Drag and-Drop WordPress Themes
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August 18, 2013
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Sallie Goetsch provides a whirlwind tour of some of the available free and premium drag-and-drop (or, in some cases, click-and-add) WordPress themes, frameworks, and plugins, for the August 2013 East Bay WordPress Meetup. Of the themes she actually analyzed, iThemes Builder is the only one that uses child themes (though it is not really drag and drop) and Themify Builder has the most intriguing interface, with front-end editing, though it is extremely heavy on the JavaScript and engages in some questionable practices, like adjusting your PHP memory without telling you it's going to do this. The themes from Site Origin and CyberChimps offer limited drag-and-drop layout options that are easy for beginners to use, though they are designed to work within the existing styles of those themes. In most cases, developers with any knowledge of PHP, HTML, and CSS will want to avoid these themes. Beginners with little knowledge of code may find the learning curve for some of these themes (e.g. PageLines DMS) too overwhelming. In all cases, the use of one of these themes may make it extremely difficult to change themes in the future, because they store content in special database tables. And no ability to drag elements around a grid or select fonts or colors from a drop-down will teach you design skills, so if you don't know the principles of good design, your site could end up looking like a flyer from the early 1990s, when desktop publishing software first became popular.
Transcript of Drag and-Drop WordPress Themes
August 18, 2013
EastBayWP.com
Our Meetup.com Page
http://www.meetup.com/Eastbay-WordPress-Meetup/
Drag & Drop WordPress Themes
Sallie Goetsch
FREE OPTIONS
MiniMax Page Layout Builder
http://wordpress.org/plugins/page-layout-builder/
Page Layout Builder Settings
MiniMax Layout Tab: Columns
MiniMax Add Modules
MiniMax Page with Modules
MiniMax Page: Front End
MiniMax Layout Builder: Conclusion
• Reasonably intuitive
• Limited selection of modules in free version
• Some conflicts with normal WordPress functions, e.g. media library
• Could still be useful, but I wasn’t that impressed.
iFeature (CyberChimps)
iFeature Options
iFeature Header Layout
iFeature Blog Layout
iFeature +Portfolio -Slider
iFeature: Conclusion
• Partly drag-and-drop
• Easy to use
• Can create a home page without posts
• Minimal control over styling
• Limited layout options
• Suitable for beginners
PageLines Lite
PageLines Site Options
PageLines Layout Editor
PageLines Layout Editor 2
PageLines Drag and Drop
Applying a PageLines Template
PageLines: Conclusion
• Fairly flexible even in free version
• Not immediately intuitive—lots of different settings pages
• Combination of drag-and-drop and other selectors
• Modify templates on a per-page basis
• Can be used by beginners, but there’s a learning curve
Snapshot (SiteOrigin)
SiteOrigin Page Builder
SiteOrigin Page Builder Settings
Site Origin Widgets
SiteOrigin Home Page Builder
PageBuilder Tab
SiteOrigin: Conclusion
• Widget-based
• More click-and-add than drag-and-drop
• Allows page-based and post-based layouts
• Assumes you already have site content (post categories, etc.)
• Designed to work within the styling of the SiteOrigin themes
PREMIUM OPTIONS
iThemes Builder
Builder Layouts and Views
Add New Builder Layout
New Layout Applied
Error message due to lack of posts to feature
Custom Builder Layout Metabox
Select a Builder Layout instead of a page template when creating a new page.
Builder Style Manager
iThemes Builder: Conclusion
• Not really drag-and-drop
• Very well-documented
• Page-by-page layout options
• Modules for restaurants, churches, events, audio
• Style manager plugin
• Many child themes available
Themify Builder
Themify Default Layouts
Themify Page Builder Settings
Themify Custom Panel: Page Options
Themify Custom Panel: Post Query
Themify Custom Panel: Builder
Themify Page with Modules
Themify Front-end Editing
Themify Builder: Conclusion
• Good number of modules
• Fairly intuitive to use
• Front-end editing is cool
• Themes are resource-intensive
• Can add custom CSS classes for custom styling
• Test it with free “Basic” theme
