What is Gutenberg Editor on WordPress? Pros and Cons explained

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        Jul 17, 2018




We all await the change WordPress is bringing to us with the Gutenberg Editor on WordPress! It is the new core element in WordPress.
“The goal of the block editor is to make adding rich content to WordPress simple and enjoyable.”
– From the Gutenberg plugin description on WordPress.org.

The latest version of WordPress has a visual editor that has been standard for years. Writers in today’s day and age expect a refreshing experience on the platform. This led to a team working behind the scenes to introduce something that every WordPress user wanted, a new editorial system – Gutenberg Editor. The goal was to make WordPress enjoyable and easy to use for everyone. A change like this was a long time called for and has many pros and cons. Let’s dive deeper to understand more about the Gutenberg editor.

What is the Gutenberg Editor?

Gutenberg is an editor for WordPress. It was named after Johannes Gutenberg, who was the inventor for printing press 500 years ago. Liked we mentioned earlier, the goal is to make WordPress a simple platform to use. The current platform requires us to use shortcodes and HTML to get work done. However, the internet has evolved from the time WordPress was created, which came with increased popularity for content block style of writing. Meanwhile, WordPress has come up with many visual editors like Elementor, Beaver Builder etc., but is now incorporating its own ‘content block’ editor soon in the name of Gutenberg. We can be fair and say that this software is still in the developing phase. The hype makes us all curious about what this change is all about.

Pros of Gutenberg Editor

  • This is mainly built to allow easy content blocks. It now allows theme developers to create easier paths for themes that support content blocks site. Unlike visual editors like Elementor or Beaver Builder, the Gutenberg Editor would support such layouts in a simple fashion. This will reduce site load timing by eliminating bulky content blocks.
  • Gutenberg Editor will encourage users who want to change themes. Themes like Divi have content block inbuilt which makes changing themes complicated. Themes that do not support content block will also be compatible with the Gutenberg editor without any changes. This means that a theme of your choice that doesn’t hold an option of a content builder will now offer one without any third party installations.
  • The other benefit is the compatibility it has for mobile devices. A lot of content block plugins don’t work well enough on devices. However, the Gutenberg editor throws an excellent technology for the desktop and devices. The same functionality and work are now supported on mobile devices as well.

Cons of Gutenberg Editor

  • WordPress has been perceived to be complicated for the beginners. The biggest drawback that could arise is the adaptivity to the change. The second issue is with certain plugins. Plugins use custom meta boxes that are not compatible with WordPress. Plugins like Yoast SEO take advantage of these meta boxes. However, the extended settings panel solves this issue for plugin designers, yet the large chunk of toggle boxes could make it difficult for users to look for the meta boxes they need.
  • Gutenberg is a major challenge for plugin developers. WordPress will offer a plugin to restore the previous version of the editor. But the rollout may not be smooth. This impacts the users as well as ratings for Gutenberg plugins which are 1 out of 5 stars. It also does not support responsive columns. To get the column feature, usually, we see people using visual builder plugins and short plugins. But it’s high time columns be integrated into the platform.

Gutenberg Editor – currently a Plugin

At this moment, Gutenberg Editor is only a Plugin to any WordPress site. One can download it from the WordPress Plugin Directory. It is updated on we weekly basis with additional features. This is in beta phase and needs to be used with care.

You can install it on the WordPress version 4.8 to use it. The latest version of Gutenberg Editor can be found on the WordPress dashboard in the tab “Add New” plugins. However, it is recommended to install this on a test site.

Conclusion

One of the bright sides of WordPress as a platform is that it is constantly evolving. WordPress focuses on sprucing up its main features.

The Gutenberg Editor feature is undoubtedly the most awaited. The WordPress development team has worked to give us a better experience with the platform making it simple and enjoyable. WordPress has released a beta version as a plugin for developers to test this. We are sure the final version will make lives of WordPress Hosting users far easier with a fresh experience!

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