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 customization (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 modernize the writing, editing, and publishing experience, with usability and simplicity in mind, benefitting both new and casual users.
  3. When singular block interface takes center 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 customization.
  5. Looking at the full editor screen also gives us the opportunity to drastically modernize 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 customization.

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.

Blocks

This plugin provides 14 blocks.

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

November 25, 2019
I love using this plugin. I'm using it on a site that with a free theme (anissa). The ability to select a style and format feature from a menu box is making me appear more creative that I really am! I've been able to improve the appearance of my website by leaps and bounds. It is frustrating to be unable to code the hard way or having to search for a plugin. Gutenberg eliminates a whole lot of that! Thank You!!!!
November 24, 2019
Despite of complete hate from some users I am actually surprised by how things are simplified and restraints are gone with each update. Yes the product is not in final state but the idea and flexibility promises big win. Current biggest problem I have is that you can't make add link to image in Media & Text block. There is now easy work around, but would prefer to have this feature added directly to Media & Text. Thank you, excited to see how Gutenberg evolves into standard.
November 21, 2019
This is horrible. Totally unusable. Not sure who is lining who's wallet. You can't do basic functions, like deleting many paragraphs at once by selecting all the text and hitting delete.
November 21, 2019
Fast and Efficient Way to Work on a Page. I am a long time user of wordpress and was using the classic editor at first. I have deactivated the classic editor now. Works well for me, I don't know html or php. Great. Thanks.
Read all 2,951 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.

Changelog

Features

Bugs

Enhancements

New APIs

Various

Experimental

Documentation