The first major change to WordPress’s visual content editor in years; Gutenberg. This will be designed to take over from the TinyMCE editor. Named after the inventor of the printing press: Johannes Gutenberg which will be implemented in WordPress version 5.0.
WordPress’s aim with Gutenberg has been to simplify content creation. With a more responsive visual editor; Gutenberg aims to target even the most inexperienced web users, with a more user-friendly layout.
What do the new changes mean for your website?
The fundamental idea behind Gutenberg, is to simplify web development, through the integration of a more consistent block design. Going forward it will be possible for different types of content can be easily displayed without the use of plugins, custom fields or HTML. Suiting even the most novice of WordPress users.
Instead, each piece of content, whether that be an image, video or other embedded media, will be contained within its own block. Meaning, any changes made to one block, will not affect other blocks. This allows for users to switch between themes and designs effortlessly, without affecting the layout of their content.
Gutenberg has also introduced some new alignment options, creating a more adaptable web design. Users will be able to now align their content to suit larger and full-width screens. Whereas previously they were restricted to just left, right and centre alignment options.
Are there any drawbacks to Gutenberg?
Whilst its received a generally positive reception, some users have voiced their concerns about the new ‘block-style’ editor, with many afraid that WordPress websites across the internet will now be at risk of looking the same. Though it will prove to be a lot of work for web developers during the initial stages of Gutenberg. However, at this moment, the update does not offer responsive columns. Although WordPress has mentioned that this will be introduced further along.
What to make of Gutenberg
WordPress has clearly stated that their goal with Gutenberg was to allow anyone, no matter of experience or skill-level, the freedom to create “rich post layouts,” (https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/handbook/reference/faq/) whilst simplifying the content creation process for these users.
There may be some initial hiccups for existing WordPress users. This means only a small percentage of users will need extra work. Even so, WordPress is the most popular website builder; so there’s no doubt that developers will quickly be on the case to fix these initial problems.
