WordPress Gutenberg Will Change Everything!

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WordPress Info

WordPress Gutenberg will change everything
by Peter La Fond

Posted on December 06, 2017

If you’re a WordPress website owner, don’t get caught off-guard. A major development is coming to the WordPress text editor, and now is the time to prepare. This disruption is called Gutenberg.  It’s WordPress’ most significant single change, ever. Not only will users need to learn the new Gutenberg interface to publish posts, but in all likelihood, a number of WordPress themes and plugins will need to be updated or replaced as a result of incompatibility issues.

What is WordPress Gutenberg?

In early 2017, the WordPress Foundation initiated a project to make the back-end text editor simpler to use and more capable. As anyone who uses the current WordPress text editor knows, the visual tab doesn’t come close to matching the ‘look-and-feel’ of what’s actually published on a WordPress web page. Gutenberg is the WordPress Foundation’s latest attempt to get what’s written in the text editor to look and feel as close as possible to what web visitors view.

When will the WordPress Gutenberg Project ‘Go Live’?

Gutenberg will be incorporated into the core software and be introduced for general use in WordPress version 5.0. As of this writing, the current release of WordPress is version 4.9.1. Yes, the software versions do tell the story… 5.0 is very close to being released.

Originally, Gutenberg in the WordPress core was slated to ‘go live’ (v5.0) in December, 2017. However, as a result of a dispute over Facebook’s control of React (a Javascript library for building user interfaces) and an under-estimation on how Gutenberg impacts themes and plugins, the release date is now pushed to April July Thanksgiving Week November 27th ??? 2018 (the release date continues to get pushed; currently, to an unknown date). 

Right now, a beta plugin version of Gutenberg can be downloaded from the WordPress repository. Considering that this is in beta and meant for testing, the plugin’s use is not recommended for public-facing production websites your business relies on.

Plan for a WordPress Gutenberg Rollout

Don’t Wait for a Website Crash

Not only will Gutenberg have a significant impact on post publishing, but because plugins and themes employ the current text editor for customized processes, Gutenberg may crash WordPress websites with incompatible software.

With WordPress powering 30% of the entire Web, tens of thousands of themes and plugins need to be redesigned for WordPress 5.0 compatibility. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough developers to fulfill such a task by the v5.0 release date. Users and owners of WordPress websites should only count on the most reputable themes and plugins to be Gutenberg-ready at release time.

Now is the time to inquire with your WordPress software manufacturer(s) about their Gutenberg rollout plan. If your vendors have no Gutenberg roadmap, then consider migrating to alternate vendors with “Gutenberg-compatible” software prior to the version 5.0 release.

Looking for a WordPress Gutenberg Demo?

The following video contains excerpts from WordCamp US 2017 conference (December 2, 2017). It begins with a backgrounder on Gutenberg’s development (1min.), followed by a 16-minute demo on how to publish a WordPress post using the Gutenberg interface.

 

 

Another WordPress Gutenberg tutorial…

Written by Peter La Fond

Having lived most of his life in Northern California, Peter consults for organizations of all sizes on Internet marketing engagement, strategy and execution. He regularly speaks on website design techniques and WordPress. Peter is a graduate from California State University, Sacramento, and practices the ancient art of eating sushi with nose-hair-curling wasabi.

About My Internet Scout

Based in Wilmington, North Carolina, My Internet Scout, LLC is an Internet Marketing firm for small- and medium- size businesses. We specialize in WordPress website design, marketing and related services that include e-commerce, event registration, maintenance, content creation and search engine optimization (SEO). We service a variety of clients across the United States.

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