In my last update, I addressed the number one question I’ve heard about Gutenberg: Will Gutenberg break my website?
If you haven’t seen that video, I encourage you to take some time to watch it. I demonstrate some of the problems that might occur with specific themes and plugins. I also show you a few workarounds for those problems.
Today I want to address the second biggest concern about Gutenberg.
Lots of people are worried that Gutenberg will render their existing WordPress experience irrelevant.
I’m happy to inform you that you will NOT have to learn WordPress all over again.
Gutenberg’s features are limited to one area of WordPress: The screen where you compose posts and pages. That’s it. The rest of WordPress is unchanged.
Gutenberg represents a BIG change in the way you create WordPress content. It’s also a change that creates potential compatibility issues with specific themes and plugins. That’s why I’m encouraging everyone to get some hands-on experience with Gutenberg on a test website — preferably before Gutenberg is released.
BUT, Gutenberg is not such a significant change that you will need to re-learn everything you know about WordPress.
The vast majority of your WordPress knowledge is still valid! Take a look at all of the WordPress features that remain unchanged by the Gutenberg update:
- The WordPress Theme Customizer continues to work as expected. And themes, in general, are mostly unaffected, except for some page-builder style themes like Avada and Divi.
- Widgets and sidebars are unchanged. Some widgets even work inside of a Gutenberg block. That makes widgets more versatile than ever. I expect we’ll see many plugins take advantage of this new capability once Gutenberg officially launches.
- Most plugins continue to work as they always have. Of course, plugins that modify the classic post editor are going to need an update. If you rely on one of those plugins, be sure to check for a Gutenberg compatible update.
- All of the standard tools for organizing your content are unchanged. That includes custom menus, categories, and tags. All are untouched by Gutenberg.
- Site settings are also unchanged (for better or worse).
The WordPress Essentials course now includes a Gutenberg Essentials bonus course. Existing members get the update for free automatically. So, not only do you not have to re-learn WordPress, you won’t need to re-purchase the WordPress Essentials course.