A recent topic that has been surfacing again and again on WordPress forums and blogs is the release of WordPress 5.0. As of yet, there’s not a lot of information on the release*. The timeline from the WordPress Core Team is currently saying mid to late 2018. I think at this point we can rule out mid 2018 as we are already entering October 🙂
There’s one detail we do know that’s causing a lot of discussion: WordPress 5.0 will ship with Gutenberg as it’s default editor in place of the long used and beloved WYSIWYG. This may or may not be a big deal to you, but one thing’s for sure…it will be a piece of cake to disable and revert back to the WYSIWYG editor if the need arises. The following are 3 ways to go about disabling Gutenberg:
1. Disable globally in functions.php:
add_filter( 'use_block_editor_for_post', '__return_false' );
2. Disable only for specific post types in functions.php:
function cis_disable_gutenberg( $is_enabled, $post_type ) {
if ( $post_type === 'your-post-type' ) return false;
return $is_enabled;
}
add_filter( 'use_block_editor_for_post', 'cis_disable_gutenberg' );
3. Disable with a plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-gutenberg/
Here’s another option that works great with the latest beta of WordPress 5.0 (5.0-beta4-43896 as of 11/15 – thanks to Kierst for the link): https://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-gutenberg-littlebizzy/
The plugin will likely be the quickest and easiest way of disabling Gutenberg. Now, if you’re like me and want to know what Gutenberg is all about, you can install it using a plugin and start using it right away.
Gutenberg Plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/
In fact, WordPress version 4.9.8 includes a “Try Gutenberg” callout they you may have seen. More info here: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/08/02/try-gutenberg-callout-in-wordpress-4-9-8/
In summary, even though we don’t have a hard release date for WordPress 5.0, we can get ready by installing and using Gutenberg to build some posts/pages and if we don’t like it when 5.0 does finally get released, we have the option to disable it. Keep in mind that while change can be scary, there’s definitely a reason WordPress is choosing to switch to Gutenberg. If WordPress thinks it is a better editing option, then you likely will too if you give it a chance. Giving it a try and attempting to get used to it before the update could help you become more adept with Gutenberg, allowing you to stick with the new default.
If you need help disabling Gutenberg for WordPress 5.0, comment below. Alternatively, Checkerboard can help your organization manage your WordPress site and digital marketing strategy. Contact us for a free competitive analysis and find out how you can turn your site into the best in your market.
Happy coding!
*UPDATE 10/04/2018
Yesterday afternoon the WordPress Core Team released a proposed scope and schedule for 5.0!
More details here: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/10/03/proposed-wordpress-5-0-scope-and-schedule/
*UPDATE 11/15/2018
WordPress 5.0 release has been pushed out to November 27th.
More details here: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/11/09/update-on-5-0-release-schedule/
For the heads up.
I am testing the latest nightly build of WP 5 and for the moment the only option that works is the Classic Editor plugin. None of the other options work.
I was banking on the add_filter(‘gutenberg_can_edit_post_type’, ‘__return_false’); filter to work but it has been announced, for a while now that this wasn’t going to work as there is a suggestion that the filter or, at least its name would change once WP 5 was released. I am guessing that the plugins that have stoped working relied on this filter somewhere in their code.
We have to wait for an update but as of yet no promises or guarantees.
Have to say though having been rating Gutenberg as 1 star for a long time, it is showing some sign of improving. Its one big flaw are the things it should have addressed namely proper IDE like functionality for the HTML view, in general and for each individual block. As it stands those are pretty useless and not human readable as everything gets minimised.
Hi there,
That’s an interesting observation – thanks for the heads up. Maybe they have stripped out/renamed that filter as the ‘official’ way to disable Gutenberg that’s referenced here: https://wordpress.org/news/2018/10/wordpress-5-0-beta-1/ is… indeed to install the Classic Editor plugin.
The team is also providing a potential release date of 5.0 for November 19th – that is going to come fast!
And I agree with you regarding Gutenberg’s signs of improvement…it appears that for Beta 2 they have made further progress yet: https://wordpress.org/news/2018/10/wordpress-5-0-beta-2/
It looks like the filter name has changed to ‘use_block_editor_for_post’ and is present in the version I’m running at the moment (5.0-beta5-43907). So we are back in business with one line of code – no plugin needed!
And another with no settings or database query:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-gutenberg-littlebizzy/
Howdy,
Thanks for the tip. I installed the plugin on my dev WP site (5.0-beta4-43896) and it works well.
I’ll add a link to it in the post.
FYI – for anyone else following this, the 5.0 release has been pushed out to November 27th. More info here: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/11/09/update-on-5-0-release-schedule/