Since 2016, Five More Talents has had the privilege of providing WordPress care for Dr. Michael Kruger. Dr. Kruger is the the President of Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC and an ordained Presbyterian minister. His passion for New Testament studies has resulted in a number of authoritative writings on the subject. He is the author of Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origin and Authority of the New Testament Books and The Question of Canon: Challenging the Status Quo in the New Testament Debate among several other volumes.
Dr. Kruger regularly writes on his blog. His message is important for the church today. His strategic use of modern tools to reach people with his writing is a great example of stewardship. Through engaging sermons and blog posts, he has communicated effectively with many Christians seeking to learn more about the Bible.
Consequently, it is important that his website engages visitors. After all, it is a major channel for his valuable resources.
In this post, we’ll examine how the new Gutenberg block editor is helping Dr. Kruger communicate more effectively through his website.
The Challenge
For this case study, we will specifically be looking at the layout on Dr. Kruger’s “Books” page. Originally, this page was laid out in the Classic editor, which was WordPress’ default editor. The titles were laid out in an HTML table with images of the book covers. This layout worked reasonably well but it was very fragile. A few misplaced carriage returns would mess up the formatting of the page. The page’s delicate layout did not lend well to consistent updates and often caused frustration.
The Solution
Due to the complications of page editing, Dr. Kruger reached out to the Five More Talents team. We helped him switch his page to the Gutenberg block editor. This allowed him to keep his custom layout. (It even enabled him to customize his formatting more by adding dividers to organize his titles on the page.)
The Gutenberg block editor makes editing a page simple. Thanks to the blocks setup, WordPress content creators don’t have to worry about breaking a page layout by accidentally adding an extra carriage return. To put it one way: the block editor makes creating complex page layouts easier and breaking them harder.
The Rise of Gutenberg
The block editor is here to stay. In fact, it will be replacing the classic editor as the WordPress default by the end of 2021. For a smooth transition, it is important to get familiar with the new block editor before then. Dr. Kruger’s website is a powerful tool for communication. We are honored to have an opportunity to help him optimize it using the tools available.
If you want to learn more about the new page editor, read our introduction to the Gutenberg Block Editor. Ready to switch your website to use Gutenberg? Reach out to us and we’ll help walk you through the process.
