Finally! WordPress 5.0 Has Been Released

The much-anticipated release of WordPress 5.0 is here and Digital Renovators would like to briefly walk you through the changes and new features, so you don’t have to read through more information than is necessary to get the scoop.

This, of course, means that Gutenberg has also been rolled out fully and that is largely what WordPress would like you to know about in their own blog post. However, we are going to discuss not only Gutenberg but also the new themes and the increased support that WordPress 5.0 will offer, so you can decide whether the update is worth it or not. So, without further ado, watch this one minute video released by the team behind WordPress and continue on with this blog post to see what exactly WordPress 5.0 has in store for you!

Gutenberg

The redefinition of your content editing experience in WordPress. The CMS behind a third of the website’s online.

You’ve probably read and seen a lot about Gutenberg over the past few months and it’s finally available for everything in its (theoretically) finished form. It has been designed to change the content editing experience of WordPress and has been met with a lot of controversies.

We’d compare it to Marmite, you either love it or you hate it or you’re indifferent and think it’s a good idea that needs more polishing before its ready.The earlier development builds garnered a rather negative perception because they were filled with bugs which mithered their real-world use. However, WordPress has decided that it is ready for the public to use, so this hopefully means that many of the gripes people had during development have been resolved. I wouldn’t hold my breath though, as with most software nowadays, there are bound to be some issues that are annoying to particular users.

Gutenberg combines the classic text editor you’ve come to know and love in WordPress with some of the integration and block-building features of the likes of Visual Composer and WP Bakery. The collection of default blocks allows you to embed content from a range of sources and social networks. With the classic editor it was potluck whether something would be able to integrate but this gives you an outline straight out of the box, so no time is wasted while building posts. This includes some much requested additional support that previously required the use of third party plugins.

Of course, WordPress has delivered the Classic Editor plugin as promised for those who aren’t quite ready to switch over to Gutenberg. This plugin will be supported until 2021, giving them plenty of time to solve any existing and future bugs to ensure your experience is smooth when you do make the switch. Clearly people aren’t ready to make the switch just yet, as the plugin has over 600,000 active installations and a 4.9-star rating.

WordPress 5.0 Themes and More

The new update comes with the Twenty-Nineteen theme and other new features to improve your experience.

As expected, WordPress 5.0 comes with the Twenty-Nineteen as default. The default themes are designed to showcase the features of the new version of WordPress, namely Gutenberg this time around. You can preview screenshots of the theme over on the WordPress blog and see what the fuss is all about.

For designers and developers this is great news as the creation of themes has become slightly easier, allowing for development time to be spent on providing a better user experience. The CMS is now capable of handling a lot of the content-related layout, which will limit the amount time spent developing custom theme options that would’ve previously allowed for this to be done. Gutenberg gives the average much more control over how their content is presented and inspires more creativity among them.

WordPress has announced a new support platform its customers called “HelpHub” which will be able to find on the https://wordpress.org/support/ page. Content is still available on the old WordPress Codex while it is being migrated to its new home, which is now the official help centre for WordPress users. It is very heavily integrated with forums that provide support and it should make it easier to find solutions to any issues you are having with WordPress.