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There’s a big WordPress update coming that could break your website!

There’s a big WordPress update coming that could break your website!

Wordpress 5.0 and Gutenberg

Is your website ready for WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg?

WordPress will launch version 5.0 in a few weeks time! It’s currently planned for November 19th 2018.

If you normally ignore WordPress updates, now’s the time to sit up and take notice as this will be the biggest update in a very long time! WordPress is completely revamping how users and developers use the CMS with their new Gutenberg editor.

As this release impacts everything from the editor, to third-party plugins, and even your theme, testing is not optional! If you don’t test, things could easily break. This is one release where you don’t want to wait to the last minute.

If you’re unsure about updating WordPress, get in touch with us and we can discuss how to get it safely updated for you.

WordPress 5.0 changes everything

Most of the past updates have been relatively minor – you might not have even noticed them happening. WordPress 5.0 is different. Rather than adding minor improvements here and there, this release is entirely focused on the new Gutenberg WordPress Editor.

So what exactly is Gutenberg?

The simple answer is that in WordPress 5.0, you will no longer have the same classic WordPress editor or text editor that you’ve been used to using over the past decade. 😱 It’s now going to look like this:

Using Gutenberg in WordPres 5.0

How to get ready for WordPress 5.0

So now the question you probably all have, what do you need to do to prepare for it?

The easiest, albeit temporary solution is to install the Classic Editor plugin. This will allow you to continue using it alongside the new Gutenberg editor. However, fair warning, the Classic Editor will probably not be supported forever. This is really a temporary solution. So we highly recommend making your site work with Gutenberg and WordPress 5.0 sooner than later.

We can’t stress enough how important testing WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg is. You really need to make sure all of the plugins you have running on your site and your theme are going to work properly.

Convert to blocks with WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg
Convert to blocks with WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg

We highly recommend installing Gutenberg on a test version of your site first to see how it effects it rather than on your live site.

We can help you update safely

If you’re unsure about updating WordPress, get in touch with us and we can discuss how to get it safely updated for you.