Gutenberg Phase 2 Friday Design Update #43

Howdy, and happy Friday! Gutenberg 7.3 just released this week! It included a several fantastic improvements.

GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ 7.3

Navigation blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. text/background colors

Better block labels in the Navigation block’s Navigator

Replace media flow has been added to the Cover 19583, Media+Text 19198, File 19174, Audio 19158 and Video 19162 blocks.

This release also includes lots of “lighter DOM” PRs which improve performance and make the DOM easier to style for both pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party and theme authors. Many, many, many bug fixes as well.

WordPress 5.4 Preparation

In preparation for WordPress 5.4, a list of particular PRs has been gathered that I’m hoping we can get in. The list includes:

• Video block subtitles
• Resizable editor previews
• Group block custom text color [merged]
• Latest Posts block feature image
• Renaming Block Library categories
• Columns block width improvements

Theme experiments

Over at Themeshaper.com, @jffng began experimenting around a block-based theme for WordPress and posted about his experience.

Configure or restrict interactions in Gutenberg

One use-case is for admins to configure or restrict the interactions within Gutenberg. @youknowriad goes into detail around how the improvements to the API allow for some of this recently.

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Get involved

Now’s a great time to get involved. While the work on this project is intense, it’s always important to glean new perspectives from other WordPress users and community members. Just drop into any of the links provided above to read up on the details and contribute.

Thanks for reading, staying informed, and contributing anywhere you can!

#design, #gutenberg-weekly, #phase-2