Advanced Gutenberg Review PROS & CONS (2023) | Add Enhancements To Gutenberg Editor

The current WordPress visual editor hasn’t had many changes over the years and has stayed pretty much the same. Because of that many think it is time for a change.

The current visual editor requires us to utilize shortcodes and HTML to make things work. But from WordPress 5.0 version it will be introduced a revamped and enhanced editor called the Gutenberg.

Once WordPress 5.0 is released Gutenberg will be the default editor. You will still have the option to install the classic editor if like or if you run into compatibility issues.

Gutenberg is still in its beta (in time of writing this), and according to the features which are introduced, it’s more than an aesthetic update. Gutenberg is going to completely change the editing experience by moving to a block-based approach to content.

Anything you create whether it’s a text, paragraph, video, embed, button, widget or image it’s going to be a block within Gutenberg. Essentially, Gutenberg replaces the single edit field of the current WordPress TinyMCE editor with lots of individual “blocks.”

These blocks then allow you to build more complex designs than those allowed in the current WordPress editor. Gutenberg aims to eliminate the need for page builders for most “standard” content.

But when it comes to building more complex pages, like a landing page, you will probably be better off utilizing the flexibility offered by page builders.

Ever since this news, WordPress developers/agencies have started on adapting their plugins and themes compatibility towards Gutenberg.

If you need a plugin which has not only adopted Gutenberg but also helps to enhance your experience with it, then Advanced Gutenberg is a great choice.

This plugin includes a bunch of useful and effective functionalities which takes Gutenberg Editor to the next level. In this Advanced Gutenberg review, I will try to cover all you need to know about the Advanced Gutenberg plugin.

 

Advanced Gutenberg Review

Before installing and activating Advanced Gutenberg plugin, you have to make sure that you have already installed and activated the default Gutenberg plugin on your site.

Advanced Gutenberg plugin provides the features and functionalities which are kind of missing in the default plugin. It was made to improve the performance and ability of Gutenberg Editor. It was developed by folks at JoomUnited.

Advanced Gutenberg provides you additional and advanced blocks, enhanced gallery, editor controls and the ability to apply custom CSS. It also allows you to manage the user roles and restrict the controls for each user.

After installing and activating Advanced Gutenberg plugin, you will have a new menu in your WordPress dashboard. The plugin consists of four sections. Those are Profiles, Configuration, Custom Styles and Translation.

 

#1. Profiles

User profiles management is a powerful feature offered by Advanced Gutenberg plugin. Using profiles feature you can set rules, permissions or even restrictions for specific user roles or even for a specific user.

In this way, you can completely control the access of various blocks or editing tools by each user. It lets you control precisely what individual users have access to when they create content with Gutenberg.

Basically, a “profile” is a set of permissions for which blocks people can access. You can then apply profiles to entire user roles or specific usernames.

 

 

To benefit from this functionality, navigate to the Advanced Gutenberg > Profiles from your WordPress dashboard to get access to the User Profiles. Here you can find the list of previously created profiles which you can edit by just clicking over the particular profile.

You can also create a new profile using the New Profile button right at the top. Then under Blocks List tab, you can enable/disable the access of each block.

 

 

Next, under the Profile Attribution tab, you can give a title to your profile. From there you can also activate this profile for the specific users or user roles. Once you are done hit the Save button, and your created profile will be saved.

 

 

This feature is handy for controlling access on your site. And you don’t have to use it just as access control. It can also be handy for streamlining the interface by merely hiding blocks that you never use.

 

#2. Configuration

You can configure the default settings associated with the enhanced blocks packed within the Advanced Gutenberg plugin. There are also some general configurations which you can change as per your need.

Simply head over to the Advanced Gutenberg > Configuration. Here, you will get some general settings related to the gallery, images, and blocks.

 

 

If you switch to the Default Blocks Config tab, you will get a very well organized screen having a list of advanced blocks built in this plugin.

 

You can click the gear icon next to the name of each block to configure it. This will open a pop-up window having various options which you can change and adjust.

 

 

#3. Custom Styles

Custom Styles tab gives you the ability to add new styles or modify the pre-built styles within the Advanced Gutenberg plugin. For each custom style class, you can set the identification color to distinguish it from rest of classes.

 

 

Besides this, you can customize the CSS for each class and notice its effect within the Preview section underneath.

 

#4. Translation

Advanced Gutenberg plugin allows you to translate this plugin in your native language. You can access the Translation tab from the Advanced Gutenberg menu.

 

How Advanced Gutenberg Works?

Advanced Gutenberg plugin offers some additional and enhanced blocks. These blocks boost your content creation experience within Gutenberg Editor.

To access or add these blocks simply click on the ‘ ’ icon in your post editor.

 

 

Advanced Gutenberg offers a unique experience for each content creator. You can create several user profiles, activate/disable some of the editor tools, apply profiles to one or several users or user roles, and export/import user profiles from one website to another.

It comes with a block to display your latest posts and your latest WooCommerce products. Several layouts are included like post/product grid, blog format, slider format.

The plugin also comes with the default WordPress gallery manager enhancement like adding a lightbox to gallery images and display image captions.

Several Blocks are enhanced using Advanced Gutenberg:

• Summary – Generate an automatic summary based on Gutenberg’s content title structure
• Advanced Button block – Create buttons with more styles (hover, border, padding…)
• Advanced List block – Create lists with custom icon, icon color, margin…
• Advanced separator with type, color, width

Using video and image block you have advanced control over these media types display. You can display remote or local video with the customizable player and have many display options.

All the content in tabs and accordions can be visually edited, and you retain control over colors and design from the Gutenberg block settings.

 

Advanced Gutenberg Review Summary

Advanced Gutenberg plugin is an enhancement to the Gutenberg Editor. It provides very handy and advanced blocks to improve your content creation experience. Besides this, you can apply custom styles and CSS on the go.

The thing which makes it stand unique to its competitors is the ability to manages user profiles and roles. You can completely control and restrict the editor tools for various users.

Additionally, I like the option to create your custom styles and apply them in Gutenberg. Because Advanced Gutenberg is 100% free, you’re not risking anything by trying it out. If you’re already using Gutenberg, consider giving this one a go. Another great free Gutenberg blocks plugin is Getwid.

If Gutenberg is not for you, you can still use page builder plugin like Elementor (Elementor free vs paid), Divi (Divi vs Beaver Builder), Beaver Builder (Beaver Builder free vs paid), Oxygen, Brizy, Visual Composer (Visual Composer free vs paid), WPBakery (WPBakery vs Visual Composer), etc.