Meet your new pootle page builder [sneak peek video]

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by

Nick Burne
in , ,

When we first launched our Page Builder for WooThemes Canvas, we were blown away with how popular it was. Overnight we had a fully fledged plugin business on our hands!

Fast forward a year and we’re ready to show you the next evolution of our thinking. pootle page builder.

pootle page builder has the following features:

  • A focus on ease of use.
  • Works on ALL your favourite themes including WooThemes Canvas, Storefront, Genesis and more.
  • Will be free on WordPress.org but still supported.
  • Create stunning full width rows with video backgrounds, parallax effects and more using the free core product.
  • An improved user interface that looks much more like WordPress
  • A new improved content editor no longer based on widgets. Simply add content & shortcodes like WordPress the WordPress editor.
  • Tons of small usability improvements making it easier and more robust to use for site owners.
  • Future add-ons for even more features to make your pages stunning

Check out this sneak preview video to whet your appetite!

[box type=”tick”]If you’re keen to have a play around sign up to get a copy of the beta version.[/box] [box type=”alert”]For existing Canvas Page Builder customers, we are still supporting Canvas Page Builder for at least 12 months. [/box]

As usual give us your feedback in the comments below… we’re listening!! ; )

Comments

35 responses to “Meet your new pootle page builder [sneak peek video]”

  1. Rachel Greenhouse Avatar
    Rachel Greenhouse

    When is it going to be available?

    Reply
    1. Nick Burne Avatar
      Nick Burne

      Hi Rachel, great question!

      The first beta version is coming out early next week…

      Hope this helps!

      Nick

      Reply
  2. Simon Duncan Avatar
    Simon Duncan

    Love it. Solves a number of challenges that I have. Really looking forward to using it.

    Reply
  3. aardy Avatar
    aardy

    That looks great- video backgrounds with an alternative image for mobile lovely seems good- I am a bit slow so you made changes a bit fast for me in the video, but if it is easier than the previous canvas page builder (which is easy) then this should be great

    Reply
    1. Nick Burne Avatar
      Nick Burne

      Thanks aardy! Sorry about the speed. I need to slow down… too much coffee probably!

      Reply
  4. Nick Burne Avatar
    Nick Burne

    Great Simon – don’t forget to sign up for a beta copy. https://confirmsubscription.com/h/d/B2593CE6516C4C75

    Reply
  5. JOhn Avatar
    JOhn

    Nothing compares to Thrive Leads / content builder.

    https://thrivethemes.com/contentbuilder/

    but thanks for sharing

    Reply
    1. Nick Burne Avatar
      Nick Burne

      Hi John, thanks for the comment! We know about Thrive Content Builder and there are a couple of reasons we don’t think it’s the best solution for site owners (& therefore also people that build sites for site owners). First is, the key feature of front end editing. While this sounds great, the reality is that many visits now are from different devices with different screen sizes. Editing content directly sounds great and some users do like it, but in practice personally I like an editor much more like the WordPress editor. It is less of a leap for most users and is not so desktop centric. We are planning a front-end shortcut button that will work from the front end, but will still open up an standard editor. Still not 100% sure on it though. Secondly, we feel their interface is very different to the WordPress interface, giving users yet another plugin to learn/feel how to use. With a few different other plugins thrown in, it can be very difficult for site owners to understand what to do. We have focussed pootle page builder around the question “what if WordPress core already had a page builder?” Thirdly is that it is not on wordpress.org and open sourced code. Therefore you have to pay before you can use it and there is not an open community of developers involved (e.g. like WooCommerce). pootle page builder is going to have a free version on wordpress.org and code on GitHub so that other developers can get involved. All that being said, there is room for lots of different page builders out there, so use what you like the most!

      Reply
  6. Dana Lee Avatar
    Dana Lee

    How is the code? How do pages built with this perform?
    When I see things like this I always worry that the pages will be slow with poor code and work poorly on the responsive end.

    I love the idea, and it may be my ignorance, but its still a worry.

    Reply
    1. Nick Burne Avatar
      Nick Burne

      Hi Dana, awesome question. Because this will be on wordpress.org we’re completely obsessed with code quality. We are using tools like Scrutinizer CI (https://scrutinizer-ci.com/) to make sure everything is as optimized as it can be. Scrutinizer allows us to see which classes need to be improved and give the plugin a score for efficiency and security. Bottom line is we want it to be lean and super fast (kind of the Google of page builders). Hope this answers your question! Nick

      Reply
  7. Reuben Hochstetler Avatar
    Reuben Hochstetler

    Looks impressive! I’m looking forward to using it on a test site soon!

    Reply
    1. Jamie Marsland Avatar
      Jamie Marsland

      Cool thanks Reuben, can’t wait to see what you do with it 🙂

      Reply
  8. e-Partner Avatar
    e-Partner

    My company is about to engage in a large project requiring a manageable user dashboard that unifies the multiple sites we will create. We have been looking at the relationship between Canvas and Pootlepress…we like what we see. This new Pootle Page Builder looks promising out of the box. After a few months time within the WP codex mix it will excel even more. One suggestion: I noticeed the color overlay opacity bar does not have a % opacity indicator and this even caused the presenter to have to go back to move the slider from the right to the left in order to satisfy the objective. I’m not suggesting a PS detailed opacity tool be included but at least a graduation indicator of 10%, 20%, 50%, 75% and 95% to provide the user with an approximation. For seasoned graphics and image professionals, they will likely mask their own images prior to upload. Thanks…can’t wait to try it. Well done!!!

    Reply
    1. Jamie Marsland Avatar
      Jamie Marsland

      Hi,

      Thanks for the feedback – an opacity % is definitely something we are going to add 🙂

      We’re are also going to build in some other really cool features, like ken burns, blur and others.

      Reply
  9. Jason Avatar
    Jason

    Nick, I love Page Builder as I have been using it for quite a while now. I am concerned about removing widgets as I have loved the modularity of it (ie embedding posts through a widget). Will this functionality still be there? Not every widget has a short code (or does it?) I’m really excited about your business model and the functionality of this. It has saved me a ton of time in building complex pages. I am just down the road in Bristol and I must come buy you all a beer as a thank you for all the time you have saved me!

    Reply
    1. Nick Burne Avatar
      Nick Burne

      Hi Jason, just to chip in on this one. Yes, widgets are no longer the way in which pootle page builder will work. However it will still be very modular. Just easier to use and less bugs (as it will be easier for us to control). All of the things you want to do with widgets can be done with shortcodes and we will be doing lots of tutorials about great plugins out there that offer amazing functionality using shortcodes. It’s going to be really powerful.

      Reply
  10. Jamie Marsland Avatar
    Jamie Marsland

    Hi Jason,

    That’s great feedback – yup we will be adding the functionality to add posts into your pages (like canvas page builder). We want to make the pootle page builder super easy to use – hence removing widgets. But we are also going to make it functionally rich – that’s the challenge we have set ourselves 🙂 This is just the start and your feedback is incredibly valuable.

    Reply
  11. Jordan Avatar
    Jordan

    Very nice! I’ve been using a pagebuilder that uses widgets, and it has been cumbersom. I look forward to giving this one a try!

    Reply
  12. Craig Brown Avatar
    Craig Brown

    This looks great but I still don’t see my feature request for rows-within-rows?
    This would sort out every layout problem I have.
    Then I wouldn’t ever have to make sidebars again.
    At present there is no way I can think of if you have a Row with 4 columns, and say you want a heading that spreads over the top of Column 1 + Column 2….

    Reply
    1. Jamie Marsland Avatar
      Jamie Marsland

      Hi Craig,

      That sounds very possible to me 🙂

      Can you share a screenshot (or link) of what you are looking to achieve and we’ll put together a tutorial,

      Jamie

      Reply
    2. Nick Burne Avatar
      Nick Burne

      Hi Craig, as page builder is built on a grid, you can develop a really complicated layout (like the one you have as an example here). Just need to add lots more rows and columns! Right now the only thing that limits you is row backgrounds across multiple rows. Background colors and images are not a problem as these can be done to work across multiple rows and make it look like 1 row on the front end. Therefore the only limitation really is background videos and effects like parallax. Depending on feedback, we may decide to bring this in as an add-on, but as it is I’m not sure most site owners would want the extra complexity in the core product. Let’s see how we go. We’re certainly listening and so thanks for the great feedback!

      Reply
  13. Bruce Avatar
    Bruce

    Any ETA on this, cant’t wait to use it on some projects… it looks fabulous – congratulations! I’m now a Pootlepress fan:)

    Reply
    1. Jamie Marsland Avatar
      Jamie Marsland

      Hi Bruce,

      It shouldn’t be too long – we are just squashing the final few bugs 🙂

      Reply
    2. Bruce Avatar
      Bruce

      For some reason I when I request the beta version no email arrives… I’ve tried 3 times.

      Reply
      1. Nick Burne Avatar
        Nick Burne

        Hi Bruce, sorry about that. I just sent out the email and now it’s on autorespond…

        Reply
  14. Oriano Avatar
    Oriano

    Great, clean, basic, unobtrusive. Very interesting.

    Reply
  15. Andrew Walsh Avatar
    Andrew Walsh

    Looks really cool guys…… Looking forward to using it!

    Reply
    1. Jamie Marsland Avatar
      Jamie Marsland

      Thanks Andrew 🙂

      Reply
  16. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    I have been considering buying your Canvas products (ie page builder, and page customizer)…but now with this announcement I suppose I should hold off, but a few questions:

    1) Will the Pootle Builder offer everything the Canvas Page Builder does now, or will there be things taken away?

    2) Currently to get the most from your Canvas products, I would need to buy the Canvas Builder AND Page Customizer…will the Pootle Builder combine both of those into the free version or will there be a “Pootle Customizer” needed to do advanced things?

    Reply
    1. Nick Burne Avatar
      Nick Burne

      Hi Rob, see my other comment about your comment. Sorry it has taken a while to get back to you.

      1) it will offer more. The only thing that is the major difference is the move away from widgets. This will make the whole plugin more robust, easier to migrate etc. For now we think that 99.9% of things can be done using shortcodes in the text editor. The extras that pootle page builder will have are significant. Here is a short list:
      – Full width row option per row
      – Gutter controls
      – Row background videos
      – Parallax image backgrounds
      – Hide a row option
      – Improved CSS options
      Probably lots more I haven’t mentioned. All with a better UI and free on WordPress.org. We will also be bring out awesome add ons that do even more!

      2) At the moment Page Customizer is staying as a separate product and we are planning to release it for all themes. You won’t need Page Customizer for full width rows, but other than that you will need it for everything else.

      Hope this helps!!

      Nick

      Reply
  17. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    To whom it may concern,

    I posted a comment with several incredibly fair and important questions and my comment was “awaiting moderation” and now my comment is nowhere to be found.

    Am I to assume that you only permit comments that are supposedly real “glowing compliments” or questions for which you are comfortable giving an answer?

    I am a serious business owner and will not commit time and money with a vendor that acts in that way.

    Reply
    1. Nick Burne Avatar
      Nick Burne

      Hey Rob, really sorry about that. I just hadn’t checked the post in the last few days (busy on page builder!!). As you can see from previous comments, 99% of the time we approve the comments. Only when they are spam (often) and when they are really rude (never) do we not publish them and reply. Sorry this time that we’re late on your comment!

      Reply
  18. mats Avatar
    mats

    Hi, I have signed up for the beta but I have not recieved any download link.
    Has the beta not been releast ?

    Reply
    1. Nick Burne Avatar
      Nick Burne

      Hi Mats, pootle page builder was submitted to WordPress.org on Wednesday last week. Unfortunately there is a backlog of approvals for new plugins, so we’re waiting… As soon as it is approved we will send you the download link. Thanks!

      Reply
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