Named after Johannes Gutenberg, the founder of the printing press, the Gutenberg project by WordPress aims to reinvent website content management through the following four phases:

1. Easier editing: Blocks for creating and editing content. Released as WordPress 5.0.
2. Customization: Expanding from blog posts to all kinds of pages. Released in 2021.
3. Multilingual: Supporting multiple languages by default.
4. Collaboration: Co-authoring, editing, commenting, etc.

The first two phases are already released and adopted. The multilingual feature can be enabled through the WordPress multilingual plugin.

The only thing that is left, and promises Google Docs-style collaboration, is Gutenberg Phase 3.

In this post, you’ll learn what it is, what are its benefits, and how WordPress content development teams can experience it now.

What is Gutenberg Phase 3?

Gutenberg Phase 3 is the version of the Gutenberg Editor that facilitates real-time collaboration between WordPress content development team members. After the successful release, implementation, and adoption of Gutenberg Phase 3, authors, editors, publishers, managers, clients, and stakeholders can collaborate in the Gutenberg Editor.

This includes commenting, tagging, and suggesting edits on all forms of content, including dynamic blocks, making WordPress collaborative editing simpler. In other words, content development teams can enjoy Google Docs-style content collaboration on WordPress.

Advantages of Gutenberg Phase 3

Apart from the obvious advantages such as the co-authoring and reviewing content in one place, Gutenberg Phase 3 improves the WordPress editorial workflow in the following ways:

1. Collaborative editing on a blog editor

The WordPress editorial workflow of most content teams that use a WordPress CMS (content management system) depends on third-party content collaboration apps like Google Docs and Microsoft Word.

Although it is easily accessible and delivers excellent value, there are still limitations to drafting and editing blog posts on them. Here are some of the challenges:

• Moving content from these apps to the Gutenberg Editor for publishing requires last-minute text reformatting.
• Editors and publishers have to re-insert and embed multimedia content in the editor.
• Collaborating on dynamic content such as CTA boxes, image carousels, etc., is impossible in content collaboration apps.

All the above roadblocks reduce the efficiency of the WordPress editorial workflow.

By shifting the editorial process to WordPress with the help of Gutenberg Phase 3, the above challenges vanish. Drafting and editing content on the Gutenberg Editor doesn’t require last-minute editing, or reinsertion of elements, and enables collaboration on dynamic content.

2. Streamlined WordPress editorial workflow

As all the advantages of content collaborative tools are available on the Gutenberg Editor, the dependency on them throughout the process will reduce. Consequently, the WordPress editorial workflow will be much faster.

Maintaining files and folders, updating their statuses through different phases of content development, ensuring the right individuals have access to it, etc., consumes a lot of resources that Gutenberg Phase 3 saves.

Another benefit is that the back and forth between content editing tools and the Gutenberg Editor during the publication phase is eliminated.

So, Gutenberg Phase 3:

• Reduces the dependency on third-party content collaboration software by enabling WordPress collaborative editing making the editorial workflow fast.
• Saves human effort and financial resources as auxiliary activities such as maintaining files are not required.
• Makes the publication process fast by eliminating the back and forth of content from the third-party app editor to the Gutenberg Editor.

3. Secures organizational data

This is the most sought-after advantage for WordPress content development teams in general. With third-party content collaboration applications, external members are permitted to view, comment, and edit organizational data.

Despite the improved security measures of cloud storage solutions, there are three undeniable challenges:

• When sharing folders confidential files could be shared by mistake with external members.
• Keeping track of changes brought by those members is hard to track if they are large in number and they have unrestricted access.
• As these are to be integrated into everyone’s tech stack, these files and folders are accessible through other third-party apps through integrations, increasing the number of access points for private organizational data.

Data security is on the top of everyone’s priority list, particularly WordPress content development teams due to the mandatory requirement of content sharing. Fortunately, Gutenberg Phase 3 makes data security much easier by enabling collaboration directly in WordPress.

WordPress developers were scheduled to start the iterative development and implementation of Gutenberg Phase 3 in 2021.

Experience Gutenberg Phase 3 with Multicollab now

Unfortunately, there are no official updates from WordPress on the progress of Gutenberg Phase three until now (August 2022). It is hard to say when the updates will start to roll in so that the WordPress content development teams can start enjoying the above advantages.

The challenges that slow the WordPress editorial workflow continues to exist by consuming more resources than necessary.

Thankfully, Multicollab, a WordPress collaboration plugin, brings Gutenberg Phase 3 to WordPress content teams now.

After installing Multicollab, WordPress content teams can look forward to the following advantages.

1. Google Docs-style collaboration in WordPress Editor

The biggest promise of Gutenberg Phase 3 is that content teams will be able to comment, tag, and review content in the Gutenberg Editor itself, just like in Google Docs.

Below are the corresponding features of Multicollab that enable Google Docs-style editing in WordPress.

• Commenting on content to share feedback and give suggestions

Collaborators can comment on text and multimedia content while tagging others as they do in third-party content collaboration apps.

Additionally, since the editorial process is shifted to the WordPress blog editor, collaborators can also share their feedback on dynamic content.

Authors and managers can go through all the comments and suggestions in one place and resolve them after taking appropriate actions.

• Editing history of drafts of blog posts in one place

It can be hard to keep track of all the edits in a document if there are multiple reviewers and review cycles. To solve this issue, Multicollab collates all of that data and makes it easily accessible to help collaborators avoid repeating mistakes.

The editing history is also accessible from the Multicollab Dashboard. The filters provided make it easy for authors and reviewers to find things quickly.

• Manage permissions of collaborators during the WordPress content development

Multicollab’s settings help managers control permissions of different roles through the click of a button as the content moves through different phases of development.

This poses a crucial question: Does Multicollab provide the same value as Gutenberg Phase 3? If that is the case, it makes little sense to install a separate WordPress collaborative plugin.

Let’s take a look at what makes Multicollab a better solution than Gutenberg Phase 3.

2. Multicollab vs Gutenberg Phase 3

Apart from the fact that content development teams can improve their WordPress editorial workflow right now with Multicollab, there are more benefits to it than just WordPress co-editing.

• Slack integration: Get Slack notifications for mentions, replies, and other activities.
• Insert document in a comment: Add documents to share comprehensive feedback.
• VIP support: Phone and email support with a response within one business day.
• Advanced dashboard: More reports on sitewide commenting and reporting activities.
• Multilingual support: Including English, Hindi, German, Chinese, and French.

Summing up

Gutenberg Phase 3 brings collaborative editing features to the Gutenberg Editor similar to apps like Google Docs making WordPress editorial commenting possible. This will make the WordPress editorial workflow efficient while saving resources and securing organizational data.

Scheduled to begin in late 2021, users are yet to receive any update from WordPress regarding Gutenberg Phase 3 as they still continue to face challenges.

Fortunately, WordPress content teams can get the values offered by Gutenberg Phase 3 and more with Multicollab, a WordPress collaborative plugin. With advanced features such as Slack integration, inserting documents in a comment, and multilingual support, Multicollab takes the WordPress content collaboration process to the next level.
Try Multicollab now.