As of December 6, there was a new major version release of WordPress – 5.0. This update offers a variety of new features designed to make WordPress even more user-friendly, as well as providing a complete revamping of the content editing experience. This update also makes large parts of the interface easier to use for developers and store owners as the sites can be customized even more.

One of the elements of the update that has garnered a great deal of chatter in the web design community is the block-based editor known as Gutenberg. Here’s some things you need to know:

  • The new version is designed to provide a more intuitive site-building experience with improved functionality.
  • Rest API is geared towards helping developers create more feature-rich products because it is easier than ever to send and retrieve data from your website. For sites that are e-commerce in nature this means the ability to craft more targeted sales and incentives thus increasing revenue.
  • The Gutenberg editor allows one to customize your site even easier thanks to the block approach. Do keep in mind however, that if you do not wish to use the Gutenberg Editor you are still able to install the Classic Editor plugin.
  • As with any change, there are some things might be affected by the update. For example, there are some page builder plugins as well as some themes that might not work with WordPress 5.x. (Not sure if this change affects you? Talk to one the website developers at Page Progressive.)
  • The new default theme, Twenty Nineteen, which brings full block-based editing compatibility designed to make blogging, photo blogging, and promoting businesses and non-profits easier.
  • Better accessibility due to integrated aria-label attributes. This means improved working capability with screen readers designed to seek out text labels for objects.

In addition to the WordPress 5.0 update, WooCommerce, a respected and widely used tool for e-commerce websites, has also release a few new features designed to work with the WordPress upgrade. A couple of updates are:

  • Products Block- This update makes it is simple to feature your products in posts and pages. You can choose how the images are sorted based on a long list of criteria as well as adjust display features.
  • Storefront Theme – This will work with all the WP 5.0 changes and offers features such as full-width cover images, parallax images with text overlay, an array of embedded content locks and column support for up to 6 columns.

WordPress 5.0 is here and for many people, it is already making their life easier. If you have questions about the update and how it will affect it your website, please contact us. We’re here to help.