WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging tool to a tool being used to create all types of web sites.
Whatever you can think of, someone is probably already building it with WordPress!
In this article you will discover the simplest visual content editor for WordPress.
Drag And Drop Content Editors For WordPress
The WordPress Visual Editor – Is There An Easier Way For Creating Content Layouts In WordPress?
With so many advancements that the WordPress platform has gone through in recent years, many WordPress users believe that using the built-in WordPress content editor to create or edit more complex layouts can be quite difficult.
(The default WordPress editor is great for adding, formatting and editing conventional content, but adding more complex page elements can be challenging!)
For example, if you look at the image below …
To create the above layout, you would normally need to add shortcodes to the content for each element you want to display to visitors …
Normally, this is not really an issue … unless you choose to change the layout (for example, move part of the content from box 3 into box 2, or replace the button inside box 1 from green to light blue. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with page code.
The WordPress editor is supposed to provide non-technical users with an easy-to-use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, but as you can see, when creating with complex content elements, often what you see in the WordPress content editor is not exactly what you are going to get when the page is published …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some cases, you would probably be better off working with the source html itself instead of the visual editor when trying to add something other than simple page elements …
Even though WordPress is extremely easy to use, this makes it difficult for users with no knowledge of HTML or CSS to fully manage their own content.
The fundamental issue about using HTML and shortcodes to create content in WordPress can be summarized by asking the following questions:
1) Speed – How long will it take to build a web page using the editor?
2) Abstraction – How closely does the content in the ”back end” match the content in the “front end” when you are creating or editing a page?
As you can see from the above, what you see when working in the content editor looks nothing like what you see in the front end. This means that you have to mentally translate what the content will look like when working with complex layouts. Other solutions require multiple steps before you can begin configuring your page layout, or endlessly switching browser tabs and performing updates to see how your content is coming along, which then impacts how quickly you can create your content, as you wait for your updates to refresh.
Many WordPress developers have come up with various solutions to try and make the visual editor more intuitive. These solutions range from stand alone plugins you can install on your site that add new functionality to the editor, to themes that provide built-in features like drag and drop editing …
(WordPress “drag and drop” editors aim to make creating complex content easier!)
Some solutions end up combining so many complex page-building features, that users end up with complicated-looking front end content editors …
Many of these alternative editors work fine, but they don’t address the fundamental challenge of using HTML and shortcodes as described earlier. Creating and adding sophisticated content elements on a web page becomes overly complicated, involves multiple steps and doesn’t match what users expect to see on the “front end.”
If you want to create or edit complex page content quickly, this can start to become very frustrating after a while.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like to build and edit your web pages?
Now, imagine this …
- You see something in your content that needs fixing so you, just click on the content and start changing it. Your content has been instantly edited.
- You just drag and drop elements around the page, and the page looks exactly as it will appear on the front end without having to mentally translate code.
- You have an idea for a specific item of content you’d like to create, so you just begin typing, and your page gets built on the fly, with no delays, without switching of tab browsers, and no waiting for new content to refresh.
Would this not be the ideal way to build content for your web site? A true visual content builder where all you have to do is click-to-edit and drag and drop elements around your page?
(Imagine being able to create complex page layouts in real-time for your web content with no technical constraints!)
If you are ready to change the way you create content in WordPress site, then here is a plugin that you may want to consider using …
Thrive Content Builder – The Simplest Visual Editor For WordPress
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a revolutionary plugin for WordPress that allows anyone to quickly create and change content on their posts and pages with a click-to-edit and drag and drop content editor.
Thrive Content Builder provides WordPress users with a new and incredibly easy way to set up conversion-focused pages on any WordPress web site.
Once installed, Thrive Content Builder adds a visual content editor and a menu that lets you select, then drag and drop design elements on your web page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new content editor to your WordPress site)
The plugin is actually a combination of the Thrive Content Builder and Thrive Landing Pages plugins merged into one, plus an additional plugin feature called Thrive Lightbox.
We will take an in-depth look at all of the above plugins and how these powerful features work seamlessly together to help you transform and improve your web site and create awesome sales pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content.
Thrive Content Builder
This plugin lets you easily add complex design layouts to your web pages using drag and drop elements …
Everything on your page can be configured, edited and rearranged with “drag and drop” and “click-to-edit” ease …
Once elements have been added to the page, you can then easily edit or customize them without having to go through multiple steps or opening new configuration screens …
You can also create highly attractive landing pages that can also be easily customized …
Thrive Content Builder is simple, easy to use, and ideal for all WordPress users at all levels. In fact, working on content with the plugin installed is so effortlessly easy, that the developers warn that once you start using it, you’ll never look back!
For more details, visit the plugin site here: Thrive Content Builder
Thrive Content Builder and Thrive Landing Pages were created by the same team that developed Thrive Leads, another terrific plugin for WordPress we’ve reviewed on this site.
To read more about the plugin, go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up the process of designing pages and creating content for your website:
Fast And Simple To Install And Use. Ready To Go To Work In Minutes.
Thrive Content Builder is really easy to install. Just upload a zip folder that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Real-Time Content Building & Editing
Thrive Content Builder is simple to use and lets you edit content in real-time.
What You See Is Really What You Get
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see as you work within the content editor – fonts, visual elements, page layouts, etc. is exactly what you get on the front end of your site.
Some additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Attractive Web Page Layouts With Drag And Drop Ease: Create any kind of layout you can imagine with intuitive drag-and-drop functionality.
- Design Elements Included: With the Thrive Content Builder plugin you not only get an amazing drag and drop content builder, but the plugin also includes a very decent collection of functional and attractive design elements that you can customizable and insert into your web pages without using short codes, such as tabbed content, content reveal feature, dividers, responsive videos, etc.
- Ideal For Non-Technical Users: Not having to deal with technical stuff for the content to load frees up your attention and allows you to be more focused while you build content or click through multiple steps to get what you need done.
(Insert, edit and customize web page elements like testimonial boxes, tabbed content, feature grids, call to action buttons, Google Map embeds, etc.)
Features
Thrive Content Builder provides WordPress users many great features. Below we have listed just a few of these:
- Regular WordPress Editor Functionality Is Still Available: You have all of the regular WordPress text editing options that you are used to (e.g. bold formatting, paragraph formatting, headings, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Multi-Style Elements: The plugin makes a “drag and drop” table of multi-style elements available on your post or page screen for editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin provides you with a range of attention-grabbing and customizable elements that will help you increase your sales conversions, including buttons and call-to-action elements, testimonial boxes, and guarantees. In addition to being customizable, various elements also offer multiple design options.
- Responsive Design: Add responsive elements like column layouts, text boxes, section dividers, e.g. which will display great on devices with differently sized screens.
- Add Animation Events To Your Web Pages: Thrive Content Builder’s Event Manager feature lets you create animation in buttons, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your Web Pages)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Landing Page Templates
Landing page template sets are web templates that work together logically and use the same conversion-optimized design language to take your visitors from signup to purchase, product download and more.
(Thrive Landing Pages lets you add conversion-optimized pages to your site)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Benefits
- Everything is hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time creating pages
- 100% conversion-optimized pages
- No tech skills needed
- Works with all themes
Thrive Content and Page Builder not only can be used to create beautiful-looking content in your WordPress posts and pages, but you can also choose from dozens of beautifully designed, page templates that are conversion-optimized and fully customizable …
(Thrive Landing Pages provides sets of templates that work together logically and use the same conversion-optimized design language)
There are currently over thirty templates available, with more templates being worked on. In addition to the templates that are currently available, the developers plan to release new web page templates for email lead generation, sales pages, training pages, personal branding pages, webinar pages and more.
Fully Customizable And Flexible Landing Page Template
Typically, in order to have fully customizable landing page templates, you would need to either hire a web designer to do the work, or learn web coding languages like HTML and CSS and figure out what to do yourself.
As Shane Melaugh, co-founder of Thrive Themes says …
“There are many ways to get a pre-designed page published quickly, but the problem comes with customization. Total design freedom requires either hiring web developers to do the work for you, or learn how to do it yourself, which involves learning how to mess around with code or use complex editors. Customizable usually means complicated, expensive or time-consuming. So, you can either have something that is fast and easy to set up, or something that is customizable and flexible. But you couldn’t have both … until now! With Thrive Landing Pages you get the best of both worlds for building conversion-optimized web pages.”
Thrive Landing Pages gives you attractive pre-built web pages that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that lets you change or edit any aspect of the page templates …
The landing page template sets included with this plugin let you do the following:
- Change text in any headline, button, bullet point, etc.
- Remove text, images or any other part of your landing page
- Replace the background image or background colour
- Change the color of buttons, links, text, etc.
- Use your own fonts
- Use your own images and graphics
- Modify the size of the content area
- Change the order of elements on your pages
- Translate everything on the page into a different language
- Add custom content anywhere inside the pages
- Use pre-designed, customized pages, or create your own landing pages from scratch and save them as new page templates.
(Change and customize any element of the page template)
Transform Your Site Into A Marketing Machine With Thrive Lightbox
The Thrive plugin package includes Thrive Lightbox, which lets you add fully editable 2-step opt-in forms and events to your web pages …
(Add lead capture forms and events to your pages with the Thrive Lightbox plugin)
2-Step Opt-in Forms
A 2-step opt-in process can improve your conversion rates. Visitors click on an image or button, and then they are presented with your opt-in form …
(Capture more leads and subscribers with a two-step opt-in process)
Thrive Lightbox Event Manager
An “event” consists of a trigger and an action. You can make opt-in forms appear when when visitors click or hover their mouse over a button or graphic elements, or when someone reaches a certain point on the page. You can also use the Event Manager to animate attention-getting elements on your pages, using various animation effects (e.g. zoom in from the page center, slide in from right to left, rotate, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your WordPress site with Thrive Lightbox)
Lightboxes and events are created automatically for your landing pages, but you also have complete control over your events, triggers and design.
Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials that users have submitted regarding Thrive Content Builder:
“I have had nothing but the best experience imaginable with this tool since I purchased it. This is by far one of, if not the best plug-in I have purchase to date and it has definitely made working with WordPress a whole new experience. Jim Bond”
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”Great stuff! I am really impressed by all the new additions. You guys have shown a true commitment to making these themes and the Content Builder awesome. Michael Johnson”
Thrive Content Builder – Tips
Thrive Content Builder works with any WordPress theme, not just with Thrive Landing Pages. Note, however, that you cannot use Thrive Content Builder to edit content that was not created with the plugin.
You can add shortcodes inside Thrive Content Builder or Thrive Landing Pages and they will be displayed correctly on on your site.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content built with Thrive Content Builder.
Plugin Support
Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder Plugin comes with free updates, new landing templates and upcoming features. The Thrive team is constantly working on adding new features and improving existing ones.
Thrive software is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates, plus one year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 30 day, 100% money-back guarantee.
This is an exciting product that will just keep getting better.
Plugin Pricing
At the time of writing, the pricing information shown below includes all three components described above (Thrive Content Builder, Thrive Landing Pages & Thrive Lightbox):
- Single Site Licensing – This allows you to install the plugin on one domain only. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Price = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This lets you set up the plugin on all websites that you own. Price includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Cost = $87.00.
- Agency Licensing – Use on all your web sites and on all your client websites. Price includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Price = $247.00 per year.
Note: The cost to purchase the Thrive Content Builder product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the software is selling for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the product seller when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing details here:
Additional Info
The developers of the Thrive Content and Page Builder plugin repeatedly assert that the plugin’s architecture gives you the “best of both worlds,” and help bring back the “joy of creating content.”
On the one hand, you have the time-saving benefits of ready-made page elements and beautiful, pre-designed template sets that help speed up your content creation, and on the other hand, you also have 100% control over the design process and the freedom to edit and customize anything and everything on your page, using the plugin’s click-to-edit and drag and drop features, that allows you to work unhindered by overly complicated steps.
For a demo video of the plugin, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the plugin website.
We Highly Recommend This …
If you want to edit something, simply click on the element and start editing. If you want to change something, you’ll see the change happen immediately. If you want to move something, all you have to do is drag it and drop it into its new location. There are no complicated steps involved.
If you want to transform and improve your web presence and create awesome marketing pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content, this plugin delivers an incredible conversion-boosting package with a single, inexpensive plugin.
To learn more, check out the plugin here:
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