Getting better :)

  • Ok initially I hated Gutenberg …

    BEFORE:

    I have tried Gutenberg on quite a few sites since it was announced to soon be a big part of the WordPress future. I have tested it on both duplicate copies of existing production sites as well as several testing sites. It is clunky and difficult to use for me as a semi-developer … Hence 1 star

    NOW:

    Gutenberg has come a long way since I last reviewed it. It has improved greatly over the last month to something that is more robust and feature richer. Coupled with one or two additional plugins that add more blocks, it really is becoming quite handy for some users. So for now a 2 star We have (and do for now) use another site-builder plugin already.

    I set up a 100% new site for my wifey, who is a very visual person (photographer). This is the 2nd time I have shown her Gutenberg, the first was very early in development of Gutenberg for WP. At that time there was not a lot to use and it felt wrong to her and we continued use of our existing site-builder plugin.

    For a short while it appeared to do what wifey needed, but after some frustration it was put back in the bin.

    While it will work for basic tasks, it is too slow for more complex styles and layouts. To be honest, it feels slower than the classic editor even for simple tasks imho. Will it continue to get better? Most likely, but there is a LOT of work yet to be done to match any of the other site builders, and I truly mean A LOT.

    Should it have been included as a core component in WordPress? Definitely no. Especially when it still remains a beta plugin. It has no place in the current WordPress software.

    Should it ever be part of the core for WordPress? Yes, when it “is” ready, BUT there needs to be the core option to disable/not use Gutenberg. It really is a simple option here and gives WP users choice. I don’t understand why the WP Gutenberg developers do not understand this simple resolution. So please, make it optional and not need the plugin “Disable Gutenberg” to be installed. on WP sites

    UPDATE June 2021:

    It has been a while since I have tried using Gutenberg. Now in Late June 2021 I am much more positive about what Gutenberg is starting to offer with a much cleaner interface. It is still quite a way off editors like Elementor, but with additional 3rd party block enhancements/additions it certainly is now catching up. So now I can give it a 3 star. A future update may increase that I will watch and test more over time. I still feel it should not be a core plugin, but as I said it is getting better.

    UPDATE November 2024:

    I now use Gutenberg solely for my websites as an editor (no more Elementor at all), but I still rely heavily on additional tools for layouts. Kadence Blocks (kudos to the Kadence developers for an excellent plugin) is a great addition to manage layouts better than Gutenberg.

    So still a 3 star as I should not need to use an additional plugin for layouts.

    • This topic was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by GregW. Reason: Revised review after further development of Gutenberg
    • This topic was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by GregW.
    • This topic was modified 5 years, 10 months ago by GregW.
    • This topic was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by GregW. Reason: Needed an update
    • This topic was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by GregW.
    • This topic was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by GregW.
    • This topic was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by GregW. Reason: Needed an update
Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Moderator Marius L. J.

    (@clorith)

    Hiya,

    Sorry to hear you had a bad experience, and thanks for mentioning pain points you and your better half experienced when trying it out.

    I can say that I wholeheartedly agree that media handling is not very good right now, and it is something that is being actively worked on as we speak (there is a lot of ground to cover there, which is why it hasn’t made it in yet).

    I can also, hopefully, reassure you a little that we’re looking into better writing flows, we’ve made this its own focus to ensure it gets properly looked at by UX experts, designers and developers alike to make sure the end result is as good as it can be. If you’d like to follow along with those, you can check the Writing Flow tag on the GitHub repository (that’s also a great place to file tickets if you’re familiar with the platform, if there’s particular things you’d like looked at).

    Gutenberg is becoming the new editor, because our philosophy is about making decisions for users, to not overburden them with options. We allow opting out of it by using the Classic Editor plugin (which is the behavior we’ve taken to all new core features).

    Hello Marius ?? Thanks for this input, if I understand well, do you mean that users will still have the ability to switch back to the classic editor when Gutenberg will be released with the next WordPress update ?

    Kind regards,
    Franck A.K

    Thread Starter GregW

    (@gwmbox)

    Check out my re-review as edited above ??

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by GregW.
Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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