Blog Oklahoma Bonus #8: Elementor

This is the Blog Oklahoma Bonus for February 14, 2018

Sorry there's a small audio glitch at 30 seconds in.

Currently I'm working with a client on a new WordPress website. Now I'm not big a WordPress user, but I can get around. In fact, none of my current blogs are using it. I build my own websites. I'm quite comfortable working in code. So when I do use WordPress I don't have too much trouble working in the basic Page and Post editors. If I want to add a YouTube video to a post, I type in the shortcode and I'm done.

Now my client is new to WordPress and is having difficulty with the editors. They want to be able to quickly add photos, YouTube videos, or even more advanced things, but not by typing in some code to do it.

There are various plugins we can add for these functions, but many are new shortcodes or extra forms to fill out.

Then we discovered Elementor. It's a WordPress page builder plugin that lets you drag and drop elements where you want it.

So after you've installed this plug-in. You'll find a new big red button in your Page or Post editor that gives you the option to use Elementor.

An audio podcast can't do this real justice. So let's see if I can describe it. On one side is your page and on the left is a column with all your tools in it. You click and drag the element you want from the left column over to where you want it on your page. Also in the left column are all the options you can do with that element after you've placed it.

So in the show notes I've posted some screen shots of Elementor in action. But I encourage you to visit Elementor's website to learn all about it. There are free and pro versions of this plug-in. You can do quite a bit with the free version.

My client has taken to it, and has created a few new pages that would have taken them hours to put together before.

We did find one issue with Elementor that neither my client or I really like, but it's not a deal breaker. If you already have stuff typed in the regular Page or Post editors and want to switch to Elementor, it doesn't copy that information over. You start new Elementor. It's its own thing. So there's that. To get around it we copied the text from the regular editor into Notepad, switched to Elementor, and then pasted in what we needed.

If you would like to discuss Elementor or even WordPress, please feel free to join us in the Blog Oklahoma Podcast Facebook Group.

I'll have links to it and Elementor in the show notes at blogoklahoma.net in the Bonus section.

Links from this episode

Elementor Screen Shots

In Elementor settings, check disable defaults if you want to use the site's existing style.

Click big red button if you want to use Elementor instead of regular editor.

Just drag elements into the "drop widget here" box.

Click on cog icon on bottom of Elementor sidebar to edit page title and other settings.

Edit element (widget) settings in the Elementor sidebar

Edit video playback (autoplay, etc) settings in the Elementor sidebar

Edit text in Elementor sidebar. Note: Found other editor plugin options do not work while in Elementor sidebar.

Click on 3 bar icon to more options. Click big blue button to go back to WordPress dashboard.

This episode's bonus interesting articles

This episode's bonus musical selection

You can listen To the Blog Oklahoma Bonus playlist on Spotify. Enjoy.

Blog Oklahoma

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