What is Gutenberg?
WordPress 5.0 was released in December 2018. As part of the biggest update since 2014, the new “block editor” – code name Gutenberg – was delivered as part of the core system. With the introduction of the new editor, a greater focus was placed on improvements to editorial workflows as well as massively improved opportunities to create rich, multimedia content.
Instead of working with the former “rich text editor”, users can now create pages and posts using pre-defined content blocks, with no need to understand or use HTML.
In the simplest scenario, you can write a text-based blog post or page content as before, without manually adding blocks. If you want to add a picture or a video, for example, you can now insert the relevant “block” in the required place.
Is my website supported?
If you already have a WordPress website, the chances are high that you can already use Gutenberg. Many of the free themes in the WordPress Theme Repository support Gutenberg with no changes required. Custom-built themes may need to be extended with additional CSS rules, so that the new layout options are correctly displayed.
The technology behind Gutenberg allows you to create content using a range of content blocks, and delivers sufficient CSS to ensure that the basic layouts behind each block are correctly styled.
The output of the website is now (in most cases) pre-rendered for your visitors, so using the new editor will have positive effects for the performance of your website.
Our projects are, whenever required, delivered with complete Gutenberg compatibility.
Useful links
Do you have a website which is relevant to the Gutenberg editor? Get in touch and we’d love to take a look at it!
- Preview of the new editor (wordpress.org, DE)
- Block Editor Handbook (wordpress.org, EN)
- Developer Tutorials (wordpress.org, EN)
- Presentations about Gutenberg on WordPress.tv (wordpress.tv)
Embed rich content from other channels
It’s been possible to embed content from other websites like YouTube via URL since 2009. WordPress uses a technology called oEmbed to achieve this, converting URLs automatically into HTML snippets. This means that users haven’t had to copy and paste HTML between sites for around a decade.
The Gutenberg approach is even easier. Instead of adding the URL to a rich text field, you can use an “embed block” for the appropriate service. There are currently more than 30 blocks for a wide range of third-party services. You can even embed content from other parts of your own WordPress website or from other WordPress websites in this way.
Embed blocks in the Gutenberg Editor
Amazon Kindle, Animoto, Cloudup, CollegeHumor, Crowdsignal, Dailymotion, Facebook, Flickr, Hulu, Imgur, Instagram, Issuu, Kickstarter, Meetup.com, Mixcloud, Reddit, ReverbNation, Screencast, Scribd, Slideshare, SmugMug, SoundCloud, Speaker Deck, Spotify, TED, Tumblr, Twitter, VideoPress, Vimeo, WordPress, WordPress.tv, YouTube
Fast
The page content usually doesn’t need to be generated when a page is requested; Gutenberg pre-generates the content. This makes your website much faster than when using most plugin-based page builder solutions.
Easy
You create your own content using the wide range of pre-defined blocks, using simple editorial fields and a live content preview, even before you publish. No HTML knowledge required!
Extensible
You need a new content block for your website, to present a specific piece of content just how you’d like? No problem – we can provide you with custom blocks as part of a WordPress Theme or as a standalone plugin for your existing site.