Gutenberg

Description

Gutenberg is more than an editor. While the editor is the focus right now, the project will ultimately impact the entire publishing experience including customisation (the next focus area).

Discover more about the project.

Editing focus

The editor will create a new page- and post-building experience that makes writing rich posts effortless, and has “blocks” to make it easy what today might take shortcodes, custom HTML, or “mystery meat” embed discovery. — Matt Mullenweg

One thing that sets WordPress apart from other systems is that it allows you to create as rich a post layout as you can imagine — but only if you know HTML and CSS and build your own custom theme. By thinking of the editor as a tool to let you write rich posts and create beautiful layouts, we can transform WordPress into something users love WordPress, as opposed something they pick it because it’s what everyone else uses.

Gutenberg looks at the editor as more than a content field, revisiting a layout that has been largely unchanged for almost a decade.This allows us to holistically design a modern editing experience and build a foundation for things to come.

Here’s why we’re looking at the whole editing screen, as opposed to just the content field:

  1. The block unifies multiple interfaces. If we add that on top of the existing interface, it would add complexity, as opposed to remove it.
  2. By revisiting the interface, we can modernise the writing, editing, and publishing experience, with usability and simplicity in mind, benefiting both new and casual users.
  3. When singular block interface takes centre stage, it demonstrates a clear path forward for developers to create premium blocks, superior to both shortcodes and widgets.
  4. Considering the whole interface lays a solid foundation for the next focus, full site customisation.
  5. Looking at the full editor screen also gives us the opportunity to drastically modernise the foundation, and take steps towards a more fluid and JavaScript powered future that fully leverages the WordPress REST API.

Blocks

Blocks are the unifying evolution of what is now covered, in different ways, by shortcodes, embeds, widgets, post formats, custom post types, theme options, meta-boxes, and other formatting elements. They embrace the breadth of functionality WordPress is capable of, with the clarity of a consistent user experience.

Imagine a custom “employee” block that a client can drag to an About page to automatically display a picture, name, and bio. A whole universe of plugins that all extend WordPress in the same way. Simplified menus and widgets. Users who can instantly understand and use WordPress — and 90% of plugins. This will allow you to easily compose beautiful posts like this example.

Check out the FAQ for answers to the most common questions about the project.

Compatibility

Posts are backwards compatible, and shortcodes will still work. We are continuously exploring how highly-tailored metaboxes can be accommodated, and are looking at solutions ranging from a plugin to disable Gutenberg to automatically detecting whether to load Gutenberg or not. While we want to make sure the new editing experience from writing to publishing is user-friendly, we’re committed to finding a good solution for highly-tailored existing sites.

The stages of Gutenberg

Gutenberg has three planned stages. The first, aimed for inclusion in WordPress 5.0, focuses on the post editing experience and the implementation of blocks. This initial phase focuses on a content-first approach. The use of blocks, as detailed above, allows you to focus on how your content will look without the distraction of other configuration options. This ultimately will help all users present their content in a way that is engaging, direct, and visual.

These foundational elements will pave the way for stages two and three, planned for the next year, to go beyond the post into page templates and ultimately, full site customisation.

Gutenberg is a big change, and there will be ways to ensure that existing functionality (like shortcodes and meta-boxes) continue to work while allowing developers the time and paths to transition effectively. Ultimately, it will open new opportunities for plugin and theme developers to better serve users through a more engaging and visual experience that takes advantage of a toolset supported by core.

Contributors

Gutenberg is built by many contributors and volunteers. Please see the full list in CONTRIBUTORS.md.

Experiments

New APIs

Various

Add knobs to the ColorIndicator Story.

Documentation

Blocks

This plugin provides 14 blocks.

core/archives
Gutenberg
core/rss
Gutenberg
core/legacy-widget
Gutenberg
core/social-link-
Gutenberg
core/categories
Gutenberg
core/block
Gutenberg
core/latest-comments
Gutenberg
core/search
Gutenberg
core/shortcode
Gutenberg
core/calendar
Gutenberg
core/tag-cloud
Gutenberg
core/site-title
Gutenberg
core/navigation-menu
Gutenberg
core/latest-posts
Gutenberg

FAQ

How can I send feedback or get help with a bug?

We’d love to hear your bug reports, feature suggestions and any other feedback! Please head over to the GitHub issues page to search for existing issues or open a new one. While we’ll try to triage issues reported here on the plugin forum, you’ll get a faster response (and reduce duplication of effort) by keeping everything centralised in the GitHub repository.

How can I contribute?

We’re calling this editor project “Gutenberg” because it’s a big undertaking. We are working on it every day in GitHub, and we’d love your help building it.You’re also welcome to give feedback, the easiest is to join us in our Slack channel, #core-editor.

See also CONTRIBUTING.md.

Where can I read more about Gutenberg?

Reviews

October 30, 2019
You have to try the plugin and become really aware of the advantages. Then you never want to see the classic editor again 😉
October 30, 2019
I have to say that I shared the other reviewers’ disappointment with Gutenberg Whether it’s changed enormously since launch I don’t know, but it’s actually fine, far more flexible and with far more features than Classic. We’re a busy news brand and it takes no longer than before to publish posts - and far more items like blockquotes, images inline and left and right are all quickly dealt with. Classic Editor can still be activated for those who have a learning curve and it can be pinned to their sign-on account. It’s just fine
October 30, 2019
It is a good new alternative for basic WYSIWYG or page-builders. It has many issues, but they seem to be fixing quickly.
October 29, 2019
I've been trying to use Gutenberg for several months now, giving it a chance and giving time for developers to improve it though it has made site content more difficult from the start. I try not to simply resist change though, so I continue to work with it. In the end, every time I need to do something, it makes it less intuitive, limits my creative options, and causes odd formatting errors on core page elements that shouldn't be affected at all. Sadly, after all this time, I can't tell that it's really improving. IMHO, it never should have been forced on users given the incredibly negative reviews. A good idea for the future of WP? Perhaps, but implemented before the execution of said idea was even remotely ready.
October 29, 2019
Gutenberg is the Future of WordPress. It’s certainly possible that those who dislike Gutenberg are more motivated to write a review, and hence the numbers may be skewed. However, an additional point of information is that the Classic Editor plugin, which switches the WordPress editor back to its previous form, has over 2 million installs. The Classic Editor plugin is not bundled with WordPress—it has to be deliberately installed. It may be possible to infer from this that around 2 million active users have, at least for now, decided against using Gutenberg. The most common complaints, as you read through reviews, can be summarized in these points: - Automatic rather than optional switch of editors - Breakages incompatibility with themes and plugins, or of existing workflows - Difficult to use, cumbersome - Not production-ready due to usability issues or bugs On the other hand, the most common points of praise are: - Easy to use - Non-developers can use it to create complex layouts - Makes WordPress more well-equipped for the future I'm so happy with Gutenberg. I’m most excited about the budding ecosystem of Gutenberg blocks and toolkits to help folks do even more with the new editor. What a time to be a WordPress developer!
Read all 2,925 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Gutenberg” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“Gutenberg” has been translated into 46 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Gutenberg” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Change log

Features

Enhancements

Bugs