Since the original WordPress 5.0 rollout plan was announced last June at WordCamp EU, we've seen a spike in interest with Gutenberg, the new WordPress editor, from our WordPress VIP clients. We've been watching closely as Gutenberg has been selectively and optionally been rolled out across WordPress.com sites and the feedback that generated has been amazing! With each new release of Gutenberg, suggestions are being heard, bugs are being fixed, performance is being optimized, and a few new tools are finding their way into the editor.

Even more exciting is seeing how our clients and our featured partners are using the new publishing tools at their disposal. Not convinced that the new WordPress editor is powerful enough for enterprise clients? Think again! 

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This is just one of many different gallery layouts you can use!

We encourage all VIP clients across WordPress roles to get hands-on experience testing the new editor as soon as possible. You can even use this site to try out and work with the latest version of Gutenberg in a safe front-end experience. There are helpful reference links in the left sidebar of that site, and a survey link to share your experiences with the team.

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Amnesty and the power of the new WordPress editor

In the short video below, you’ll see a quick overview of what it’s like to build new sites quickly and publish and manage content in Amnesty’s new platform launching in September.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgF5ImDlCTw

Agency partner Big Bite has built an entirely new site platform for Nobel Peace Prize Winner Amnesty International, with the new WordPress editor as its foundation, via the Gutenberg plugin. They focused on developing custom blocks and a core theme that serves as the heart of Amnesty’s digital efforts moving forward. More than a new site, this is a framework for applying consistent brand identity, design, and user experience standards to many new sites and for allowing creators to spin up new, powerful sites quickly and with ease. And as a part of Big Bite’s and Amnesty’s shared commitment to giving back to the community, large parts of the project will be released as open source components for anyone to use.

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"Whoa, how do I do that?"

We knew you'd ask that and we have you covered! We developed a series of educational videos for both users and developers that are working with Gutenberg. These address questions such as converting ACF and CMB2 to Gutenberg and how to control access to blocks.

Go to vipgutenberg.com and register with your work email to access them. Not a VIP client, that's okay too. We developed a separate set of videos available to anyone in the community.

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"This looks awesome, but I'm not ready to use this everywhere."

By Theme Author

It's like we read your mind. We developed the Gutenberg Ramp plugin for just this reason. On your VIP Go sites, you can now load Gutenberg everywhere, or selectively by post ID (load only for specific posts) and post type (load only for specific post types). Find complete instructions at this helpful page.

We recommend that you load it up in a VIP Go development environment first. If you don’t have a development environment on which to test, now’s a great time to get one set up. Just open up a ticket with our Support team and we can get a development site set up for you. Unless otherwise requested, we’ll sync the content from your live site so you can get a true sense of how Gutenberg will work for you. If you already have a development environment and would prefer not to disturb that, we can create an additional Gutenberg testing environment instead. Not to worry, in either case content changes here will not affect the content on your live site.

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"I'm totally ready to use this but uh, my friend isn't. My friend wants to know what happens when WordPress 5.0 is released."

As exciting as it is, we know very well that many of you have extensive integrations with the current WordPress editor and will want a gradual transition. We are here to help you evaluate the impacts ahead of the WordPress.com 5.0 rollout, test out the new components in their current state, plan a smooth transition, and make decisions about the best way to update your roadmaps.

We will manage the release of WordPress 5.0 to make the process smooth and opt-in for VIP clients. However, it’s a good idea to start experimenting and creating content in Gutenberg right away.

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"It sounds like VIP thought of everything, now what?"

That was our goal, but this is still very much a fluid situation. We will be communicating Gutenberg rollout updates in the VIP Lobby and showcasing the power of Gutenberg in our VIP News site as the project continues. This page will continue to be your guide to our latest documentation and news. Most importantly, as you test the plugin and begin to assess plans for the rollout, please reach out to your VIP support team. We’re here to help!