When the WordPress block editor, or Gutenberg, launched in December 2018 , we didn’t know what to expect. We’d certainly had plenty of time to play around with its beta version, but we couldn’t predict how well the actual launch would go or how eager users and developers would be to adopt the new editor.
We’ve seen the Gutenberg editor grow hong kong email list tremendously in the two-plus years since we first published this post. It’s gone from a minimum viable product (MVP) to a more mature project that’s getting closer to the goal of creating a unified Full Site Editing experience for WordPress.
To explain these changes, we’ve gone through the Gutenberg editor to walk you through its new look, including where it’s going next.
What is the Gutenberg Block Editor?
Gutenberg, alternatively known as the “WordPress block editor” or simply the “WordPress editor”, is the WordPress content editor introduced in WordPress 5.0 , released on December 6, 2018.
If you haven’t heard that term, it’s the Diving Deeper default editor that all WordPress sites use unless you’ve specifically disabled it. It looks something like this:
The big difference between the WordPress Gutenberg editor and the previous WordPress editor (now called the “classic editor” or “TinyMCE editor”) is a new block-based approach to creating content.
With Gutenberg, every element of your content is a block, making it easy to manipulate your content. Every paragraph is a block, every image is a block, every button is a block… you get the idea!
Third-party developers can also create custom blocks, which is helping to do away with the WordPress issue with shortcodes . Let’s say you want to embed a contact form . Instead of having to add a shortcode (e.g., `[your-form-shortcode]`) like you did before, you can now simply drop in the block from your form plugin.
Additionally, you can also use blocks to create more complex layouts, such as setting up a multi-column layout or grouping blocks together The Ultimate Guide to WordPress User Roles and Capabilities to create a cohesive section.
As we dive deeper into showing you how to use the block editor, you’ll get a better idea of how you can use blocks to improve the way you create content.
Gutenberg is not just a content editor
One important thing to understand is that Project Gutenberg aims to be more than just a content editor.
As of July 2021, Gutenberg is still just a content editor (for the most part). But Gutenberg’s long-term goal is to move towards Diving Deeper something called Full Site Editing .
The idea with Full Site Editing is that burkina faso business directory you’ll be able to design 100% of your website using the Gutenberg editor. For example, instead of being limited to the header options that come with your WordPress theme , you’ll be able to use Gutenberg to design custom headers using the block editor.
This type of functionality is not yet available, but it is on the way, and we have some “proof of concept” projects that we will take a look at at the end of this post.
Advantages and disadvantages of Gutenberg compared to popular alternatives
Now that we’ve been using the WordPress block editor for over two years, we have a good idea of some of the pros and cons of Gutenberg versus other solutions.
