It may be hard to get used to a new interface. With the introduction of Gutenberg, WordPress users who had invested effort and time into studying the Classic editor’s set of options are now confronted with the prospect of learning the features of a totally new environment.

However is it utterly new? What’s Gutenberg, actually? Are you able to disable Gutenberg in your WordPress web site, and, more importantly, do you need to? That is what we will discuss here.

What’s Gutenberg?

Gutenberg is the default WordPress editor since 2018, as of version 5.0. It makes use of items known as blocks to construct the content material or structure of a webpage.

There are a number of sorts of blocks, every of which serves a specific function, which is why we talk about paragraph blocks, image blocks, video blocks, shortcode blocks, etc.

That isn’t all, although: fundamental parts of web site design, corresponding to buttons and widgets, may be considered blocks, too. Many plugins now present customized blocks for their very own functionalities, along with or as a substitute of the same old shortcodes. There are even plugins that are nothing but Gutenberg block libraries. And any content which was created utilizing older variations of WordPress is now transformed into “classic blocks”.
The developers believe that Gutenberg was designed to be user-friendly and to help, allow, and facilitate media-rich web site design, and we agree, to a great extent. But what if you are used to the classic editor and don’t like to change?

Should I disable Gutenberg editor in my wordpress site?

When you merely choose the classic editor because it suits you better, then you definitely should stick to it. But keep in mind of your co-workers who administer the site or write posts, and may prefer the new Gutenberg editor.

It is best to that you always use the newest WordPress version along with the plugins, for security reasons. Nevertheless, WordPress depends on third-party plugins. Your web site could also be utilizing themes, or plugins developed for older versions of WordPress. If you’re using  plugins  incompatible with the Gutenberg, your web site may exhibit bugs or return unexpected errors. This goes double in case you are utilizing plugins that are not supported any more by the developers.

So, until your plugins are all up to date and Gutenberg compliant, you may want to disable the editor and use the Classic instead. After all, it is very easy to switch between the editors.

How to Disable Gutenberg using a Plugin

If you’re uncomfortable writing code, you should avoid it. As an alternative, you possibly can disable Gutenberg by using a plugin.
We suggest using on of these two plugins.

1. Disable Gutenberg

This plugin is doing exactly what its name says. It disables Gutenberg.
It is very easy to set it up and work. After installation, activate it and you are ready. The default settings are aware that you need to disable Gutenberg so there you are.

2. Classic editor

Likewise, the Classic Editor plugin leaves no room for Gutenberg. After installation, you can change the settings under your WordPress Writing Settings.

The way to Disable Gutenberg Using Code

To disable Gutenberg using code, you could add a line to your functions.php file. If accessing by your WordPress management panel, you will see that it in Appearance/Theme Editor. The Theme files part may be seen on the right.

You can add the line below just after <?php at the top of the file:

add_filter('use_block_editor_for_post', '__return_false', 10);

Be extra careful every time you edit functions.php file and always keep a backup before you start editing.

In Conclusion

As we’ve proven, it takes subsequent to no time in any respect to disable Gutenberg in your WordPress web site. However be conscious of how and why you do it. Visible editors are the brand new default, and you should think of adapting the newest tools.  Nonetheless, if you need more time to change your habit, you can always use our code snippet above or one of the plugins that we mentioned.

Keep creating and thinking with WordPress!