Gutenberg is the project name for the new WordPress block editor, which replaced the WordPress TinyMCE editor as the default WordPress editor in WordPress 5.0.
While Gutenberg was the official name while the editor was under development, it’s now just “the WordPress block editor” or “the WordPress editor” because it’s officially part of the core software. As such, you’ll often see me refer to it as the “block editor” in this post, rather than “Gutenberg”.
The truth is, while there are a lot of little changes, the overall blogging experience will be very similar to what you’re used to!
You have nothing to fear. The editor changes will be a good thing in time.
- With the WordPress 5.0 update–the Gutenberg editor will be the DEFAULT editor.
But good news, you can continue to use the old editor. It will be available via a WordPress plugin aptly named “Classic Editor.”
Let’s first compare and understand the differences between Gutenberg Block Editor and the Classic Editor.
They are two completely different editors for creating content in WordPress.
The old classic editor was a text editor with formatting buttons very similar to Microsoft Word.
The new editor uses a totally different approach, called ‘Blocks’ (hence, the name Block Editor).
Blocks are content elements that you add to the edit screen to create content layouts. Each item you add to your post or page is a block.
You can add blocks for each paragraph, images, videos, galleries, audio, lists, and more. There are blocks for all common content elements and more can be added by WordPress plugins.
Each paragraph is a separate block
An image is a separate block
A quote is a separate block
An embedded video is a separate block
Everything that you might possibly use is its own block
There is a block for everything in the new editor — paragraph, heading, subheading, column, list, image, gallery, cover image, quote, video, audio, file, code, button, embeds and more. These blocks will help you create media-rich posts and pages without much technical knowledge. Anything you want to add to your posts/pages, is just a click away with a block.
Gutenberg block editor is poised to eliminate the need for page builders for most “standard” content, and it also creates a single unified method for creating more complex post layouts in WordPress.
But when it comes to building more complex pages, like a landing page, you’re probably going to appreciate the greater flexibility offered by page builders (at least during Gutenberg’s initial release).
WordPress 4.9.4 has an improved Customiser workflow with design drafts, locking, scheduling, and preview links. What’s more, code syntax highlighting and error checking will make for a clean and smooth site building experience. Finally, if all that wasn’t pretty great, they’ve got a great new Gallery widget and improvements to theme browsing and switching.
WordPress Training Scotland 