THE MSHINI BLOG

 

WordPress Gutenberg – What you need to know

August 13, 2018

If you’ve updated WordPress recently, you’ve no doubt seen the prompt to give the new Gutenberg Layout Editor a trial run. Named after the printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg, WordPress aims to revolutionise online publication much like the linotype machine flipped the print publication industry on its head.

The Biggest Change

Rather than a simple visual editor with the option of more in-depth coding, the Gutenberg editor will now allow you to drag Blocks to add content within the page. These blocks will then designate an area within the page for a certain content type. Text, images, galleries, widgets, shortcodes, and even chunks of custom HTML will now be designated into blocks that are self-contained. No longer will you wonder why your images aren’t centring. The image code will be handled by its own block and will not be affected by other code fragments elsewhere in the text.

Each of these parts are self-contained blocks.

Why Blocks?

By shifting to this new interface, WordPress is aiming to make page creation a far more user-friendly experience, even for those web developers without an in-depth knowledge of HTML and CSS. Blocks will show changes in real-time, giving you a true What You See Is What You Get editor that will minimise the time it takes to draft, preview and publish your content.

Additionally, each block is self-contained. If you embed a video in a block with a faulty HTML tag, the tag will not break code further down the page. This will make troubleshooting coding errors far easier than what the Classic editor is capable of currently.

You can try it now

Gutenberg is available to try right now. Once you have installed the plugin, you can try all the available editor functions on a new or existing post. Currently, the function of backward-compatibility is still in the planning phase of Gutenberg’s development, so it’s a good idea to see if your existing themes and plugins will work with the new editor before the WordPress 5.0 update.

The Change is only there if you want it

WordPress is going to automatically update to Gutenberg in version 5.0 of WordPress, becoming the new default editor. However, if you don’t like the new system, they have already added a plugin that will revert the editor to the Classic Editor you know. While we highly recommend that you give Gutenberg a try before you switch back, it’s up to you to decide if you’re ready for a change.

As always, give us a shout if you have any questions. We’re always happy to talk WordPress.

WordPress.org vs WordPress.com

    Most of us, who are familiar with WordPress, have run into the WordPress.org vs WordPress.com debate at some point, typically while trying to create our first website. Chances are, the very first website you launched was on wordpress.com. If you are new...

In need of an email account? Cloud mail hosting vs everything else…

    We've all been there. You wake up, grab a cup of coffee, open up your Macbook and proceed to draft an intelligent reply to that email that you've been postponing for days. Only now it's become a little awkward and you're left wondering if it's best just...

What’s new in WordPress 5.9?

    Yes, today, the 25th of January 2022 is the release day for the latest version of WordPress. We understand that not everyone follows the Make WordPress blog so we decided to provide you with a brief overview of what’s new in 5.9. If you haven’t seen this...

2020 Mshini year in review

    2020 has been a year full of all kinds of different and we were sad to see a few of our customers being forced to close down their businesses. Like you, we’re hopeful and optimistic that 2021 will be a better year for all and that those businesses that...

PHP 7.4 is now available on all new sites, staging sites and dev sites

    PHP 7.4 was released on 28 November 2019, which meant that active support for PHP 7.2 ended on 30 November 2019.  Security support for PHP 7.2 will continue until 30 November 2020. Mshini has made PHP 7.4 available on all new sites, staging sites and dev...

FREE DEV

R0

PER MONTH

Up to 3 WordPress sites

3 WordPress Installs
Auto Generated Dev URLs
10GB Local Storage per Site
Unlimited Data Transfer
Let's Encrypt SSL Certificates
Free Site Migrations
SSH / WP-CLI / GIT

SINGLE SITE HOSTING

R129

PER MONTH

A single WordPress site

1 WordPress Install
10GB Local Storage
Unlimited Data Transfer
Let's Encrypt SSL Certificate
Free Site Migration
Staging Site
30 day money back guarantee

BULK PLANS

R799+

PER MONTH

From 10 WordPress sites

From 10 WordPress Installs
From 10GB Local Storage per Site
Unlimited Data Transfer
Let's Encrypt SSL Certificates
Free Site Migrations
Staging Sites
SSH / WP-CLI / GIT

WHAT YOU GET WITH MSHINI

The fastest WordPress hosting in South Africa. A toolset that will make maintaining your WordPress site the pleasure it ought to be. Friendly and efficient service from WordPress experts. We're committed to enhancing your WordPress experience and raising your expectations.

Locally Hosted

Local hosting means reduced latency and quicker response times for visitors to your site.

Optimised Servers

Our technologically advanced software stack delivers superior WordPress performance.

Server Side Caching

No need for caching plugins with hundreds of settings. Your site will load really, really fast!

Daily Backups

Scheduled and on-demand backups of your content are stored in secure off-site vaults.

Staging Site

Clone your live site to a staging site with 1-click to test plugins, themes and custom code.

Highly Secure

Daily malware scans secure your website and give you an edge over spam and hackers.

Free Let's Encrypt SSL

Install a free Let's Encrypt SSL certificate for your website with 1-click in your control panel.

Expert Support

Our friendly South African WordPress experts will help resolve any hosting issues.

Automatic Updates

Choose to have your WordPress core files, plugins and themes automatically updated.

Vulnerability Scanning

We scan your WordPress core files, plugins and themes for known vulnerabilities.

Free Site Migrations

Free site migrations to a Mshini staging environment without impacting your live site.

Emergency Rollback

Restore your live site from the most recent backup with 1-click in your customer control panel.