WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging tool to a tool being used to create all kinds of sites.
Whatever you can think of, somewhere around the world someone is most likely already building it with WordPress!
In this article you will learn how to create beautiful page layouts with drag & drop ease in WordPress websites.
Drag And Drop Content Editors For WordPress
Is The Default WordPress WYSIWYG Editor Still Meeting All Of Your Web Design Needs?
With all the many developments that WordPress has undergone in recent years, many WordPress developers believe that the WordPress editor is more suitable for performing regular content editing than building and changing page elements within more complex layouts.
(The WordPress WYSIWYG content editor is great for adding, formatting and editing conventional text and images, but adding complex layouts can be challenging!)
For example, let’s say you want to create something like the content shown below …
To create the above boxes with text and buttons, you would normally have to add shortcodes to the content for each of the elements you want to create …
Typically, this is not really an issue … unless you have to edit something in the layout (for example, move some of the content from box 3 into box 2, or change the background colour inside box 3 from dark green to purple. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with code inside the editor.
The WordPress content editor is supposed to be an easy-to-use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) content editor, but as you can see, if you are trying to add complex content elements, what you see may not be the same as what you get …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some situations, you could be better off working directly with the source html itself instead of the WordPress WYSIWYG editor when trying to add fancy layouts …
Even though WordPress is very user-friendly, this makes it hard for non-technical users to fully manage their own content.
The fundamental issue with having to use shortcodes and HTML to create content in WordPress can be summarized as follows:
1) Speed – How long will it take to create a web page using the editor?
2) Abstraction – How closely does the content in the ”back end” resemble the “front end” content when you are creating or editing a page?
As you can see from the above, what you see when working in the back end does not 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 begin configuring your page layout, or endlessly going back and forth between browser tabs and performing tweaks and updates to see how your content is coming along, which can affect how fast you can create your content, as you wait for the page to reload.
Many WordPress developers have tried to come up with a range of solutions to make content editing easier. Some of these solutions range from standalone WordPress plugins you can add to 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 combine so many page-building features, that users need to learn how to work with complicated-looking front end content editors …
Many of these solutions work fine, but they don’t address the fundamental challenge of using HTML and shortcodes as described earlier. Creating, adding and editing 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 your content to look “just right” quickly, this can start to become really frustrating.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like to build and edit your web content?
Now, imagine the following scenario …
- You look at your content and if you spot something that needs changing, simply click on the content and start editing it. Your content has been instantly edited.
- You just drag and drop elements on the page, and the page looks exactly as it will display on the front end without having to mentally visualize any shortcodes or HTML.
- You have an idea for some content that you’d like to add, so you simply start typing, and you build your web page as you go, with no delays, without tab switching, and no waiting for new web content to reload.
Would that not be the perfect way to create content for your WordPress web site? A true WYSIWYG content editor where all you have to do is click-to-edit and drag and drop elements around your posts and pages?
(Imagine being able to create complex pages in real-time for your web content without technical skills required!)
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 Ultimate Click-To-Edit Front End Visual Content Editor For WordPress Sites
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a truly intuitive WordPress click-to-edit drag and drop content editing plugin.
The Thrive Content Builder plugin provides you with a new and exciting way to set up conversion-focused pages on your WordPress website.
Once installed, the plugin adds a visual content editor with a menu that lets you click, then drag and drop elements on your web page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new visual content editing option 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.
Let’s review each of the above plugins and how these features work seamlessly together to help you easily transform and improve your website and create amazing marketing pages and engaging content.
Thrive Content Builder Plugin
With Thrive Content Builder easily add complex design layouts to your web pages using drag and drop elements …
Every aspect of your web page can be designed, edited and customized by ”clicking-to-edit” and “dragging and dropping” things around the page …
Once you have positioned elements on a page, you can continue to further edit or customize these without going through additional steps or opening new option windows …
You can also build beautiful landing pages that can also be easily edited …
Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages is simple, easy to use, and ideal for all WordPress users at all levels. In fact, designing pages and working on content with the Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder plugin installed is so amazingly easy, that the developers guarantee that once you start using it, you’ll never look back!
Learn more about the plugin here: Thrive Content Builder
Thrive Content Builder and Thrive Landing Pages were created by the same team that developed Thrive Leads, another excellent plugin we’ve written about on this site.
To learn more about using this plugin, see this post:
Benefits Of Using Thrive Landing Pages And Content Builder Plugin
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up content creation:
Ready To Use In Very Little Time
Thrive Content Builder installs like every plugin. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your WP admin user login and activate.
Edit Content In Real Time
Thrive Content Builder is very simple to use and lets you add content to your web pages in real-time.
What You See Is Really What You Get
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see on the “back-end” as you work within the editor – fonts, elements, layouts, etc. is exactly what your visitors will see in the front end of your site.
Additional benefits and advantages include:
- Design Stunning Layouts With Drag-And-Drop Ease: Create any layout you can imagine with drag and drop ease.
- Add Design Elements With No Shortcodes Involved: With the Thrive Content Builder plugin you not only get an amazing drag and drop WordPress content builder, but the plugin also includes a very decent collection of web design elements that you can customizable and add to your content layouts without using shortcodes, such as flat design elements, content reveal feature, dividers, HTML code insert boxes, etc.
- Distraction-Free Content Creation: Not having to deal with technical stuff for the updated content to reload frees up your attention and allows you to build the web pages your business needs, quickly and without having to edit code or click through multiple steps to get what you want done.
(Create, edit and customize web page elements like testimonials, columns, borderless content, page section dividers, HTML code insert boxes, etc.)
Plugin Features
Thrive Content Builder offers a number of great features to site owners. Here are just a few of these:
- All Content Editor Functionality Is Still Available: You have access to all of the built-in text editing options that you are used to (e.g. underline, centering text, font sizes, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Elements Menu: The plugin adds a “drag and drop” list of elements to your post or page screen for editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin provides you with various attention-grabbing and customizable elements that will help increase your conversions, including buttons and call-to-action elements, testimonial boxes, and guarantee forms. In addition to customization options, various elements also offer multiple design options.
- Mobile-Friendly Design: Add responsive elements like column layouts, guarantee boxes, section dividers, e.g. which will resize and display correctly on different device screens.
- Add Animation Events To Your Web Pages: The plugin’s Event Manager feature lets you add animated buttons, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your Web Pages)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Landing Page Sets
Landing page sets are web page templates that work together logically and use the same conversion-optimized design language to take your visitors all the way from signup to purchase, product download and more.
(Thrive Landing Pages gives you conversion-optimized page templates)
Thrive Landing Pages – Benefits
- Everything is hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time and money creating web pages
- 100% conversion-optimized landing pages
- No web coding 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, web page templates that are conversion-optimized and fully customizable …
(Landing page sets that work together logically and use the same conversion-optimized design language)
There are currently over thirty templates available, with more templates scheduled for release. In addition to the available templates, the developers plan to release new templates for email lead generation, sales pages, lesson pages, personal branding pages, webinar pages and more.
Completely Customizable And Flexible Landing Page Template
Typically, to be able to have a completely customizable landing page template, you would need to either pay a web designer 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 lets you change or edit any aspect of the page templates …
With the landing page templates included with this plugin, you can:
- Change text in any button, headline, bullet point, etc.
- Remove text, images or any other component of the landing page
- Replace the background image or background colours
- Edit the color of links, buttons, text, etc.
- Select your own fonts
- Select your own images and graphics
- Edit content area size
- Rearrange the order of elements on your page
- Translate everything on the page into different languages
- Add custom content anywhere in your pages
- Start with a blank page and create your own templates, or even build a custom landing page templates library.
(Change or edit any aspect of your page templates)
Thrive Lightbox Plugin – Transform Your Web Site Into A Powerful Marketing Machine
The Thrive plugin combo also includes Thrive Lightbox, which lets you add fully configurable two-step opt-in forms and animated elements to your site …
(Add lead capture forms and animated elements to your web pages with the Thrive Lightbox plugin)
2-Step Opt-in Forms
A two-step opt-in process helps to increase your conversion rates. Visitors click on a button or image, and then they are presented with your opt-in form …
(Visitors click on a button and are presented with an opt-in form)
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 their mouse 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 page, using a range of animation effects (e.g. fade out, slide in from left to right, roll in, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your WordPress pages with Thrive Lightbox)
Lightboxes and events are created automatically for your landing pages, but you also have complete control over the events, triggers and design.
Testimonials From Plugin Customers
Here are a few of the testimonials and feedback plugin users have written about the Thrive Content Builder plugin:
”You guys are simply awesome I am loving everything you are doing at the moment. Keep up the great work you really are making such a big difference in this field. Jule Fuller”
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”Your stuff is beautifully designed, fast and has great options for marketers that you just don’t see with other themes. Great, great job! Absolutely love Thrive! David Coleman”
Useful 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 on the front end.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content built using Thrive Content Builder.
Thrive Content Builder Support
Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages comes with 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 unlimited software upgrades, plus one year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, thirty day, full money-back guarantee.
This is an exciting product for WordPress users 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 enables you to install the plugin on one site only. Pricing includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Cost = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites License – This edition allows you to use the plugin on unlimited sites that you personally own. Cost includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Price = $87.00.
- Agency License Edition – Use on your web sites & on all your client web sites. Price includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Price = $247.00 per year.
Note: Current pricing for Thrive Content Builder depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the software is being retailed for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the product developer when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price:
Additional Info
The Thrive Content Builder plugin developers emphatically 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 content creation, and on the other hand, you have 100% control over your design process and the freedom to change and customize anything and everything on your page, using the plugin’s click-to-edit and drag and drop features, which lets you work unhindered by overly complicated options.
For demo videos showing plugin usage, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the plugin website.
Download The Plugin …
If you want to edit something, just click on the element and start editing. If you want to change something, you will see the change happen instantly. 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 site and create awesome sales pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content, Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages delivers an incredible conversion-boosting package with a single, inexpensive plugin.
To learn more, check out the plugin here:
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