Gutenberg Vs. Classic Editor
Alright everyone, it’s time to welcome a new kid on the block. Reputation precedes it and we’ve all heard stories about it. Many of the comments have not been so flattering, but everyone deserves a shot, don’t they? Let’s see just what the deal with Gutenberg is and how it differs from the Classic Editor. Grab your seats, it’s time for the Gutenberg Vs. Classic Editor standoff.
What Is Gutenberg?
On December 6, 2018 the new WordPress 5.0 was released, and this version came with some pretty big changes. The largest one that sparked a lot of debate is definitely the introduction of Gutenberg, the new WordPress editor.
The main goal of the new editor is to make content creation a bit easier for everyone, especially for new users. The way you make posts, pages, and everything else for your website has undergone an immense change. However, there is also another reason as to why the classic editor has been replaced.
Many WordPress users have complained that the classic editor has become outdated, and therefore have switched to other, more intuitive website builders. Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify, are some of the platforms that have gained a lot of popularity over the last few years. It’s important to note that people have also started to widely use drag-and-drop WordPress page builder plugins, such as Elementor and Divi. All these factors combined have prompted WordPress executives to come up with a solution that will appeal to wider audiences. That’s how we’ve got Gutenberg, the block-based editor.
Understanding Gutenberg
Everything is in the form of blocks. This actually seems to be one of the main issues people have with the new editor, since you can’t just type in your content as you could in the Classic one.
Gutenberg essentially borrows some of the features from plugins such as Visual Composer and from the aforementioned Divi. It enables you to create rich content in WordPress even if you don’t know how to write HTML code, and is much closer to the WYSIWYG experience, as opposed to the Classic Editor. What’s also great about it is that it can actually help you reduce the number of plugins you might need for your website. For instance, you could do without plugins like image gallery, or the ones that require contact form or table functionality, as Gutenberg offers them all.
Gutenberg editor
Once you switch to Gutenberg, you’ll see that the content you’ve created in the Classic Editor is now in a block named ‘’Classic’’. When you start creating new posts, you’ll notice that this editor offers you a lot more writing space as opposed to its predecessor. This is especially noticeable on smaller devices, like smartphones, tablets, and even laptops. You can have even more writing space, by hiding the right sidebar. To do that, just click on the Post Settings icon.
Classic Editor
Creating New Content
To add new content block to your post, just click the ‘’+’’ icon in the top left corner. Here you can add new paragraph, quote, audio, video, table, and more. There’s also a widget block that lets you place all kinds of features directly onto pages and posts.
Some users, however, may find this annoying since every time you wish to add new content, you have to make sure that it resides in its own block. What can also be frustrating is that Gutenberg doesn’t let you edit just some parts of a block, but it rather applies the chosen style to an entire block.
In Gutenberg, you can choose between two settings – Document and Block. The document one shows you the usual publishing settings (such as categories, tags, etc…) whereas the block section displays settings for the specific block area you’ve selected.
Among the cool features are definitely the Slash Autocomplete feature (available in Gutenberg 1.1.0 and later versions) and anchors. The first one reduces time and clicks needed for the creation of the new block. Simply press ‘’/’’ (slash key) to select one of the autocomplete options. The latter option enables you to link directly to a certain section in the content you’re working on.
Can I go back to Classic editor?
It’s quite possible that many users won’t be too thrilled about using Gutenberg, especially if they are not new to WordPress. After all, everyone got so used to the Classic editor, that they might not welcome the new guy with open arms. For now, you actually have the option to switch back to the Classic editor. To do that, simply install the ‘’Classic Editor’’ plugin, which will be available all the way through 2021.
Compatibility Issues
One of the biggest concerns users are dealing with is a lack in the backward compatibility. This will have a huge impact on plugins and themes that are currently used, in particular those that require integration with TinyMCE. You have to update both plugins and themes to make sure they are fully compatible with Gutenberg.
Conclusion
Without a doubt, Gutenberg represents one of the biggest changes WordPress has ever introduced us with. So far, it has caused mixed reactions, and this editor has a long way to go, but overall, we’re quite excited to see just how big of an impact it will have on WP users and content creation. There’s room for improvement, especially with regards to the backward compatibility, but let’s give it a benefit of the doubt. We should try to be patient with the newcomer, as it definitely has a lot to offer!
We hope this article was helpful. If you liked it, feel free to check out some of these articles as well!
