What’s New in WordPress Version 5.0
Video Transcript
This new release of WordPress version 5.0 is a major update unlike any prior to this one.
Now if you have not already updated to version five and if you do not have updates set to happen automatically, then be sure and do a full backup of both your files and database before you do the update. Now you should also make sure that your current theme and plugins are compatible with WordPress version five and if you’re not sure how to do this and do a Google search for something like how to test plugins for Gutenberg compatibility and then just check out one of these top results on this page.
Now I say compatible with Gutenberg because as for what’s new and WordPress five Gutenberg is the big change. Now, most everything else is minor in comparison. Yes, there are those things in the code that makes things run faster and more securely, but the big change is with the post and page editors, the Gutenberg editor.
Now the classic or older editor, let’s head on over to a site that has version five installed but has the classic editor active, so go to post, add new, and this as a reminder is what the classic or older editor looks like. That’s one over to this site which also has version five installed but has the Gutenberg editor active. Let’s go to post, add new and this is what the Gutenberg editor looks like. Now the classic or older editor will still be available and I believe it’s going to be supported all the way up through December of 2021 at least that’s what I’ve heard as of now, but you do need to activate the classic editor Plugin, which is located in the plugins page of our WordPress sites Admin area and comes shipped with version five of WordPress. So let’s come on back to our older version and come on over to plugins.
Go to the plugins page and here is that classic editor plugin. Now, let me just say this. If you’re brand new to WordPress, then I suggest only using the new Gutenberg editor and forget all about the classic editor completely. If however, you like me her on an established WordPress site, then you may want to activate those classic editor plugin, which again will disable the Gutenberg editor altogether at least until you get more familiar with using the Gutenberg editor. Then all you have to do is come in and deactivate the Classic Editor Plugin and the Gutenberg editor will become active again. Now the main thing about the Gutenberg editor is that it’s block-based. Let’s head on back over that and take a look. What I mean by block-based is that everything is built within blocks. You’ve got your paragraph blocks, you’ve got your title blocks, you’ve got your image blocks, video blocks, and so on, and we’ve dedicated an entire set of classes just on the Gutenberg editor.
So I mainly wanted to touch on it here as one of the items that is new in version five of WordPress. So to learn more about the actual Gutenberg editor, be sure to check out those other classes. Now, also new in WordPress version five is the 2019 default theme, and by the way, don’t spend too much time looking around for the 2018 default theme because there isn’t one they just skipped from 2017 to 2019 now in closing, I should also mention that while this is not completely just WordPress related, the version of PHP that is running on your website servers needs to be 7.1 or higher by the end of 2018 and if you’re not sure about which version you have or what even PHP is, then contact your hosting service and ask them.
They should be aware of this, but PHP versions with a lower number than 7.1 like 7.0 or 5.5 5.6 5.3 these versions will no longer have security updates after December 2018 which makes them an easy target for hackers. Since WordPress is built on PHP. If you’re hosting services still on these older PHP versions, then your WordPress sites will still work just fine.
It’s just that you’re taking a huge risk of getting hacked.
And on that happy note, that’s going to bring us to the end of this class on what’s new in WordPress version 5.0 thanks for checking it out and you have a great day.