The Gutenberg WordPress Editor: Things You Need to Know

July 30. 2019

In case you have been using WordPress for a while now, you’ve probably gotten used to working with the classic editor setup. You’ve gotten so familiar with it to the point that you considered yourself an expert. In that case, the new Gutenberg WordPress Editor may have stirred up some negative emotions. Perhaps, the complete opposite has happened and you’ve fallen in love with this new default app. Whatever the situation may be, it can’t be denied that the new Gutenberg Editor comes with its fair share of pros and cons. Then again, so do all other things in life, right? Trust us – just like you were able to notice all the benefits of using a WordPress site only after a reasonable amount of time passed, the same will happen with this new plugin.

What is all the hype behind the new Gutenberg Editor about?

The creation and development of the new Editor have been the talk of the town for quite some time. People could hardly wait for this new version to come out while others had their doubts. Named after Johannes Gutenberg, the new page builder has many revolutionary features. It was created with the intent of making the act of making pages an easier and quicker endeavor, boosting productivity in every sense of the word.

The new editor is constantly updated, as the developers are working on solving all the issues that pop up. And there are some problems, such as the possibility of the Editor not being compatible with your themes and plugins.

The Gutenberg WordPress Editor is a page builder

The Classic Editor, on the other hand, is not. A page builder allows you to create high-impact landing pages more easily, without switching from the administrator screen to the page view to see the finishing product. With the Gutenberg Editor, the creator’s screen is the same as the one the visitors will see. Can you imagine how much time and effort this will reduce for everyone writing your website content?

One of the biggest and, perhaps, the best differences between the Classic Editor and the new Gutenberg WordPress Editor is the usage of blocks. Instead of writing lines of codes and achieving a signature look of your pages, all you have to do is navigate the blocks. Just dragging and dropping – that’s all it takes!

Moreover, with the Gutenberg Editor, you have a convenient upper menu to help you with anything really. It leads you through the page so that you can edit it, update it or publish content – all without having to scroll endlessly. And that’s a huge plus of this page builder if you ask us.

Gutenberg will keep the developers busy

With so many different themes and plugins available, combining them all might be an issue. Over time, different WordPress updates have kept developers busy – but this one has the potential of taking the lead. Backward compatibility will undoubtedly be a huge issue in the future, especially for those who have integrations with TinyMCE. So far, TinyMCE has been used for the same purpose Gutenberg is used today – creating beautiful pages. Whether the new Gutenberg Editor will be worth all the trouble remains to be seen.

It already works great on mobile

With large screens quickly going out of fashion, mobile optimization is what everyone wants these days. And if you are one of them, then the new Editor will be a good and quick option for altering your content. With drag and drop functions and a conveniently placed upper menu, making small tweaks on the go is very easy. And that just brings us to another pro of using the Gutenberg WordPress Editor – it’s a great option for beginners.

You can add blocks of different types (such as a heading, images, paragraphs, bulletin lists – you name it) by clicking a button. On the other hand, if you were pretty comfortable with the old system, this could be a huge stepping stone. We guess it’s up to you to decide!

Gutenberg in numbers

To decide whether or not you want to install this plugin, it might serve you well to be familiar with a few key details. We here at WP Full Care like to be familiar with all of our options before making a final decision. We believe that seeing the following numbers might sway you in the right direction.

• 290,000 – the number of total downloads
• 20,000 – the number of active installs
• 2.5 – the Gutenberg WordPress Editor’s ranking
• 4.8 – WordPress version needed to use it

How to install the Gutenberg Editor

If you decide to take a leap of fate and try out something new, you needn’t worry. Installing the Gutenberg Editor is neither a complicated nor a lengthy process. You can find it either in the WordPress repository or under ‘Add New’ plugins on your dashboard. It’s definitely worth mentioning that if you are using 5.0 WordPress version, the Gutenberg Editor is now your default option. Although that doesn’t mean you won’t continue having access to the Classic Editor. You’ll still be able to install it if you run into some compatibility issues with the Gutenberg.

To avoid the compatibility issue, it’s our sincere suggestion that you test the new Editor on a test site before transferring it to the live one. It will give you a good idea of how your existing content will react to it, and how well it will fit in with your themes and plugins. Use a staging site or a local environment, test your site’s reaction, and then decide on whether or not you want to use the Gutenberg.

Is it worth a shot?

It certainly might be, but it could also be a huge distraction, one that you never get used to. In the end, the Gutenberg WordPress Editor was created with the intent of improving the ease of creating and managing content. Considering the fact that it’s still fairly new, we can expect all the problems and glitches to be fixed in the near future.