We have completed the upgrade of WordPress, which is used for sites.middlebury.edu and sites.middlebury.edu to version 5.0.3. WordPress 5 is a complete redevelopment of the editor, named “Gutenberg”, which now features a new “block” system for working with media assets and complex markup.
Here is a Lynda course on WordPress 5 to help you get started with this new editor. Skip ahead to section 2, Content Management, as the introductory sections don’t apply to our environment. There is more information about the new features of WordPress 5 in the official announcement blog post. This version also includes a new theme, Twenty Nineteen, which is available for you to use.
Workaround: Get the Classic Editor Back
The new Block Editor has a block for the Classic Editor. Here’s how to add it to your post.
Hi Ian,
It’s cool that there is a lynda.com playlist! But I’m not sure that I’m seeing it. I clicked the link (https://www.lynda.com/MyPlaylist/Watch/19725604/5010111?autoplay=true) and logged in with my Midd credentials, clicked the link again… and while I do see a list of videos, none of them says “WordPress.” Here are the first titles I see under “my playlist”: node.js essential training; creating a responsive web design: advanced techniques; problem solving for web professionals.
When I leave the playlists page and search for wordpress videos, I see a few that look like a better fit, eg WordPress 5 essential training.
Should the link in the blog post go somewhere else?
I’m watching WordPress 5 essential training now.
Thanks for the feedback on this, Carrie. I’m sorry that the playlist link didn’t work. The course I linked to was WordPress 5 Essential Training (https://www.lynda.com/WordPress-tutorials/WordPress-5-Essential-Training/651229-2.html?org=middlebury.edu), so you’re watching the right one. My playlist just removed the introductory videos and section one, which is about installing WordPress. So you can skip ahead to Chapter 2 Content Management.
I’ve also updated this post with information about a workaround that allows you to use the Classic Editor in your posts, if you prefer it. Before this upgrade we tested out the Classic Editor plugin, which we really hoped was going to give people a site-level choice, but it works in a way that conflicts with how we’ve set up WordPress. Specifically, it’s a network-wide plugin, so turning it on would force all sites into the Classic Editor until we manually updated their site settings to use the new editor. It would also have forced new sites into the Classic Editor. And it allowed per-user choice over which editor to use, meaning that two people could be editing the same post with different editors, which was likely to create issues.
We’re talking with people who support WordPress this week and next about other options, but we hope the above workaround and information about the new editor helps people transition to WordPress 5. Many of the plugins and themes we use have already been updated to use features of WordPress 5 and this trend will only continue, making it harder to support sites using the Classic Editor.