Gutenberg: a major change to WordPress coming soon

On the 19th November, WordPress is going to make a major change to how we interact with the world: the CMS is changing and will look and behave very differently. That matters because WordPress powers 30% of the entire internet.

What is the CMS?

The CMS or Content Management System is the part of the site in which I am typing this blog post. It is where we store our ideas and craft them with images and optimised text ready for a browser to present to the world.

What is Gutenberg changing?

Quite a lot. If you’re used to being able to type up and add things in the current (now called ‘classic’ which makes me feel even older) version of the CMS, then you are going to need to get used to some ways of doing things. On the upside, if you’re a blogger, then a lot of the things you want to do in a site build will become easier. You can insert blocks of text and images much more easily in the new version of the CMS, for example.

What can I do differently in Gutenberg?

Blocks are the  err… new building blocks for your WordPress site.

A lot of work that was done previously by hard-coding the site will now be something that you can choose to do visually using blocks.

Picture them as reusable templates of how to present information. Like a testimonial or a biography photo. Or buttons or shortcodes that you want to refer to elsewhere on the site.

Can I use the classic editor/CMS if I want to?

Yes. You’ll need to install it as a plug-in which a site administrator will easily be able to do. That’s bound to be pretty stable as a lot of people will opt for that choice and transition when they’ve been able to try Gutenberg in the background.

Doesn’t Gutenberg (the UI) look familiar?

To me, it looks very much like Grammarly. Simple white space where you can create and a sidebar in which to augment your copy into a web page.

What do I do if I have a corporate website built in WordPress?

We’d recommend getting to grips quickly with whether or not you are going to be using Gutenberg as of 19th November or sticking with the classic CMS. The latter should be more stable for now as it is established, but it also a plug in, so not nativer as it has been.

How does Gutenberg work with Yoast?

Yoast (SEO and language optimisation tool for WordPress sites) has been working incredibly hard to get ready for Gutenberg. We’ll blog about how to continue optimising in the new CMS as our next blog. They’ve blogged about the move to Gutenberg.

What’s next?

We’re going to rebuild this site (http://www.cmahost.com/sites/tbd) using blocks and talk and blog about it as we go – the challenges we face, what can be done differently and more easily as a result.

Any questions?

Please get in touch and we’ll help.