Preparing for Gutenberg — Wordpress’s New Editor is Nothing to Fear
By Jeff Mitchell
With the coming shift to Wordpress 5.0 looming on the horizon, many wait in anticipation of its biggest change to date — a whole new editing experience called “Gutenberg.”
Unfortunately, their anticipation isn’t entirely ‘eager.’ Gutenberg has garnered an impressive array of complaints in its current form (an optional plugin).
Although most vocal complaints preceding this shift fall somewhere in the realm of “custom fields won’t work” and “it’s ugly,” Gutenberg does present several challenges for Wordpress users. So, just what does this all mean for the average user and is it anything to run and hide from?
To answer this, we’ll first take a closer look at what the Gutenberg editor is and what sort of change it will usher into effect as it rolls out. Then, we’ll also go over a few simple things that can be done to keep things the same if Gutenberg isn’t quite up your alley.
What is Wordpress’s Gutenberg?
In a nutshell — Gutenberg is Wordpress’s upcoming text editor update.
There’s quite a bit more to Gutenberg than text, though. This new editor is designed to make use of a whole new editing paradigm (new for Wordpress anyway) built around blocks.
Blocks are intended as a means of simplifying the existing editing landscape the platform offers by allowing users with little to no coding knowledge an opportunity to meaningfully manipulate page content.
Essentially, where you’d normally need to use embeds, media plugins and more to add things like images and videos to your site’s pages and posts, you’ll be able to practically point-and-click or drag-and-drop elements to completion. This particular approach to editing has enormous potential for expansion and improvement, but there are concerns as to what changes will come with it.
At the moment, Gutenberg is in active development and available as a free installable plugin. Come Wordpress 5.0, however, this editor is set to be merged with the system’s core code.
No one wants a broken site, but many fear important features will cease to function should such a merge coalesce.
What Could Go Wrong?
As we touched on before, complaints about Gutenberg in its current state range from the practical to the personal. Here, we’ll focus on the practical bits.
1. By far, the single most pressing problem with this new editor is the way that it affects custom fields. Many users fear their beloved custom field plugins will cease to function altogether once Gutenberg becomes a core component of Wordpress.
Unfortunately, their fears are not unfounded. Gutenberg definitely doesn’t play nice with plugins such as Advanced Custom Fields — effectively eliminating all functionality and rendering them useless. However, the team behind Advanced Custom Fields have already begun working on incorporating the new editor’s block-based approach into their system, so this isn’t likely to be as much of an issue as many fear it could be.
2. The second major concern is the shift in work-flow when using Gutenberg.
Gutenberg, although innovative, has been widely recognized as being less intuitive than its predecessor. Compared to TinyMCE, Gutenberg’s various content insertion options seem hidden and difficult to guess at. Quite a lot of hovering and double-clicking has been made necessary thanks to a more minimalist ui, and in its current state, it definitely gets in the way of competent, comfortable users familiar with the original editor.
3. The third major concern with Gutenberg lies in the way it passes content to the front-end of the website.
At the moment, the editor has an ugly habit of inserting its own in-line CSS code to position and manipulate elements on the site. Naturally, this is a must for it to function as intended, but the new CSS is likely to affect custom themes and plugins that currently work without any issues whatsoever.
These concerns may not be an issue for you at all. In which case, you’re good to go and have nothing to worry about! If, however, you are worried about these changes, keep reading for a few easy, practical solutions.
I Don’t Want it. Help?!
If the above concerns sound harrowing, there are options available to keep your Wordpress installation just the way you like it. Here are a few great ways to preserve your editing experience:
1. Use the text block in Gutenberg
Gutenberg’s text block actually calls upon the Tiny MCE editor to function and should continue to pass custom toolbar options from plugins with no problems.
2. Install the “Classic Editor” plugin
This is the official “Get Me Outta Here” plugin for reverting from Gutenberg to the original Tiny MCE editor.
3. Install the “Easy Updates Manager” plugin
This plugin allows you to manage all updating options on your Wordpress site. This one’s a last-case resort and should not be your first choice, but it allows you to hold back your installation from updating to Wordpress 5.x altogether — staving off Gutenberg for good.
No Need to Hide
Gutenberg definitely represents a major change in the way Wordpress will function moving forward; however, considering its potential and the available means of avoiding it altogether where necessary, it’s nothing to run and hide from.
If the potential problems we’ve presented here don’t phase you, then Gutenberg won’t bother you at all. Even if they do, the options above allow you to sidestep it completely should you feel the need to do so.
Your Wordpress is still safe and sound.
