Gutenberg – Second Impressions

Updated January 9, 2023

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Back in August, we had our first hands-on experience with the new WordPress editor, Gutenberg. We published our initial thoughts then, but what has changed since then and how have we got to grips with our new co-editor.

Anything Bugging You?

A few small things have changed already taking away some of the initial issues we had with Gutenberg but there are still some problems that we think should be addressed.

1. Why is it so hard to change the page URL? You can do it, but it’s hidden away and difficult to find. This is surely something that many editors want to do, so it should be made simpler.

2. Not being able to copy text (even unformatted) into a header block. We understand that copying into WordPress isn’t always advisable as it can add extra code if you’re not careful, but copying unformatted text into a header block should be simple enough.

3. Formatted text always being copied as bold. As mentioned above, we know this isn’t the safest thing to do, but, if you want to do it there’s no reason the text should be bolded.

4. Not being able to set up an “article template” that already has a certain number of default blocks in it. This would be a massive time-saving tool for us. We typically write articles in the same basic format. Having reusable blocks is good, but having a reusable template would be even better.

5. Integration with plugins. If you’ve read our blog before, you’ll know that we love the Yoast SEO plugin. At the moment it isn’t fully functioning with Gutenberg, but we assume this will probably change when the next Yoast update rolls out.

6. The are some other bugs with buttons not showing, or image blocks not loading properly, but these should be worked out as updates continue.

Add a Summary

So far we’re reasonably happy with Gutenberg but it hasn’t really improved our content creation experience. After getting over the initial learning curve it probably takes us the same amount of time to create and post content as the old editor did. For a casual user, I’m still unsure of the value. The block-based interface should make things more intuitive, and often does. But when something goes wrong it can be quite fiddly to find out where you’ve made mistakes. If they can iron out some of the issues we mentioned above, then we think Gutenberg might end up saving us time. But until then it’s just a case of “meet the new interface, same as the old one”.

What do you think about Gutenberg? Has it sped up your writing process? We’d love to hear what tips and tricks you use to get the most out of WordPress’s new editing interface.