The new Gutenberg editor is due to arrive with WordPress 5.0 on November 27.
We're already starting to see new types of Gutenberg-specific plugin. These aren't old plugins that have a layer of Gutenberg comptability. These are new plugins that a block-first. They're built for the new Gutenberg era.
One of the most popular of these new plugins is Advanced Gutenberg from JoomUnited. This plugin provides over 20 new blocks. It's helpful to think of them in two categories:
- Better versions of the default Gutenberg blocks.
- Entirely new blocks not covered by the Gutenberg defaults.
In this guide, I'll introduce you to the Advanced Gutenberg plugin. It's free to install from inside your WordPress site:
It's easy to spot the new Advanced Gutenberg blocks. All the new blocks are shown in purple.
#1. Better versions of the default Gutenberg blocks
Here's an example of how Advanced Gutenberg improves on the default Gutenberg options. On the left is the new "Advanced Image" and on the right is the default Image block.
If you open the "Action on click" option, you'll see new choices including "Open image in lightbox". You can also choose color options for the image's title, subtitle and overlay.
Here's another side-by-side comparison, this time with List blocks. The Advanced List blocks add options including text size and icons. Each icon has controls for size, line height, margin and padding.
Here's a third side-by-side example, this time with tables. With Advanced Gutenberg, you get a ton more options for customizing your tables, including colors, borders, padding and more.
#2. Entirely new blocks
In earlier version of Gutenberg, you probably needed to install 10 different plugins to cover the features of Advanced Gutenberg. However, with the new, lightweight blocks, Advanced Gutenberg packs a ton of features. For example, here's a new Testimonial block:
Here's how the testimonial block appears when you've added it. Each testimonial can be laid out individually, or in columns, plus you can change the color and size of all the elements.
Here's another example: Advanced Recent Posts. I remember buying page builder-style plugins for around $50 to get some features like these:
Here's a third example, showing a button block with a range of customization options:
Summary
At this point, so close to Gutenberg's release, I highly recommend playing around with plugins like Advanced Gutenberg.
Every time I take Gutenberg for a test drive, I learn something new and get a fresh insight into the future direction of WordPress. Ready to dive in? Check out Advanced Gutenberg on WordPress.org and take a look at this overview video:
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