If you are using WordPress 5.0 and up, if you haven’t lived under a rock, you have no doubt heard about the Gutenberg update that was merged with WordPress in December 2018.
So, if you are using the latest version of WP, you are either already using Gutenberg or continue using the classic editor by installing the plugins/classic-editor/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>WordPress Classic Editor plugin
Why Gutenberg?
Why Gutenberg?
Many WP users aren’t ready to jump on Gutenberg’s cart, but some are, including this site.
Several reasons you might want to use Gutenberg are as follows:
- This is the future for WP developers.
- Provides a better user experience.
- More flexible than the original WP editor (TinyMCE).
- Provides a new market for developers.
What’s the difference between WordPress and Gutenberg?
What are the differences between WordPress and Gutenberg?
WP Classic Editor is a text editor very similar to Microsoft Word. It has one edit box as shown in the screenshot below.
Gutenberg is a block editor that looks like this:
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There are several blocks for different types of content, which include their own formatting options. Blocks such as:
- Button
- Image
- Table
- Embeds
- List
- Gallery
- Audio
- Quotes
- Title
- Code
- Verse
- Custom HTML
In addition, themes and plugins offer more blocks and widgets to use in your WP posts and pages.
How does this affect existing pages or posts?
How are existing pages or posts affected?
After updating and using Gutenberg, your existing pages and posts should continue to display correctly.
However, you should check your shortcodes and make sure the plugins you can use are working.
When you edit an existing page or post, it automatically opens in one new classic Gutenberg editor block.
Ready to make the transition?
Use a staging site
Use a staging site
The last thing you need to do is break your existing site. The way to avoid this is to activate Gutenberg on the staging site. This is an exact copy of your website, where you can test everything without causing any damage to your live website.
Test sites have your theme, plugins, options, and content. Your hosting company may offer staging sites. If not, you can use the WordPress Staging plugin
After your staging site is up and running, install and activate the Gutenberg plugin and start testing. Or install a new WordPress instance on your computer and test it.
Check your plugins
Check Plug-ins
WordPress users are familiar with what happens when plugins don’t work well together. Sometimes this is due to functionality or conflicting code. This is a great time to check if you are using all installed plugins If not, remove them.
You also want to know what plugins are used when you edit content in WordPress. Specific plugins like Akismet, Contact Form 7, Google Sitemap Generator and WP Super Cache have nothing to do with the editor and are not affected by using Gutenberg.
On the other hand, any plugin that adds functionality or changes the look and feel of the classic WP editor might be incompatible with Gutenberg. In particular, plugins that generate shortcodes, add custom styles, or have not been updated recently tend to conflict and cause problems.
Gutenberg used to have an active plugin compatibility database. However, it has been closed as it is no longer supported.
You can preview the final data and download the database as a CSV file. Without access to an active plugin compatibility database, you will have to manually test every plugin you use.
Try creating a new post on your test site. You will see that you are in the Gutenberg editor and it will look different to you. When you start typing, you automatically create a paragraph block. You don’t need to add a new block when adding a new paragraph. Just hit the enter key or the return key.
Since you are trying to test if your current plugins will work, try to recreate how you used each one and see if it still works.
If not, look for the same functionality in the default Gutenberg block, add that block and add your content.
Be sure to keep a list of the plugins that are not working correctly so that they can be removed when run from Gutenberg.
What if there is no default block for the functionality you need?
What if there isn’t a default ban for the job you need?
Check all blocks to make sure the functionality you want is inside another block. If you can’t find something that will work, you can contact the authors of the plugin and ask them if they plan to update it for Gutenberg compatibility.
If all else fails, try to find a Gutenberg plugin that does what you need. Remove plugins from the test site that are not working.
Introduction
Live Streaming
Before doing anything with your live site, make a full site-wide backup in case you missed something in the compatibility check or another error occurs.
You can make any necessary changes to your test site and submit them to your live site. However, this requires some technical knowledge. So, if you are not a developer or don’t have the right developer for you, it’s better to make the changes manually.
Start by removing the plugins that don’t work and adding new ones you find to replace them. If the old plugins process data for existing posts and pages and do not disrupt new ones, you can leave them installed.
Want to convert old posts and pages to Gutenberg blocks?
Want to convert your old posts and pages into Gutenberg blocks?
Open each page and post from the classic block menu. Click three dots to view options. Select Convert to Blocks from the drop-down menu.
After WP converts your content to the Gutenberg block system, you must go through each block. Use block navigation (with icons) to see all parts of your post or page.
As you can see in the screenshot above, each paragraph, image, list and heading are now in a separate block. Converting existing pages and posts to the new Gutenberg system is quick and easy.
It can take hours to test your plugins and find new ones, but you only need to do this once. Make sure you follow the steps above so that your transition to Gutenberg is painless and error-free.
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