Gutenberg Review

  • Romain

    (@rpetges2)


    7 years, 10 months ago

    Reading all the 1-star reviews are confusing me a lot. Many of these ‘reviews’ are just ‘Do not like’ comments, but no informational reviews.

    I use Gutenberg on my production site since version 1.0 and never really had a problem. My website is running on the Genesis framework and it works fine. I just use some self-developed custom plugins and custom code in functions.php.

    It took me about 15 minutes to get familiar with the concepts of Gutenberg and I agree that it’s not perfect. I’m missing for example the formatting for code sections in the toolbar and a much more flexible columns block …. but hey, it’s not the final release yet.

    Most of the testers probably did not notice that Gutenberg has an additional built-in HTML mode. By default, Gutenberg displays the block view of the editor. In the block view, you can even add a ‘Classic’ block and that’s an embedded, well known and loved TinyMCE … give it a try.

    For all the folks who love writing in pure HTML, just create a new Gutenberg page, enter the title and switch the whole page to HTML. To do so, click on the ‘More’ button ( upper right corner, just under the Welcome icon ) and select ‘Code Editor’. Maybe it would be a good idea in the future to add a syntax highlighter to the code editor.

    Once you wrote your HTML code, simply switch back to Visual Editor and you’ll notice that your content has been packaged in a Classic block. Now you can format your content as previously done in the Classic editor mode, just within a Gutenberg block. If you like, you can even convert this Classic block content into blocks.

    I don’t know if some kind of HowTo’s or tutorials exist on the WordPress site for Gutenberg. At least I did not see any and it may be a good idea to include some resources on the Gutenberg plugin site.

    I used the WordPress Gutenberg Guide ( CodeinWP website ) to introduce myself to Gutenberg.

    Gutenberg Plugin 3.5 has ben released and already includes a number of fixes for issues described in some reviews.

    Personally, I really like the concept and looking forward to WP 5.0

    • This topic was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by Romain.
    • This topic was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by Marius L. J..
    • This topic was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by Marius L. J.. Reason: Redacted link from review, per the forum guidelines
    • This topic was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by Romain.
    • This topic was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by Romain. Reason: Rephrase some sentences
Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • wickywills

    (@wickywills)

    7 years, 10 months ago

    I feel a series of short videos showing things you’re used to doing in the classic editor, and every-day tasks, but the Gutenberg way, would go a long way to preventing more 1-star reviews (my own included).

    irishetcher

    (@irishetcher)

    7 years, 10 months ago

    Hi @wickywills

    I notice that you changed your rating of the plugin down after seeing some of the pain points of not being able to work the same way as you can with the current editor.

    It’s funny, when I started using WordPress in 2009 I found the layout, TinyMCE and the general UX/UI a bit alien. Over the years I became so familiar with these that it has become like home, the only thing being TinyMCE needing some attention, especially in the text tab area. The years of development on the current backend interface has honed it to the point whereby it works rather well for almost any use case and workflow I have thrown at it. And this is where the change with Gutenberg is so painful for many of us. It doesn’t (and can’t be expected to at this early stage) to match the flexibility of the current editor in WordPress.

    To this end I am, over the next while, doing a thorough appraisal of Gutenberg. I can see already that there a number of simple things that could be done to make it whole lot more attractive and usable to more users. This would be an incorporation of the current editor with Gutenberg and the option to work any way you liked. And in addition, some extra functional enhancements, long needed in WordPress which would tie in with these proposals. I will post in the support forums when done.

    In the mean time, making Gutenberg default on only new installs, with the option to toggle on/off in the Writing settings is far better than having to use the Classic Editor switch plugin. It would quell a lot of the criticism.

    @rpetges2 The above addresses some of your points regarding the classic block.

    wickywills

    (@wickywills)

    7 years, 10 months ago

    @irishetcher My issue is that there are some very simple fixes that can make Gutenberg a whole lot better. Compatibility issues aside, there are just some basic UX changes that really need to be made. For a long time WordPress has prided itself on simplicity and being lightweight with a very low learning curve, but this I think may be too much of a change for a lot of people, and I honestly expect the WP user base to drop considerably over the next few months, which is a shame.

    I’m fully used to major system changes, having not too long ago made the switch from Magento 1 to 2. I use a wide variety of different CMS systems. I just don’t feel this is the right path for WP to take. Gutenberg should remain a plugin, and at best, be automatically included along with Akismet in WP installs, but still as a plugin. I might even install Gutenberg on a few sites, once it’s polished a bit, as I’m excited by the React stuff, but merging into core is just silly.

    Andrew Nevins

    (@anevins)

    WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support

    7 years, 10 months ago

    These are all great points @wickywills, @irishetcher, but they are derailing this review. This can be continued on either one of your own reviews.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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