New WordPress Update December 6, 2018
This is a much-anticipated major update and it includes several enhancements, most notably a new visual editor called Gutenberg. The release date has been very fluid with the date pushed out a little more and a little more as developers worked to fix the reported software bugs. For instance, the update was supposed to be released the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, but because of the holiday, it was pushed out further. Many people were expecting Automattic (the company that develops WordPress) to push the release date into January.
However, I was very surprised to read yesterday that WordPress 5.0 with Gutenberg will be released tomorrow, perhaps in a lead up to this week’s keynote address at WordCamp US by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg.
Because this is a major update and the perceived issues with client confusion regarding Gutenberg, many developers will postpone the update until the New Year. Others are allowing their clients’ websites to update tomorrow, but without the Gutenberg Editor enabled.
Rather than
automatically rolling out all of my clients’ websites at once, I have
backed up everything on your website and I will manually install the
update on each website over the next few days, individually ensuring
that the update runs smoothly.
For those of you
who do not log into your website to update the content, all of this is
just academic. But for those of you who do update your own content,
Gutenberg will take some getting used to.
For this reason, I will install the WordPress update without initially enabling Gutenberg. Unless you advise me otherwise, I will plan to enable the new editor in January. But before that, I’ll email some links to some introductory videos so you’ll have an idea of what to expect.
Note: You do have the option to not install the Gutenberg Editor. I believe that Automattic is planning to continue to support the Classic Editor “for many years to come“. Please let me know if you do not want Gutenberg installed. However, I recommend that you try the new Editor at some point. After getting past the learning curve, I think you’ll find an easier editing experience.
I’m sorry to have taken so much of your time. I will keep you updated on the WordPress 5.0 rollout.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
In the meantime, here is a good preview of Gutenberg.