Gutenberg WordPress Editor – 8 Pros and 7 Cons

Posted on May 17, 2019 in Uncategorized

Here is my review of the new WordPress editor, Gutenberg.

Will be interested to hear your views…

Many ‘Positives’

  • Overall, greater range of content possible, and easy to set up
  • Particularly good for images: lots of different options re size, background etc. 
  • Good visual impact also, with lots of styling options: text colours, background colour, drop caps etc.
  • Wider range of formats possible beyond just text, e.g. tables and columns
  • Flexible and quite good fun to use
  • Works well on mobile (apparently)
  • Smooth insertion of Social Media and other links – Slideshare, YouTube, etc.
  • Can revert to Classic Editor (plugin available till 2022) – even for only one ‘block’.

… And also ‘Negatives’

  • Overall, for the first-timer in particular, WordPress no longer feels quite as easy to use as before (or as other software, e.g. Word).  Rather a headache when you get started.  Somewhat fiddly menus, etc. 
  • You could quickly waste a lot of time doing all the formatting – whereas using a page-builder theme would be a lot quicker
  • Two/three different menus, which isn’t neat; and Classic Editor has only an abbreviated menu
  • Occasional gremlins and some unusual features of questionable usage (e.g. Verse mode; Markdown)
  • You can’t format small passages of text without putting it first into a separate block – and you lose formatting if you cut and paste text from Word
  • Plugins, and themes from small companies, may not have been updated to work with Gutenberg
  • Rated poorly for people who are blind, visually impaired and dexterity impaired

You can see Gutenberg in action here

One other negative …

It is surprising that there isn’t a simple list of menu options for Gutenberg blocks …

So here is mine:

MOST USED – For example
Paragraph
Button
Heading
Quotes
Gallery
List
Short code
Pull quotes
Image

COMMON BLOCKS
(as above plus…)
Cover
File
Audio
Video

FORMATTING (inc.coding)
Pull quotes
<Code>
Table
Verse
<Syntax>
Classic (old editor)
Custom HTML
Preformatted

LAYOUT ELEMENTS (arrangement on page)
Button
Columns
Media and Text
Separator
More
Page break

WIDGETS
Short code
Categories
Latest posts
Archived
Latest comments

EMBEDS
Social media
Slideshare
Poll Daddy
YouTube
And many more

JET PACK
Map
Form
Related posts
Sub form
Tiled gallery

REUSABLE
Untitled reusable block

What do you think of Gutenberg?

Not just a Copywriter - Also a Writing Trainer.
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