Update! Installing The WordPress Gutenberg Editor Onto Your Website

What is Gutenberg & why the update?

In June 2018 at the Wordcamp Europe Conference held in Serbia, Matthew Mullenweg (a founding developer of WordPress) took the stage to make a big announcement, WordPress will be launching the Gutenberg project, a new block-style editor that will be a massive feature of the official WordPress 5.0 update, which will be rolled out on November 19th.

With 31% of the Internet using WordPress, the Gutenberg WordPress Editor (aptly named after the German inventor Johannes Gutenberg) has already generated waves throughout the industry in an attempt to revolutionise the WordPress publishing experience, making it more user-friendly to jump in and change the way you enter content. Through redevelopment of the environment editor, Gutenberg aims to transform WordPress into a stronger content customiser with multimedia. Although WordPress started as a mere blogging platform in 2003 it has recognised the needs for users to implement ‘richer types of content’ such as multimedia and design elements, which was quite limited with the original editor.

Here at Chromatix, we’re prepared for this update and ready to explore the world of possibilities Gutenberg will open – but what does this mean for you?

What can you do with Gutenberg?

It is here to change the way you update your website content. Upon logging into the WordPress backend, you will be presented with the Gutenberg editor, an interface that offers plenty more options than the classic editor interface you’re familiar with. This editor will allow you more freedom to create and organise content and multimedia with a pre-built structural block system. We’ve listed below some of the great features that you’ll notice most with this editor.

Block style layouts – Custom posts and pages can be created with the new block-style system. Your written content, images, videos, lists and buttons have been re-organised into blocks for you to pick and choose to customise fresh content. You can now create modules in an organised grid-like layout much like you would when building with lego pieces. With so many possible variations, each module and page can end up looking quite unique! The block system will empower you to edit and update your website with ease without the need of plug-ins.

Backend previews – One of the biggest benefits of Gutenberg is that your backend will look a lot more like what you’re going to see on your published live site – so you no longer have to hit the Preview button and jump to a separate tab in the worry that your changes have broken something on the page.

Alignment options – The most popular way to align content is the conventional (yet dated) align left, center and right. Taken from the early days of digital when writing in word doc, this method has now been surpassed by the new visual editor in Gutenberg which instead focuses on optimising layout through screen sizes. Instead of the original cookie-cutter approach, you can now create true responsive/adaptive layouts that function seamlessly from full-width desktops to a variety of mobile devices.

When is it available?

The Gutenberg extension is currently available as a plug-in for those ready to make the move and trial the new features. The official mandatory roll-out will be included with WordPress 5.0 theme as a default and will be officially launched on November 19th 2018.

How we can help?

With Gutenberg set to become a necessary update in the near future, we’re here to inform you and help take action to ensure your website keeps tracking smoothly, despite the backend changes. As with all updates, your current plugins may not always integrate well and may break your current WordPress website design when implemented. If you’re unsure about this process, we are here to ensure smooth transitions as technology keeps innovating. Our in-house developers are geared up to assist you with any Gutenberg or WordPress  queries. Give us a call today on (03) 9912 6403 and our friendly team can chat to you about maintaining and backing up your website and installing the Gutenberg plug-in.

Our heart is not to scare or charge our clients but to be proactive, inform and educate, to keep ahead of the curb and avoid any unnecessary costs that come from hacking, update breaks or out-of-date plug-ins. If you know what you’re doing and you don’t need risk mitigation, still feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions – we’re always happy to lend a hand.