Elementor : The Magic Page Builder in 2024
1. Introduction
Elementor is a popular page builder for WordPress. You can use this page builder for creating different types of websites, personal blogs, or business websites. Elementor is a great choice for you, even if you are not a developer. It is really simple to use but at the same time, it has many out-of-the-box features to add “wow” effects to your website. For example, you can create beautiful landing pages and eye-catching posts with nice animated headlines.
Moreover, Elementor allows you to create or customize anything on your website and see the changes in the live version. It helps you to reach your desired design fast and see an actual result in real-time, while you might spend a lot of time and nerves with other theme options and customizers that come with WordPress.
Although I’m familiar with this plugin and I’m sure that most people share a positive impression of it, some may ask questions like “Have I really needed a page builder?” or “Why should I choose Elementor, but not any other page builder?” In the first chapter, I am going to give detailed information about Elementor, such as what it is and the main concepts of it. Then, I will compare Elementor to the normal WordPress editor and give reasons why to use Elementor.
After that, I will show the primary Elementor workspace to get you more familiar with this page builder. Finally, I will guide you on how to install Elementor and create your first page with Elementor.
1.1. What is Elementor?
Elementor is a plugin for WordPress. It is a live page builder that lets you create a website. The Elementor has a free version and a paid version. With Elementor, you can create your own website from scratch, with the help of their themes and templates. You can do this with any theme. But, with some themes, Elementor offers deep integration and even more powerful page-building experiences.
With Elementor, you can create a site step by step, widget by widget. You select the section from the menu and you drag the widget that you want to the section. Also, you can see the changes that you’re making in real-time. On the right, you have access to the settings for the widget and the styles that are available for that widget. In Elementor, creating the header and footer of the site is done with a special section of the editor.
When you first install Elementor and open the Elementor editor, you have 2 primary options to get started. First, you have the option of creating a single page. Second, you can open an existing page in the editor. Elementor also offers what’s called a role manager. This feature is designed to give developers more control over the various WordPress editing capabilities, based on which users are going to be using Elementor on the site.
So you can choose the role, what they call the editing privileges, of who can use Elementor in the editor. Elementor has a revision history. And what this lets you do is go back to the previous state of the page, so if you’ve made a mistake you can recover the last step, the last finalized step. So, certain WordPress revision control settings may affect how this feature interacts with Elementor.
1.2. Benefits of Using Elementor
There are so many page builders available in the market. You might be thinking why you should choose Elementor instead of other page builders. Well, let us explain it to you. Elementor has so many features that would make your web designing life a lot easier than before. Here are the things that are likely to be the most beneficial for users. First of all, Elementor is a front-end page builder.
One of the biggest benefits of Elementor is that you can see real-time design changes as you are editing your website. For example, if you make a change to a heading, you will be able to see that change on your website immediately.
This removes the need to keep switching between the backend WordPress dashboard and the front end of your website to preview your changes. The next thing is, that Elementor gives you access to a huge template library.
No matter what kind of website you are building, you will be sure to find a suitable template. Once you are happy with a template, you can import the design and then make changes to it using the Elementor editor. Also, there are many advanced design features in Elementor. You can add things like hover and entrance animations, background videos gradient backgrounds, and even custom CSS to any page created with Elementor.
All of these features give greater scope for exciting and more complex web design. Well, in traditional web design, you need to keep saving your work to see it live. However, with Elementor you do not need to do this; simply pick up a widget and start dragging and dropping it onto your page and you will see the design change in front of your eyes. This not only makes the design process faster but also a lot of fun.
Another great benefit of Elementor is the mobile editing features. Nowadays, it is crucial to make sure your website looks great on mobiles and tablets as well as desktops. With the Elementor page builder, you can switch to the mobile view directly from the editor and then make changes to the design that only apply to mobile devices. All of these benefits are likely to make your web designing more joyful and effective when using Elementor.
1.3. Why Elementor is Popular in 2024
Just a few years before, people may say that they don’t need a page builder plugin because they don’t want to “stick” with a certain plugin. Once you design the whole site with a page builder plugin, there is no way you can remove the plugin because it will destroy your design. It may be true for Elementor before version 2.0.
Elementor is just like other page builder plugins. Once you deactivate the plugin, your page will be a mess. This makes people reluctant to use a page builder plugin. However, that is not the case with Elementor 2.0. Elementor 2.0 comes with the feature of “seamless integration”. What this means is that Elementor 2.0 will work with any WordPress theme.
Once you decide to stop using Elementor 2.0, the content will be a mess in the backend editor. However, the content will still display perfectly in the WordPress editor. This feature draws a lot of the crowd to start using Elementor 2.0. Imagine the time you can save, knowing that you can use Elementor 2.0 in any WordPress theme that you are working on.
Also, with Elementor 2.0, you are given total freedom. This is because Elementor 2.0 disables the usage of shortcodes. The content that you created with Elementor 2.0 stays with Elementor 2.0. If you decide to stop using Elementor 2.0, the content will not be gone.
It will remain in the backend editor and you can see every single shortcode appearing in the content. However, that is not the case. Every time you create content with Elementor 2.0, you can be sure that the content will be there to stay. Every time you see a new technology or feature, one of the questions that you will probably ask is, how do I make something awesome with what I have just seen? Well, good news.
The team that brought you Elementor is here to make your dream come true. Introducing Elementor Pro, the game changer. With Elementor Pro, developers can see the possibilities of creating a truly custom theme.
Every now and then you will see software that is released with the “SEO-ready” tag. What makes Elementor different is the fact that the coding is done with page speed in mind. Every page that is built with Elementor is mobile-friendly and SEO-friendly.
On top of that, the front end is a “live view” of what you are editing. This means that whatever thing that you edit in the Elementor is exactly what you will see on your live site. Gone are the days when you constantly switch between the backend and front end to see if your design looks okay up to a certain edit. Last but not least, Elementor 2.0 is in continuous and lively development.
In June, Elementor 2.1 arrived with the promise of the long-awaited table of contents and some other minor features. In the same month, versions 2.2 and 2.2.1 were released to fix some bugs in the previous version.
This means that any problem or bug encountered when you are working with Elementor can be quickly rectified and improved over time. With fast incoming updates and great support coming from the developers of Elementor, it is set to attract even more users to start working with this amazing plugin, Elementor
2. Getting Started with Elementor
The first thing that you’re going to need to do is to install the Elementor plugin. This is pretty straightforward. In your WordPress website, you just need to go to ‘Plugins’, ‘Add New’ and search for Elementor. Then hit ‘Install Now’ and ‘Activate’. And once you’ve done that, you’re going to see that Elementor is now within the sidebar here. And when you go to add a new page, you’re going to see that you have an option now to click on ‘Edit with Elementor’.
So if you’re creating a new page and you want to use Elementor and start building your pages using Elementor, you can just go ahead and click on ‘Edit with Elementor’ there and it will take you across to the Elementor interface. But if you’re editing any other page, so, for example, one of these sample pages that WordPress starts you off with, and you want to use Elementor to edit them, you can go up to the bar at the top of the page.
And where it says ‘Edit Page’, if you go ahead and click on that, now you have the option to click ‘Edit with Elementor’. So it’s really simple to get started with Elementor. And in the next lesson what we’re going to do is we’re going to look at how you set up this from the beginning.
And what I mean here is we’re going to look at how we can set this page to be edited with Elementor by default. So that whenever we click on ‘Edit with Elementor’, we automatically go into that interface. We’re also going to look at how you can remove the sidebar and the toolbar at the top so that you’ve really got a nice clear space to work within the Elementor interface.
2.1. Installing Elementor Plugin
The Elementor plugin is what will give you the ability to design your entire website using Elementor. It replaces your default theme’s design and gives you a blank canvas on which to work. To install the Elementor plugin, you must go to your WordPress Dashboard and then to the plugin section. On the plugins page, go ahead and click on Add New at the top. In the search box on the right-hand side, you should search for Elementor and you will see it pop up in the list below.
Once you’ve found the Elementor plugin, go ahead and click Install Now and WordPress will begin installing the plugin for you. WordPress will let you know when the installation is complete and you’ll be presented with an option to activate the plugin. You must click on Activate and then you should be redirected to the installed plugins page.
If for any reason you’re not redirected to the installed plugins page, you can manually find the Elementor plugin from the list of installed plugins on your WordPress Dashboard and click activate from there. When you have installed and activated the plugin, you’ll be asked to connect your free Elementor account in order to get access to some really cool features such as the Elementor template library.
But if you’re not interested in doing that right now, you can click on the ‘skip’ link and you should be taken straight to the Elementor Home page. And that’s it, the Elementor plugin is now installed and you’re ready to start using it to create your website.
2.2. Setting Up Elementor for the First Time
When you first set up Elementor, you’ll need to test a single bit of basic functionality to ensure it’s all working and producing content as you’d expect.
This means building a new page and checking that you can see the Elementor live editing feature as you’d expect. Assuming you have a satisfying and smooth user experience after installing Elementor, we can proceed to configure the plugin itself. In WordPress, there are likely a few desktop environments that we will frequently make use of in configuring our plugin so it’s accessible and ready for any kind of content we choose to produce.
The primary display relevant to a new plugin will be the WordPress desktop which drives users towards the key work areas such as ‘Pages’, ‘Posts’, and ‘Media’. The Elementor live editing screen can be accessed by clicking on a pre-existing page or post, or by directly adding new content by selecting ‘Pages’ > ‘Add New’ from the sidebar. Then, below the visual text editor, there should be a blue button which reads ‘Edit with Elementor’. This is launching the live editor and visualizing the structure of the page helps position elements quickly and effectively.
This can be noticed because the main part of the screen changes to show a working area that can draw page elements into and on the right-hand side, a collection of tabs composed of elements which can be placed into the live editor. With this dynamic functionality available, users can populate their pages quickly, experiment with design, and ensure that their content is engaging and attractive.
2.3. Exploring the Elementor Interface
The Elementor plugin interface has a left-hand sidebar with several options. The very first option enables you to add a brand new section. This section can be broken into two parts.
At the top, there’s a place for you to add a new section. Click on the ‘+’ icon and you can choose the structure of your section – one column, two columns, three columns, etc. If you’ve established your sections and columns and you select a particular section by clicking on it, in the left-hand sidebar the second part of the section comes into play.
In this part, you can add a widget to the section of the website you’ve just chosen. It’s pretty straightforward, although obviously you need to spend time getting used to what each widget does.
The drag and drop function is fantastic and it means you can move or add items to columns or sections really easily without a great deal of ‘filtering through’ pages of code. The second option on the left-hand sidebar allows you to install a brand new template; you can choose from block, page, or canvas live. The most popular is the block, and by clicking on it you’ve got access to a large selection of pre-set templates, or blocks, that can be imported straight into your website.
On the actual webpage, the center of the website enables you to navigate through your current templates. Also, you’ve got the ability to search for page settings like the actual theme, the page layout, and the page attributes – these would normally be found within WordPress in the ‘pages’ section under the title of the page.
3. Creating and Editing Pages with Elementor
So now that you’ve got your beautiful custom header and footer in place, it’s time to get busy creating and editing your pages with Elementor. One of the first things you’ll want to do is to create a new page if you haven’t already.
So from your WordPress dashboard, you’ll simply go to “Pages > Add New”. The first thing you’ll notice though is that when adding a new page or when editing an existing page, with Elementor enabled – your WordPress page editor will look completely different. There are these little tabs – “Add Template”, “Save as Template”, and “Page Settings”.
They’re actually quite similar to the ones found in the Elementor editor. So with the Add Template tab selected, by pressing on that green square, you’ll be taken into the Elementor editor where you can start building your page visually. Lots of things work in the Elementor editor in the same way as the WordPress one. For example, to add a new section, you can either click on this little icon here; or you can click on the grey folder symbol in the column to the left hand side.
Once your new section has been added, you can then start adding in your widgets by pressing the grey plus sign. To make this process quicker, you have the option to add less complex structures first, and then customize them how you want. This is especially useful if you’re creating areas with multiple columns and widgets.
To demonstrate this, instead of adding a single text editor in the section, I’ll add a “Heading” widget and a “Text Editor”. This allows me to be able to set the content in the “Text Editor” widget and any options for the “Heading” widget in their respective tabs in the left hand side panel when I press on the widget itself.
And now when you have a new page created with Elementor, you can easily plug in your sections and block design features to really quickly create those pages and develop your website. Now, once you have Elementor active within the page editor, if you have a look over in the editor of the page to the right hand side, there’s a heading saying “Attributes”. This lets you choose what type of page you want it to be.
For example, having a default template with the header and footer is displayed, or with Elementor Canvas where the header and footer becomes hidden. And there’s quite a few options to choose from here depending on the type of page that you actually want to create. And if you stick mostly to using the Elementor editor, you might not need to use this screen much at all in future – making the whole process really seamless.
3.1. Adding Elements and Widgets
When creating a page, you first have to create a section. Then, you can add columns and start adding elements or widgets. To add a twist, you can only add columns next to another column, so that every column must always have something next to it. To start, if you hover over the add new section area, you will see a blue pop-up that says “Add new section.” If you click on it, you will see that a section will appear.
After you add a section, you can add a new section, move the section, duplicate the section, or delete the section. Do this until you have your desired amount of sections and then proceed to add the widgets or elements.
Adding and customizing columns and sections is a really easy way to make your website more complicated and specifically tailored to your liking. By adding the elements and customizing them to your needs, you can create beautiful, intricate designs that are still easy to handle and maneuver because of the optimization that Elementor provides.
There are so many different elements to choose from and each element widget has its own customization options, so once you get comfortable with Elementor, the possibilities are pretty much endless!
3.2. Customizing Layouts and Designs
Elementor not only provides a wide range of options for adding and customizing content, but it also gives you plenty of flexibility when it comes to changing the overall layout and design of the page itself. Once you have added the basic structure to your page – such as sections, columns, and the like – and maybe also some static content such as imagery, text and so on, you might decide that you want a different kind of layout for a particular section of the page.
There are generally two ways in which you can change layout designs with Elementor: either from the ‘Style’ tab for a particular section, which provides some limited column structure and background options, or by using the ‘Navigator’ tool, which allows you to change any part of the page’s layout from any place in the editor by dragging and dropping different elements.
To access the ‘Navigator’, you should look to the middle-left of the Elementor editor screen. Clicking the ‘Navigator’ button here will open a new window that previews the entire layout structure of the page – this typically includes all the sections, columns and widgets that you have added so far.
By selecting a particular element in the ‘Navigator’ window, the corresponding section in the main editor screen will be highlighted, which helps you to navigate around the various elements and also see what they correspond to in the context of the final layout. For instance, if you were to select a particular section in the ‘Navigator’ window, a properties list for that section would be displayed in the window to the left, and this would allow you to change some of the settings and options for that section.
This means that you can see and change your layout design from the ‘Navigator’ window itself – for example, you might decide to add a new section above an existing one, or perhaps change a particular section to have a different ‘stretch’ column structure.
By using the buttons to expand or collapse sections and columns in the ‘Navigator’ window, and dragging them into new positions using the left mouse button, you can achieve different kinds of layout designs with relative ease.
3.3. Using Advanced Features and Integrations
You can access additional options and settings for Elementor by using the “Advanced” tab at the top of the page. By toggling options like “Responsive Mode” and “Sticky Header”, you can view your design on a range of screen sizes and devices.
Another great feature is the ability to add custom CSS to sections, columns, and widgets, giving you even more control over your layouts and designs. If you have a particular type of content you want to display in a section (such as posts, a portfolio, or your social media feed), Elementor makes it easy to connect your designs to your site’s content. First, you need to ensure you have installed and activated the relevant plugin to your WordPress website.
For example, to display blog posts, you should install the “Elementor Pro” plugin which will allow you to use the “Posts” widget. After dragging the widget to your chosen section, you can use the dropdown menu in the “Content” tab of the widget’s settings to choose a source for your posts, such as a specific category or tag.
People often find it a bit harder to integrate Elementor with WooCommerce, but this is still a fairly quick and painless process. Another option is to add custom “Hooks” to specific areas of your site.
Many WordPress themes give you the ability to insert code or custom content to “Hooks” such as the footer and header, and this allows you to really seamlessly integrate Elementor’s content within your existing site. In your WordPress dashboard, head to “Appearance” > “Customize” and navigate to the “Integrations” area, if your theme supports Elementor.
Here, you can add any custom “Hooks” or “Shortcodes” used by your theme, which will then be available to link with your Elementor designs. The ability to add custom “Hooks” to your theme is a feature of the “Elementor Pro” plugin, so make sure you have purchased and installed this to use this feature.
4. Optimizing Performance with Elementor
To optimize the performance of your website when you’re using Elementor as your WordPress page builder, you can follow a range of guidance. By optimizing images and minimizing bloat, to employing zippy hosting and caching your web pages, you can enjoy a snappier, speedier site that offers a fantastic user experience to your visitors.
Utilizing best practices for speed and loading times can prove invaluable when you’re using Elementor, especially on image-rich web pages. One of the principal reasons for this is that folks tend to be particularly keen on websites that load quickly; in fact, 47% of website visitors expect a site to load in under 2 seconds, and 40% will abandon a site that takes over 3 seconds to load. To this end, one fantastic plugin that can help you to improve page loading speed is WP Fastest Cache.
This is because WP Fastest Cache creates static HTML files for your online content that is then served to users, which helps to speed up the page display and load times on your website. It also employs various strategies, like enabling browser caching, which is a way of storing web page files on a user’s local computer so that the initial load time of a web page is reduced and the loading time for return visitors is improved.
Configuring the plugin WP Fastest Cache is very straightforward and should make a noticeable difference to the loading time of your website, particularly when you’re using Elementor. First, go to Plugins and click on “Add New”. Then, type “WP Fastest Cache” into the search bar. When you see the plugin appear, click on “Install Now” and then on “Activate”.
4.1. Best Practices for Speed and Loading Times
Also, if you’re adding something that’s going to be displayed for a few seconds and you’re adding it to every page but not something that’s going to be in any way page-specific, then you’re adding.
Also, I think it’s a very important aspect to consider, is to make sure that the item that you’re adding is something that you’re going to be using, not something that you’re going to have for the sake of it. Every time that one of these elements is added, I suppose you’re loading up more and more and more that the render has got to look through and it’s got to sort of work out.
So if you’re making the builder think “ah right,” you know you have to really concentrate, “what are these elements, what are they going to do and where are they going to go”, it’s going to have an effect on the load time I imagine.
The next factor to consider is that you should always try to minimize the reliance on adding extra elements. Try to use the same or similar types of elements and don’t use too many different ones. For example, if you’ve got a certain style of button that you’re looking to have on different pages of your website, don’t embed 5 different types of buttons. Try to embed one and stick with that one.
Also, when you’re talking about web pages when you put large images in that you’ve resized in the page builder, it might look fine on your mobile device when you’re loading it up on a web page and you’re loading that from a server, it’s still going to send those large images down to a user’s device. However, that device might be a mobile phone or a smaller tablet.
So not only is it transferring a large file across the internet, which could take a little bit of time, but you’re also then putting excessive load and load on that user’s data plan as well. So it’s always good if you put the best practices to use.
Essentially, when you optimize images and you put the dimension in there, what you’re doing is you’re telling the web page or the browser, you’re saying “Take the image element and this is its sizes in terms of widths and heights”. Therefore, what you’re doing is putting less strain on the render works for an element, or whatever the page builder may be, to work out what sizes do and don’t need to be there. So it is a performance benefit for the actual page builder itself.
In addition, you should always go through the process of optimizing images. Optimizing images can be done within the image itself, so when you’re adding the image to a page, you can go through and change the dimensions of it, the size of it, and things like that. This will have a big knock-on effect in terms of loading times and things.
However, there is always an ongoing debate as to why this is good for the page builder and why people talk about that quite a lot.
One of the first suggestions is to make sure that all the images that you use within the media library are web-based, web-friendly image types, such as JPEG, PNG, and things like that. Try to avoid using the bigger image types like bitmaps, things like that.
4.2. Optimizing Images and Media
When adding new pictures to an Elementor page, each uploaded image automatically gets a number of default sizes generated. As a guide, large file sizes can slow down the loading time of a webpage.
One way to speed up a page is to reduce the file size of the images and media being used. This can be done in a number of ways. First of all, the physical size – the number of pixels in the length and width of the image – should be considered.
A browser will still download the complete file, even if the image is being displayed at a smaller size on the webpage. It is good practice to reduce the physical size of the image to code and then scale it down using the image dimensions options in Elementor.
However, it can be easy to still upload large images that do not need to be displayed at the full resolution.
One useful way to help improve the speed of a webpage and overall performance is to make use of an image compression tool. These come in many different guises, some free to use and some paid for, and by running images through one of these tools it is possible to reduce the file size.
Compression can reduce the file size of an image by up to 60% – without a significant loss of visible quality. WordPress has a REST API-based service called ShortPixel Image Optimization, which can be used to automatically compress the file size of uploaded images. This software works by enabling images to be compressed automatically when they are uploaded to a web page’s media library. As the data compression happens in the cloud, this helps to speed up the page loading times.
It also offers the benefit of no-loss compression, which means the quality of the images remains high as the file size decreases. All that is needed is to install the plugin, acquire an API key from the ShortPixel website, enter the key into the plugin’s settings, and then start optimizing.
By configuring the plugin to use the ‘lossy’ option, it is possible to achieve the best levels of file size compression and speed up webpage performance without any visible loss of quality to the website’s visitors.
4.3. Caching and Minification Techniques
Caching in web development generally refers to the process of storing copies of web pages or posts in a server’s cache and serving that cache version to users, as opposed to generating the site’s content from scratch every time it is visited.
For the user, this usually means quicker loading times. For the website, it means reduced strain on the server.
Caching can be implemented at many different levels, from the application and server levels to network and global levels, often through a combination of caching techniques.
WordPress and many popular hosting services, including SiteGround and Kinsta, already use server-side caching. Nevertheless, additional caching and minification measures can be taken specifically to take advantage of Elementor’s capabilities.
Minification refers to the process of removing unnecessary or redundant data without affecting how the resource is processed by the browser – for example, code comments and formatting, or unused code.
This can greatly reduce the amount of code that needs to be called and processed, leading to leaner loading times. There are plenty of plugins that can help with minification, which mostly cater to developers.
Two of the best-known options are “Fast Velocity Minify” and “Autoptimize”. However, as with any kind of optimization that happens at the server level, one should exercise caution and test changes as going too far can result in a sluggish user experience.
4.4. Elementor Add-Ons and Extensions
As described in the previous section of this complete guide, the Elementor plugin comes with a host of useful features for web designers all built into one plugin.
However, if the truth is told, the real powerful features and potential for this amazing page builder come when you add any of the amazing Elementor add-ons and extensions.
Given that the Elementor page builder is one of the most popular and user-friendly page builders on the market today, it should come as no surprise that there are many third-party developers creating some pretty standout and exciting Elementor add-ons for the design community.
On top of this, Elementor has also recently become ‘WooCommerce Builder’ aware, meaning that it now comes with specific builder features designed to work with WooCommerce as standard.
However, despite this additional functionality that Elementor now brings to the world of e-commerce design, the true potential to significantly speed up and improve workflow comes from having the right mix of Elementor add-ons.
There are literally hundreds of third-party plugins and add-ons out there that are compatible with Elementor, so it can be hard to know which ones might be best for your needs. Well, to install a new add-on or plugin to your website the process is really as simple as you might expect.
All you need to do is navigate to the plugins area of your WordPress dashboard and click the button labeled ‘add new’.
From here, you have two possible methods for adding any external .zip files that you may have to install the desired plugin to your website.
5. Popular Add-Ons for Elementor
This section discusses some of the most popular add-ons for Elementor, specifically those that add new elements and content blocks to the basic package. The first add-on considered here is Ultimate Addons for Elementor.
This is a premium add-on for the free version of Elementor and provides over 20 new elements and page sections, with more promised in future updates.
This package is not only extensive but also focused on quality – all of the new content that it provides is really slick and looks professional.
This is important, given that the quality of the free elements bundled with Elementor seemed to vary quite a lot.
A number of other add-ons are based on providing additional elements, and of these perhaps the most extensive is the ElementsKit plugin.
This again is a premium plugin, but in addition to what seems like a practically unlimited number of new elements, this package also includes full ready-made blocks and pages for Elementor, expanding the base template library that Elementor provides.
There is also a feature to allow the creation of custom element sets, where for example a collection of elements and template blocks can be saved to be used on other sites or to share between different designers.
Including dynamic content in a site made with Elementor requires a bit of effort in setting up a custom theme, and there is still plenty of documentation available that suggests that this is the only way to allow for dynamic content.
However, the JetEngine plugin is focused on providing a solution for dynamic content in Elementor.
This paid plugin allows for the creation of custom post types, taxonomy, and relationship fields – tools that will be familiar to developers who are used to working with more complex content management systems.
These custom elements can then be added to pages made with Elementor and linked to its dynamic content features.
5.1. Extending Functionality with Third-Party Plugins
Of course, if there isn’t an existing Elementor add-on or extension that provides a specific feature you require, you can create your own add-on and integrate it into your Elementor projects.
This is a more advanced topic and the workflow is slightly more complicated as it requires including complex scripts and styles.
However, as a general guide, the steps for creating a custom add-on for Elementor include: creating the basic files and folder structure for your add-on, registering the add-on with Elementor, enqueuing scripts and styles, and finally, utilizing the Elementor API.
You will also benefit from having some knowledge and proficiency in JavaScript, PHP, and CSS, particularly as regards how they are used within the WordPress environment.
The world of WordPress is changing all the time, and with brand new features such as the ability to create custom Gutenberg blocks, the launch of various front-end editing solutions, and wider adoption of detailed JavaScript workflows like the Node JS suite, it’s important to keep on top of all available resources and ensure your skill set is as up-to-date as possible.
Whether you choose to use a third-party plugin or work on your own one, striving to expand your knowledge and understanding of the different ways in which you can extend your favorite platforms is always beneficial.
5.2. Exploring Elementor Pro Features
Elementor Pro makes a great WordPress page builder even better. This section covers many of the new and exciting features that Elementor Pro brings to the table.
Customers are invited to follow along with the screenshots as we explore the Elementor Pro interface for these many new Elementor Pro elements.
The text on this page is an example of what is known as “headline” or “h1”: a type of attribute that is used to show the most important text on the webpage.
In the Elementor interface for this website, when a user creates a new section of the page by clicking on the big, grey “new section” button, the editor automatically assigns multiple CSS styles to the new section.
In order to edit the actual padding and margins for the section in the Elementor interface, the user can quickly navigate to the “advanced” tab. By clicking on “advanced,” the user will see that there are four different inputs for the user to adjust.
These are named “margin,” “padding,” “z-index,” and “CSS classes.” Each of these options corresponds to a particular attribute in computer programming.
For example, by clicking on “margin,” the editor user can change the attribute in the web editor interface and assign a different value to the margin. As the user changes the value of the margin, they can visually see on screen in real-time how this impacts the layout of the webpage.
Wrap-Up
If you’re new to WordPress, i would suggest you to start with basic version of Elementor Page builder. The reason for this reccomendation is that they have a YouTube Channel where they guide users through everuthing in order to build amazing websites.
They have complete palylists for creating a Blog Website using Elementor and Ecommerce Store using Elementor.
If you are already using Elementor and want to move to ELementor Pro, please visit our shop page to purchase Elementor Pro for a much lower Price.
FAQ
ask us
anything
1. Is Elementor beginner-friendly?
Absolutely! Elementor’s drag-and-drop interface and intuitive controls make it suitable even for people with no coding experience. The visual editor allows you to see your changes live as you make them, removing guesswork and lowering the learning curve.
2. What kind of websites can I build with Elementor?
Elementor’s versatility shines here. You can build simple landing pages, complex blogs, full-fledged e-commerce stores, and even custom portfolios, all without switching from the core plugin. Its extensive library of widgets and templates caters to diverse needs.
Yes, the basic version of Elementor is free and offers a good range of features for simple websites. However, unlocking its full potential requires upgrading to Elementor Pro, which comes with additional widgets, templates, and advanced functionalities.
4. How does Elementor compare to other page builders like Divi or Beaver Builder?
Each builder has its strengths and weaknesses. Elementor is often praised for its user-friendliness and clean interface, while Divi offers more design flexibility. Beaver Builder focuses on speed and performance. Ultimately, the best choice depends on your individual needs and preferences.
5. Does Elementor affect website loading speed?
Like any plugin, Elementor can add some weight to your website. However, the developers prioritize performance optimization, and responsible usage with lightweight elements minimizes impact. Additionally, Elementor Pro offers features like page caching and code minimization to further improve speed.
