WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging application to a tool being used to create all types of web sites.
Whatever you can imagine, somewhere around the world someone is probably already building it using WordPress!
In this article you will discover the fastest and easiest to use WYSIWYG content editor for WordPress.
Drag And Drop Content Editors For WordPress
The WordPress Visual Content Editor – Is There A Better Way To Create Content In WordPress?
With so many improvements that WordPress has gone through in recent years, many WordPress users and developers feel that using the default WordPress WYSIWYG editor to create or edit more complex web pages can sometimes be difficult.
(The default WordPress WYSIWYG editor is great for adding, formatting and editing “linear” content, but adding complex content elements can be quite challenging!)
For example, if you look at the illustration below …
To create the above layout, you would need to insert shortcodes into your content for each of the page elements you want to display on the page …
Generally, this is not an issue … until you need to edit something in your layout (for example, move some of the content from box 3 into box 2, or replace the button inside a box from bright red to dark red. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with code inside the editor.
The WordPress visual editor is supposed to be an easy-to-use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, but as you can see, if you are trying to edit complex page elements, what you see in the visual editor may not be what you get …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some cases, some people argue that users could even be better off working directly with the source html itself instead of the WordPress visual editor when trying to build non-linear layouts …
Even though WordPress is extremely easy to use, this makes it hard for non-technical website owners to have full control of their own content.
The fundamental problem about 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 editor match the content in the “front end” when you are creating or editing a page?
As you can see from the above screenshot, what you see in the content editor looks nothing like what you see in the front end. This means that users need to translate mentally what the content will look like when working with sophisticated layouts. Other solutions require a number of steps before you can start configuring your page layout, or endlessly switching browser tabs and performing updates to see how your content is coming along, which can impact how fast you can create your content, as you wait for for your updated content to refresh.
Many WordPress developers have tried to come up with different solutions aiming to make the visual editor easier. Some of these solutions range from stand alone WP 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 end up requiring so many complex page-building features, that users end up with complicated-looking front end editors …
Many of these alternative editors work, but they still don’t address the fundamental issue of using shortcodes and HTML as described earlier. Creating, adding and editing non-linear content 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 quite frustrating.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like your web page editor to work?
Now, visualize this …
- You look at your content and if you see something that needs to be corrected, simply click on the content and start typing. Your content is then instantly fixed.
- You can drag and drop items around the page, and the page looks exactly as it will appear on the front end without having to mentally abstract from HTML or shortcodes.
- You have an idea for a specific piece of content that you’d like to create, so you simply start typing, and you build your page on the fly, without delays, no switching tabs, and no waiting for new web pages to refresh.
Would that not be the perfect way to build content for your site? A true visual 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 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 And Landing Pages – WordPress Click-To-Edit Drag & Drop Content Builder Plugin
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a unique WordPress plugin that lets you easily add content to your posts and pages with a truly visual 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, the plugin adds a visual content editor and an item menu that lets you drag and drop design elements on your web page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new editor to your WordPress site)
The plugin is actually a combination of the Thrive Content Builder and Thrive Landing Pages plugins combined into one, plus an additional plugin feature called Thrive Lightbox.
Let’s examine all of the above and how all of this powerful functionality works together to help you easily transform and improve your web presence and create awesome marketing pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content.
Thrive Content Builder – Click-To-Edit Drag And Drop Content Creator For WordPress
With this plugin installed easily add complex design layouts to your web pages using drag and drop elements …
Everything on your page can be configured 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 easily edit or customize these without going through additional steps or complicated option windows …
You can also build highly attractive landing pages and easily edit these …
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 easy, that the developers warn that you will never look at creating and adding content the same way once you start using it
To learn more about the plugin go here: Thrive Content Builder
Thrive Content Builder and Thrive Landing Pages were created by the same team that developed Thrive Leads, another terrific plugin that we have previously reviewed on this site.
To read more about this plugin, go here:
Benefits Of Using Thrive Content Builder And Landing Pages Plugin
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up your page design and content creation process:
Fast Installation
Thrive Content Builder is very easy to install. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your admin login and activate.
Real-Time Content Building And Editing
Thrive Content Builder is simple to use and lets you build and add content to your web pages in real-time.
A Truly Visual Content Builder
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see on the “back-end” as you work within the editor – fonts, visual elements, layouts, etc. is exactly what your visitors will see in the front end of your site.
Some additional benefits of this plugin include:
- Stunning Page Layouts With Drag-And-Drop Ease: Create any layout you can imagine with intuitive drag and drop functionality.
- Add Customizable Elements With No Short Codes Required: With Thrive Content Builder you not only get a visually exciting drag and drop WordPress content editor, but the plugin also includes a collection of design elements that you can insert into your layouts without using shortcodes, for e.g.: tabbed content, table of contents builder, section dividers, Google Map embeds, etc.
- Distraction-Free Content Creation: Not having to deal with technical stuff for your updates to load frees up your attention and allows you to be more focused while you build or edit your content or click through multiple layers of menus to get what you want done.
(Thrive Content Builder lets you easily insert, edit and customize page elements like testimonials, columns, guarantee boxes, dividers, responsive maps, etc.)
Plugin Features
Thrive Content Builder offers website owners many great features. Below we have listed just some of these features:
- Built-In WordPress Content Functionality Is Still Available: You have access to all of the built-in WordPress editing options that you are used to (e.g. underline, centering text, headings and font sizes, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Elements Menu: 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 includes various eye-catching and customizable elements that will help increase the effectiveness of your sales pages, including buttons and call-to-action elements, testimonials, and guarantee forms. In addition to being customizable, multiple design options are also available for various elements.
- Responsive Element Design: Add responsive columns, text boxes, content dividers, e.g. which will adjust to display great on different device screens.
- Add Animation To Pages: The Event Manager feature lets you create animated page elements, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your Pages)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Landing Page Templates
Thrive Landing Pages provides sets of 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 provides you with conversion-optimized web page templates)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Benefits
- Hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time and money building gorgeous-looking pages
- 100% conversion-optimized page templates
- No coding skills required
- Works with any WordPress theme
Thrive Content and Page Builder not only lets you create beautiful-looking 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 existing templates, expect to see new templates in the future for email lead generation, sales pages, lesson pages, personal branding pages, webinar pages and more.
Fully Customizable Landing Page Template Sets
Typically, in order to have fully customizable landing page templates, you would need to either hire a web developer to do the work, or learn how to code web pages 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 code or use complicated 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 beautiful pre-designed pages that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that lets you change or edit any element of your page template …
With the landing page templates included with this plugin, you can do the following:
- Modify text in all bullet points, headlines, buttons, etc.
- Remove text, images or any other part of the landing page
- Replace any background images or color
- Edit the color of text, buttons, links, etc.
- Choose your own fonts
- Select your own images and graphics
- Edit the size of the content area
- Rearrange the order of elements on the page
- Translate everything on the page into a different language
- Add custom content inside the pages
- Use pre-designed, customized pages, or create your own landing pages from scratch and save them as new web page templates.
(Change and edit anything on your page)
Thrive Lightbox – Transform Your Website Into A Marketing Machine
The Thrive plugin combo includes Thrive Lightbox, which lets you add fully customizable 2-step opt-in forms and animated elements to your web site …
(Add lead capture forms and animated objects to your WordPress website with Thrive Lightbox)
Two-Step Opt-in Forms
A 2-step opt-in process can help improve your conversion rates. When visitors click on a button or image 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 an opt-in form appear when your visitor clicks or hovers their mouse over a button or graphic elements, or when someone scrolls down to a certain point on the page. You can also use the Event Manager to animate attention-getting elements on your page, using a range of effects (e.g. zoom in, slide in from left to right, roll in, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your WordPress web site with the Thrive Lightbox plugin)
A lightbox and event is created automatically for your landing pages, but you also have complete control over events, triggers and design.
Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials and feedback that customers have published about Thrive Content Builder:
”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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”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 Plugin – Useful Tips
Thrive Content Builder works with any theme in WordPress, not just with Thrive Landing Pages. Note, however, that you cannot use Thrive Content Builder to edit content that was not created using the plugin.
You can add shortcodes inside Thrive Content Builder or Thrive Landing Pages and they will display correctly on on your web site.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content you build with Thrive Content Builder.
Support
Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages Plugin provides free updates, new landing pages and upcoming features. The plugin developers are constantly working on adding new features and improving existing ones.
Thrive plugins are very well-supported, and users get unlimited software updates, and 1 year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, thirty day, complete money-back guarantee.
This is an exciting product that will just keep getting better.
Product Cost
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 License – This option lets you install the plugin on 1 website only. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Price = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites License – This license enables you to run the plugin on unlimited web sites that you own. Pricing includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Price = $87.00.
- Agency Edition – This lets you install the plugin on all of your own sites and all client websites. 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 can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the product is being retailed for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the software author when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
The Thrive Landing Pages and Content 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 time-saving features like ready-made web page elements and beautiful, conversion-optimized template sets that help speed up page design and content creation, and on the other hand, you have 100% control over the design process and the ability to edit and customize anything and everything on your page, using the plugin’s click-to-edit and drag and drop features, that lets you get things done without having to go through multiple steps.
For demo videos of the plugin, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Thrive website.
In Conclusion …
If you want to edit something, you click on the element and start editing. If you want to change something, do it, and you’ll see the change happen immediately. If you want to move something, simply drag it and drop it into its new location. There are no unnecessary steps involved.
If you want to transform and improve your web site 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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