The Try Gutenberg Button

A new panel on the dashboard

WordPress 4.9.8 came out yesterday. It is a maintenance release, so most sites install it by themselves, and many already have.

One change is hard to miss. Administrators now find a large panel at the top of the dashboard announcing that a new, modern publishing experience is coming soon.

It invites them to try Gutenberg, the new editor planned for WordPress 5.0, with a big blue button. A second column offers to keep the current editor instead.

On a test site, that button is exactly what it is there for. On the site your business runs on, it is worth knowing what happens next.

What the buttons do

• Install Gutenberg downloads the plugin onto the site, from the dashboard.
• Activate Gutenberg switches it on and opens a demonstration post in it.
• Try Gutenberg appears once it is active, for anyone who can write posts.
• Install the Classic Editor adds the plugin that keeps the current editor.
• Dismiss hides the panel, for that user only.

The second is the one that matters. Installing changes nothing anyone sees, but activating changes the editor at once for every person who edits posts and pages.

What changes when it is active

With the plugin active, posts and pages open in the new editor by default. The old one is still there, behind a Classic Editor link under each post in the list, but few people know to look.

Content is built from blocks: a paragraph, a heading, an image, each a separate piece. Existing pages open as one large classic block until someone converts them.

Pages made with a page builder may open as a long run of shortcodes, the bracketed codes the builder stores, instead of the builder's own screen.

Plugins that put their own panels on the editing screen, for search titles, custom fields, events or bookings, may work, work partly, or send the page back to the old editor.

Why not on the live site

The plugin is a test version of software still being built, and the panel says as much. New versions arrive every couple of weeks, each changing how things behave.

On a live site, the testers are whoever happens to be editing that day, on real pages, against a deadline.

Saving in the new editor can also change how a page is stored. Pages converted to blocks carry small markers, which show up as stray text in the old editor's text view if the plugin is switched off.

Try it on a copy instead

The right place to try Gutenberg is a staging site: a private copy of your site, identical in theme, plugins and content, that visitors never see.

Install the plugin there and edit real pages the way your staff do: a news post, a gallery, the page built with your page builder, anything with a form.

Note what works, what looks different and what will not open properly. That list is the real preparation for WordPress 5.0.

Before the new editor becomes the default

The panel says plainly that the new editor will be switched on by default in the next major release. No date has been set.

Before then, check the theme, the page builder and what its maker says about the new editor, every plugin that adds a box to the editing screen, and any custom fields the site relies on.

Then decide, for each kind of content, whether it moves or waits. The Classic Editor plugin, offered in the panel, keeps the current editor for sites that need more time.

A worked example

A gymnastics club runs its site on WordPress. The office manager posts class schedules and registration dates, and two coaches post competition results. All three have administrator accounts.

Yesterday afternoon the site updated itself to 4.9.8. A coach logged in that evening to post weekend results, saw the panel, and clicked through: install, then activate.

This morning the office manager opened the fall schedule page to change a date. Built with a page builder, it opened as a wall of bracketed codes in an editor she had never seen.

She phoned the company that maintains the site before saving anything. They deactivated the plugin and checked the one results post saved in the new editor, which was intact.

The coaches' accounts became editors, who can publish but not install plugins, so the panel no longer appears for them. A staging copy for testing is on the autumn's list.

Who can click it on your site

While the plugin is inactive, the panel appears only to people who can install plugins, which on most sites means administrators.

On many small business sites, everyone with a login is an administrator, because that was the easiest choice when the accounts were made.

This is a good week to look under Users. Staff who write posts need the Author or Editor role; only the people responsible for the site need to be administrators.

If someone has already clicked

Nothing is lost. Deactivate Gutenberg on the Plugins screen, and the old editor returns.

Then check every post or page edited while it was active, both in the editor and on the site, for stray code and changed layouts.

Tell whoever maintains the site, so they can decide whether to delete the plugin or keep it for a planned test.

The counter-case

A simple site with plain pages, a standard theme and few plugins may find the new editor works well, and its staff may like it.

A site due to be rebuilt can plan the new build around blocks from the start. Even then, the first try belongs on a copy, where a problem costs nothing.

For every live site: dismiss the panel, test on a staging copy, and make the decision before WordPress 5.0 makes it for you.

This week

1. Check the site is on 4.9.8.
2. Dismiss the panel on the live site.
3. Review user roles and administrator accounts.
4. Set up a staging copy of the site.
5. Try Gutenberg there on real pages.
6. List what breaks or looks different.
7. Decide the plan before WordPress 5.0.

Step four makes every other step safe. A copy of the site is where the new editor can be clicked, broken and judged without a single customer seeing the result.

Settings that look harmless but reach every customer are covered in server time zones and booking times.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.