December 6, 2018 – WordPress 5.0 “Bebo” has been released with a new major feature.
Introducing a new editor
WordPress 5.0 introduces a new way of how your content is displayed with a new block-based editor (Gutenberg). This allows for increased flexibility in how content is displayed. Overall, WordPress 5.0 is a step forward in helping to streamline the editing experience on a WordPress website.
How the WordPress Block Editor Works
Most importantly, the new block-based editor won’t change how your content looks to your website visitors; rather, it will change your process in how you created each piece of content – which is now its own block. This is helpful in adding types of multimedia content quickly, rearranging the order of content, and more.
Additionally, WordPress 5.0 improves upon a more consistent handling of both design and content. One feature is reusable blocks which allows you to add new content anytime while better maintaining design consistency.
New blocks can be created for all various types of content while also ensuring that content structure is not easily disturbed by accidental code edits. Semantic markup is preserved through edits and not easily broken, allowing for a more comfortable way for users to directly edit content.
New default Twenty Nineteen theme
The new WordPress Twenty Nineteen theme is designed with the new WordPress 5.0 update in mind. It takes advantage of the block-editor and helps show off its capabilities of this new editing style. What you create in your content editor is what you see on the front of your website. This partly comes from custom styles available for blocks and widespread use of editor styles throughout the content blocks.
Not ready for the new editor? Keep it Classic.
If you are updating but prefer to stick with the familiar Classic editor, no worries! This feature is achieved by installing the Classic Editor plugin which will be supported through 2021.
Should I update to WordPress 5.0?
Alternatively, you can stay updated and secure on WordPress 4.9 as security updates will still be released for this version. At this time, for larger production websites and even small business websites, we highly recommend staying on WordPress 4.9 until 5.0 has several updates to help maintain its reliability and security over time. Newest and the shiniest isn’t always tried and true to fully rely on.
For our clients, as WordPress 5.0 becomes more mature, we’ll create an upgrade plan for their websites. Our end goal is to keep client websites online, functioning, secure, and optimized.
If you have questions about your website or WordPress 5.0, be sure to connect with us. We’re here to help!