WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging tool into a tool that is now used to create all types of web sites.
Whatever you can imagine, someone is bound to be already building it with WordPress!
In this article you will discover the simplest visual editor for WordPress.
Drag And Drop Content Editors For WordPress
Does The Default WordPress WYSIWYG Editor Meet All Of Your Page Design Needs?
With all the many advancements that the WordPress platform has undergone in recent years, many WordPress users feel that the WordPress content editor is more suitable for performing simple content editing (e.g. blocks of text running down the page with centered images or videos, etc.), than building and customizing content with more sophisticated layouts.
(The WordPress editor is great for adding, formatting and editing conventional text and images, but adding complex page elements can be quite challenging!)
For example, let’s say you want to create something like the content shown below …
To create the above layout, users would normally need to insert shortcodes into the content for each page element they want to display …
Typically, this is not an issue … until you decide to reconfigure the layout (for example, move part of the content from box 3 into box 2, or change the button in box 2 from dark green to gold. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with page code.
The WordPress visual editor is supposed to give users an easy-to-use WYSIWYG editor, but as you can see, if you are trying to edit more complex layouts, often what you see may not be what you are getting when the page gets published …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some situations, you would probably be better off working inside the html (text) editor tab instead of the visual editor when trying to build something other than simple layouts …
Even though WordPress is the most user-friendly CMS platform available, this makes it hard for WordPress users with no knowledge of HTML or CSS to have full control of their own content.
The fundamental challenge about using shortcodes and HTML to create content in the default WordPress visual editor can be summarized as follows:
1) Speed – How long does it take to create a page using this editor?
2) Abstraction – How closely does the content in the editor match the “front end” content when you are creating or editing a page?
As you can see from the above image, what you see when working in the back end doesn’t look even remotely similar to what you see in the front end. This means that users have to translate mentally what the content will look like when working with sophisticated layouts. Other solutions require taking several steps before you can start configuring your page layout, or endlessly switching tabs and performing updates to see how your content is progressing, which can interrupt the creative process, as you wait for the content to reload.
Many WordPress web developers have come up with various solutions aiming to make content editing easier. These solutions range from plugins you can install on your site that add new functionality to the editor, to themes that include built-in features like drag and drop editing …
(WordPress “drag and drop” editors aim to make content creation easier!)
Some solutions end up including so many page-building features, that users end up with complicated-looking front end editors …
Many of these alternative editors work fine, but they still fail to address the fundamental challenge of using shortcodes and HTML as described earlier. Adding and editing non-linear content on a 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 layouts quickly, this can start to become really frustrating after a while.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like to build and edit your pages?
Now that you’ve asked this question, visualize this …
- You look at your content and if you spot something that needs to be changed, just click on the content and start typing. Your content has been instantly fixed.
- You simply drag and drop elements around the page, and the page looks exactly as it will appear on the front end without having to mentally abstract from shortcodes or HTML.
- You have an idea for a specific item of content that you would like to add, so you immediately start typing, and your web page gets built as you go, without delays, without switching of tab browsers, and without having to wait for new web pages to republish and reload.
Would this not be the perfect way to create content for your web site? Just click-to-edit and drag and drop elements around your pages?
(Imagine being able to create complex pages quickly 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 Landing Pages And Content Builder – WordPress Click-To-Edit Drag And Drop Content And Page Creator And Editor
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a unique plugin for WordPress that gives you complete control over every aspect of your content layout with true click-to-edit and drag and drop simplicity.
Thrive Content Builder is a new and incredibly easy way to set up conversion-focused pages on any WordPress website.
Once installed, Thrive Content Builder adds a visual content editor and a sidebar menu that lets you drag and drop elements to your page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new content editor to WordPress)
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 a look at each of the above and how all of this powerful functionality works together to help you transform and improve your site and create awesome sales pages and content.
Thrive Content Builder
You can easily add content to your web pages using drag and drop elements …
Every element of your page can be configured and changed by dragging and dropping things around the page and then clicking to edit them …
Once elements have been added to a page, you can then customize or edit them without going through additional steps or switching screens …
You can also create beautiful landing pages that can also be easily customized …
Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder is simple, easy to use, and ideal for all WordPress users at all levels. In fact, designing web pages with Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder installed is so amazingly simple, that the developers guarantee that once you start using it, it’ll ruin the experience of using all other content editors forever, and you’ll never look back!
Go here to learn more about this plugin: Thrive Content Builder
The integrated Thrive Content and Landing Page Builder plugin was created by the same team that developed Thrive Leads, another excellent plugin for WordPress we’ve previously written about on this site.
To read about the plugin, see this post:
Benefits Of Using Thrive Content And Page Builder Plugin
Here are 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 site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Implement. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
Thrive Content Builder installs just like any plugin. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your admin user section and activate.
Add & Edit Content In Real Time
Thrive Content Builder is is not only very simple to use, it also lets you create and add content right inside your pages in real-time.
What You See Is Truly What You Get
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see on the “backend” as you work within the editor – fonts, visual elements, page layouts, etc. is exactly what your visitors will see on the front end of your site.
Some additional benefits include the following:
- Add Stunning Layouts With Drag-And-Drop Ease: Create any kind of layout you can imagine with intuitive drag-and-drop functionality.
- Add Design Elements Without Short Codes: With Thrive Content Builder you not only get an amazing click-to-edit content editor, but the plugin also includes a collection of design elements that you can use on your pages without using shortcodes, such as pricing tables, feature grids, page section dividers, credit card icons, etc.
- Distraction-Free Content Creation: Not having to constantly switch tabs as you tweak your content and then wait for the content to reload frees up your attention and allows you to be more focused while you build content or click through multiple layers of menus to get what you want done.
(Easily add, edit and customize page elements like testimonial boxes, tabbed content, star ratings for review pages, dividers, Google Map embeds, etc.)
Thrive Content Builder Features
Thrive Content Builder provides a number of unique features to WP users. Below we have listed just some:
- Built-In Editor Functionality Is Still Available: You have all of the built-in WordPress text editing options that you are used to (e.g. bold formatting, paragraph centering, heading styles, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Multi-Style Elements Menu: The plugin adds a “drag and drop” table of elements to your post or page screen when creating and editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin provides you with various attention-grabbing and customizable elements that will help increase the effectiveness of your sales pages, including buttons and call-to-action elements, testimonial boxes, and guarantee forms. In addition to being customizable, various elements also offer multiple design options.
- Responsive Design: Add responsive elements like columns, boxes, content section dividers, e.g. which will adjust to display great on different device screens.
- Add Animation Events To Web Pages: The plugin’s Event Manager feature lets you create animations, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your Pages)
Thrive Landing Pages – Landing Page Templates
Landing page sets are web page 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 gives you conversion-optimized page templates)
Thrive Landing Pages – Benefits
- Hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time and money designing pages
- 100% conversion-optimized web page templates
- No technical skills needed
- Works with any theme
Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder not only lets you create beautiful content in your WordPress posts and pages, but you can also choose from dozens of professionally designed, landing page templates that are conversion-optimized and fully customizable …
(Landing page template sets that work together logically and use the same conversion-optimized design language)
There are currently 30+ templates available, with more templates scheduled for future release. In addition to the available templates, expect to see new templates in the future for email lead generation, sales pages, training pages, personal branding pages, webinar pages and more.
Fully Customizable Landing Page Template
Typically, in order to fully customize landing page templates, you would need to either hire a web site developer to do the work, or learn web coding languages like HTML and CSS and figure out how to edit the page code 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 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 creating conversion-optimized web pages.”
Thrive Landing Pages gives you great-looking pre-built web pages that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that allows you to change or edit anything on your page …
With the landing page templates included with this plugin, you can do the following:
- Change text in all buttons, headlines, bullet points, etc.
- Remove text, images or any other part of the landing page
- Replace the background image or color
- Edit the color of text, buttons, links, etc.
- Choose your own fonts
- Use your own images and graphics
- Edit content area size
- Rearrange the order of page elements
- Translate everything on the page into different languages
- Add custom content inside the pages
- Start with a blank page and create your own templates, or even build your own library of custom landing page templates.
(Change and edit any aspect of your page)
Transform Your Website Into A Marketing Machine With Thrive Lightbox
The Thrive plugin package includes the Thrive Lightbox plugin, which lets you add fully configurable two-step opt-in forms and events to your website …
(Add opt-in forms and events to your WordPress site with Thrive Lightbox)
Thrive Lighbox Two-Step Opt-in Forms
A 2-step opt-in process helps to improve your conversion rates. When visitors click on a button or image they are presented with your opt-in form …
(two-step opt-in forms can help increase your conversion rates.)
Thrive Lightbox Event Manager
An “event” consists of a trigger and an action. You can make an opt-in form appear when your visitor clicks or hovers over a button or an image, or when someone reaches a certain point on the page. You can also use the Event Manager to animate images on your web pages, using a range of effects (e.g. fade in, slide in from bottom to top, roll out, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your web pages with the Thrive Lightbox plugin)
A lightbox and event is created automatically for your landing pages, but you also have complete control over all events, triggers and design.
Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials and feedback customers have submitted regarding the Thrive Content Builder plugin:
”Wow! This is just getting better & better. This plugin is making my websites look so professional. Keep up the great work and thank you for the new features. Ladonna Ragalin”
***
”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”
Plugin Tips
Thrive Content Builder works with any theme in WordPress, not just with the Thrive Landing Pages plugin. You cannot use Thrive Content Builder to edit content on existing pages or posts that were not created with the plugin installed.
You can add WordPress shortcodes inside the Content Builder or Landing Pages plugin and they will be displayed correctly when published.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content you build using Thrive Content Builder.
Support
Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages Plugin provides free updates, new landing pages and upcoming features. The Thrive team is constantly working on adding new features and improving existing ones.
Thrive software is very well-supported, and users get lifetime updates, plus 1 year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, thirty day, 100% refund guarantee.
This is an exciting product that will just keep getting better.
Product Price
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 license option enables you to use the plugin on one site only. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Cost = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites License – This lets you run the plugin on all of your personal sites. Cost includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Price = $87.00.
- Agency License – Use on all your web sites & on all your client domains. Includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Price = $247.00 per year.
Note: Pricing for the Thrive Content Builder product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price above was correct when this article was written. This may not be the actual price charged by the software author when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
The Thrive Content and Page Builder plugin developers repeatedly maintain 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, conversion-optimized templates that help make designing your pages faster, and on the other hand, you also have complete control over your design process and the ability to edit everything on your web page, using the plugin’s click-to-edit and drag and drop features, that allows you to work unhindered by overly complicated steps.
For ”how to” videos of the plugin in action, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Thrive plugins website.
We Recommend …
If you want to edit something, you just click on the element and start editing. If you want to change something, you can see the change happen immediately. If you want to move something, you drag it and drop it into its new position. There are no extra steps involved.
If you want to transform and improve your business online and create amazing marketing pages and engaging content, Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages delivers an incredible conversion-boosting package with a single, inexpensive plugin.
For more information, visit the plugin website:
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