicated? Or, maybe a little scary? It’s ok. I thought that too. I did a ton of research, a test drive, and emailed a slightly panicky-sounding email to my website designer. Here’s what I found out.
The most common concerns for writers to think about are if your theme and plugins are compatible and what happens when you edit or update old posts.
Potential concerns
1. Is your theme compatible? Go to your theme’s site and see if it works. Check out the FAQ section or search the site. If you can’t find information, then try emailing support. According to WP Tasty: “Many basic themes won’t be an issue with Gutenberg compatibility. However, if your theme itself adds functionality to the editing experience (such as a built-in recipe card), then it, too, will need to be tested for compatibility with Gutenberg.”
2. Do you rely on any plugins? David Laietta a WordPress developer since 2008, suggests that “you should check all the plugins you are using to see that they are Gutenberg compatible.” Use the Gutenberg Plugin Compatibility Database to verify integration.
We’ve already seen some influential companies, like Yoast, embrace integration with Gutenberg. Yoast jumped on the idea that working in blocks allows instant feedback, meaning we will learn quickly from our mistakes.
3. What happens when you update or edit an older post? Web Dev Studios says, “we recommend that you avoid doing so. It will be best to use Gutenberg for new posts only as this will help prevent any formatting/styling issues. I need to research this further, but I’m hoping solutions exist.
My web designer, Sarah, over at XeraSupport, had this to say about Gutenberg: “This is gonna be a game changer.” And I tend to agree. When it comes to blogging, here’s what I can’t wait to try out:
WordPress 5.0 features I’m excited about
- A table of content that lists your all headings and subheading. The heading types can be changed from here too. It shows an error message if the heading font sizes don’t follow a sequence. Great for long-form content!
- Buttons. Ok, I love buttons.
- Live preview without opening a new page
- Ability to cut and paste from Google Docs to WordPress without formatting errors.
- Easily add a podcast anywhere you want using a block. Learn Woo reports that: “Gutenberg makes embedding media content super easy, whether it be YouTube, SoundCloud, Hulu, Flickr, Imgur, Twitter, Slideshare, Reddit, and many more.”
- Ability to quickly add columns, image galleries, and anchors (where you jump to another place in the blog post) by adding blocks, not HTML editing.
- According to a user test by Yoast “Uploading images by drag-and-drop, no media library required is nice.”
- You can change the font and background color of all Paragraph Blocks.
How bloggers can try out Gutenberg
Still unsure or want to try it out beforehand? Head over to this testing site and play around. You have time. It looks like the WordPress Gutenberg update might be available before the end of this year. Their goal is to have “100K+ sites made, and 250K+ posts by August.”
Right now there’s a plugin available, Classic Editor, that’ll buy you more time. It’ll keep everything as is. However, you’ll need to adapt eventually.
I’m curious as to what other bloggers and writers think about the upcoming WordPress 5.0 update. Comment below and let me know if you are excited, nervous, or just going with the flow.
Interesting. I’ve seen a bit about it (of course) but I haven’t read all the details. I’m glad they are making it functional for those that don’t know how to code bc honestly most don’t. Updating old posts… hm.
Yep, I’m still not sure on old posts. I know I’ll be nervous about updating old posts. But I’m hoping in the long run I’ll adjust and it’ll work better for all of us non-coders!
Great info! I was wondering about this today, especially since I use certain plugins and a theme that already has a built in visual composer.
I’d definitely check with your theme support page and see if they address this. If not, then maybe you’ll want to install the plug in which keeps WordPress the old way.
Thank you for this, I haven’t been keeping up my blog and had no idea this was happening. It ought to make adding images to posts easier, but I’m concerned about what it’ll do to my theme and all my plugins.
Hopefully your theme & plugins have people busy working away on updates. You can check the list in the post or even use google to find specific theme/plug ins Info.
I installed it and was overwhelmed so I deactivated it! I’m sure it’s amazing but as someone who has barely just gotten the hang of using WP to begin with, I’m baffled!
But you were so brave to install it! I’m not! From everything I’m hearing, it’ll function nicely, because we can drag and drop. No need to go into text editor etc. But, there’s always a learning curve! And I swear it’s takes me longer the older I get.
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I’m late to the party, but I just checked out Gutenberg last night. I admit…it was a bit intimidating. I mean, where are all my options? I’m just staring at an empty box here 🤦
But I played around with the test post and now I kinda dig it. WordPress says it’ll be pushed out in the next update, so I figure I may as well get comfortable with it.
They also have a plug-in for those who prefer the old style. I downloaded that as well. You know, just in case 😶
https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/
Gutenberg feels more like what I’m used to, app-wise. Drag and drop. The reusable blocks rock! You can use them as templates for your post, like reusable blocks with short code for affiliate ads or my name signature above. Getting those elements into old WordPress was more difficult for me.
Most of my clients aren’t switching over, so I work daily in both formats. But it’s been fairly easy to move into blogging with Gutenberg, not a huge learning curve. Still, having the back-up plug-in is worth it, because you just never know.