New WordPress Gutenberg Editor & Atomic Blocks Theme ROCK!!

As you maybe knowing by now, I have a Video & Powerpoint Creation Website. I am using self-hosted version of WordPress in that site also. 

Recently, WordPress released an update (5.0) where they changed the current TinyMCE editor to blocks-based Gutenberg editor.

For my other website, wowsuper.net, I had used a premium theme with a theme-builder that enabled me to build my homepage using sections. But this update broke that theme-builder plugin, so I was looking for alternative themes – preferably one that was built for/supports Gutenberg editor. 

WordPress themselves have released the Twenty Nineteen theme that integrates fully with Gutenberg. In fact, in the distraction-free version of the editor interface, you can see what the changes on the editor will look like on your web page. Almost WYSIWYG. 

Although the concept is amazing, the theme was a little basic for my website. It would suit blogs perfectly, but for a services-based website I wanted something else. That’s when I came across the free Atomic Blocks theme. 

This is a popular theme that was built for the Gutenberg editor and it even adds its own good looking blocks (via a plugin) that we can use. I have applied this theme to my website and used Gutenberg editor to build the front page. What I was able to achieve, that too with just the native wordpress editor, was amazing! Head over there and see for yourselves. 

What are blocks?

Blocks are rectangular areas on the web page. The text you see here were written on a full-width text block that I placed here on the editor. There are other blocks for quote, image, video, list, embeds, etc. 

The best thing about the block editor is, you can move blocks from one place to another. You can move this paragraph over the above with a single click, for example. 

You can also have columns and each column can have its own blocks and own content. If you head over to wowsuper.net, you’ll find that I have used two-columns on the front page to display my video services for ‘personal’ and ‘business’. 

I love the fact that the editor is able to display pictures and video, over the entire width of the screen. In fact, you can convert full-width pictures into ‘Cover block’ that gives a parallax effect along with short overlay text (optional). I have used this future extensively on the homepage there 🙂

Limitations of Gutenberg Editor

I don’t think the Gutenberg editor was designed as a homepage creator. Because, the home page designing/creation tools are very limited and even my homepage created using this looks a little simple – in comparison.

Anything new comes with its own share of issues, and so is the issue with Gutenberg editor. For instance, very few themes have been built to take advantage of the native Gutenberg editor (yet).

Second issue I found is, on my other site, I am not able to update my blog posts and pages now. There seems to be some conflict and the update fails multiple times! So I have disabled Gutenberg there and am using the old familiar editor, which works fine. Hope WordPress would solve this issue through an update soon.  

However, the New Gutenberg editor is designed to create more beautiful and more flexible blog posts. For that purpose, I love the new Gutenberg editor and I think it will enable some beautiful looking blog posts. Have a look at the following image for one just example of what we can do with it 🙂