The Classic Editor Will Be Supported Until 2021

What was announced

On Wednesday, WordPress said the Classic Editor plugin will be officially supported until December 31, 2021.

WordPress 5.0, the next major version, will make the new block editor, developed under the name Gutenberg, the default way to write posts and pages. Its timing has shifted during the year and is not settled yet.

The Classic Editor plugin keeps the editing screen sites use today. Supported, WordPress says, means it will work as expected in the latest major version and the one before it.

It also said it will look again at the plugin's future in 2021, based on how many sites still use it.

Who needs the plugin

Most sites will be able to use the block editor eventually. The question is whether yours can on the day the update lands on it.

• Custom fields a developer added for prices, specifications or locations.
• A page builder whose maker has not confirmed it works with 5.0.
• Plugins that add boxes or buttons to the editing screen.
• Old content full of shortcodes from themes and plugins.
• Staff trained on the current screen, with no time to relearn before spring.

The first is the one owners rarely know about. A developer may have added boxes for the details on each service page, and whether they behave in the block editor depends on how they were built.

What supported until 2021 means

It means the plugin will be kept working with new versions of WordPress for roughly three more years. It is a promise about maintenance, not a promise that nothing will change.

Themes and plugins will increasingly be written with the block editor in mind, and some new features may appear only there. A site that stays on the classic screen will gradually miss out.

And the end date is real. The longer a site waits, the larger the change will be when it comes.

A breathing space, not a reason never to change

The useful way to read the date is as a deadline for a planned move, with time to do it carefully.

That might mean testing the block editor on a copy of the site next year, rebuilding custom fields so they work in it, and training whoever edits the site before switching over.

Or it might mean timing the change to a redesign already planned for 2019 or 2020, so the site is built for the block editor from the start.

What it should not mean is installing the plugin and forgetting it until the last month of 2021.

Before the update reaches your site

By default, WordPress installs minor releases by itself but waits for someone to click before a major version such as 5.0. Some hosts update major versions for their customers anyway, so ask yours.

If the site is not ready, install the Classic Editor plugin first. With it active, the editing screen stays as it is through the update.

Take a full backup, and try the update on a staging copy, a private copy of the site that visitors never see, before the live one.

A worked example

A document shredding company has a WordPress site with a page for each service, from regular office pickups to one-off purges and drop-off days for households, and a quote form on every page.

Its developer built the service pages with custom boxes for bin sizes, service areas and pickup days, which the office manager fills in whenever anything changes.

In August she used the dashboard's Try Gutenberg panel to install and activate the new editor. The service pages opened in an unfamiliar screen, the custom boxes had moved, and she could not tell whether changes had saved.

She switched it off again. This week the plan was settled: the Classic Editor plugin on the live site before the update, and a staging copy where the developer tests the new version against the custom boxes.

The office manager will practise on the copy over the winter, and the switch is planned for the spring.

Testing on a copy first

A useful test follows what the people who edit the site actually do: change a price on a service page, add a photograph, write and publish a post, and edit an old one.

Check every kind of page, not just one. A home page built with a page builder can behave quite differently from an ordinary blog post.

Then check what visitors see. Pages edited in the new screen should look the same on the site, and that is worth confirming before anything goes live.

The people who edit the site

The block editor is a different way of working. Each paragraph, image and heading becomes a block with its own settings, and the familiar toolbar is spread around the screen.

Somebody who updates the site once a month will find that harder than a developer would. An hour of practice on the staging copy, before the switch, saves a panicked phone call later.

A one-page note of the common tasks in the new editor, with screenshots, helps whoever edits the site next.

Old content in the block editor

Existing posts and pages open in the block editor as a single classic block, and they display as before. Nothing has to be converted on the day.

Converting older pages into blocks is optional and can happen gradually, starting with the pages that change most often.

Shortcodes from old themes and plugins still need those plugins to work. If a plugin has gone, its brackets show in either editor.

The counter-case

A simple site with ordinary pages and posts, no page builder and no custom boxes, may be fine with the block editor from the start, once it has been tried on a copy.

A site due to be rebuilt next year may sensibly stay on the classic screen until then, and be built for the block editor in the rebuild.

For every site the advice is the same: use the support window to plan and test the change, not to avoid it.

Before 5.0 reaches your site

1. Ask your host whether it updates major versions.
2. List custom boxes and page builders on the site.
3. Install the Classic Editor if anything is uncertain.
4. Take a full backup before updating.
5. Test 5.0 on a staging copy first.
6. Train whoever edits the site on the copy.
7. Set a date for switching to the block editor.

Step seven turns the support window into a plan. Without a date, the plugin becomes permanent, and the change arrives all at once in 2021 instead of in a quiet month of your choosing.

Another clean-up worth trying on a staging copy first is covered in hard-coded links to the old domain.

Frequently asked questions

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