Moving Away from Page Builders to the Block Editor

WordPress Hartford CT Meetup
October 17, 2023

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Watch Recording

Click below to watch our October 2023 meetup on YouTube, or visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTOWudYYOL0.

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Classic Editor and Custom Fields were used to build content for pages and posts
Coding was required to create custom PHP templates to lay out content
Difficult for non-developers to modify
Early Page Builders like WPBakery/Visual Composer were often bundled with paid WP Themes – they allowed users the ability to customize some layout but could be frustrating to work with

Compatibility
Block Editor is part of WP core, ensuring compatibility across different themes and plugins
Cost
Block Editor is FREE with WP – no annual licenses
Simplicity
Many pages can be built entirely with the core WP blocks (ex. rows, text, images)
Flexibility
Mix and match core and pre-made blocks together to create a specific design
Performance
Generally, core blocks more lightweight than page builder modules
Ongoing Enhancements
WordPress is continuously adding and improving blocks and the Block Editor

Advanced Features
More styling properties (ex. CSS animations), built-in A/B testing, etc.
Improved Site Editing *
More mature site-editing capabilities than current WP Full-Site-Editing (* more of a theme feature vs. stand-alone page builder)
Better E-commerce Support
Some include specialized components/modules for WooCommerce (ex. shopping carts, product modules)
Pre-Built Designs
Some offer a wide variety of pre-built templates to build individual pages or an entire website
Troubleshooting Support
Paid subscriptions often come with help desk support to answer questions
Community Support
Some popular Page Builders have large community support groups (ex. podcasts, forums, FB pages, YouTube tutorials, etc.)

Page and post content is in the “content area”
Separate from header, footer, sidebars, and hooked elements
More mature site-editing capabilities than current WP Full-Site-Editing (* more of a theme feature vs. stand-alone page builder)
Themes generally control headers, footers, etc.
Depends on the theme and theme type
Advanced & premium classic themes add more control in the customizer, or add custom elements to the layout
Block themes offer full site editing, which includes
Premium page builder plugins can be used to design site layouts
e.g. Beaver Themer and Elementor Layout Elements

Header / Navigation

Content Area

Sidebar

Footer

Your content will look different
Content will lose layout design and styles
Some page builders will leave relatively clean content
Some page builders will leave code that will require cleanup (which is why recreating is often the better way to go)
Functionality will be lost if from a module or widget
A replacement block will be needed
If the page builder is tied to the site layout (headers & footers), site design work will be required

So creating new pages – or converting existing – using the block editor is possible even if a page builder is active and used on other pages.

It’s Demo Time!

It’s Demo Time!

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Bing Images Creator AI
Vectorizer convert raster images to vector
Vectorpea online vector editor
Photopea online image editor
Kadence Amplify event
WordPress 6.4 Source of Truth
Jamie Marsland’s YouTube channel
Find My Blocks plugin to see what blocks are in use
Ollie block theme
Local to work on WP sites on your PC without hosting
InstaWP, TasteWP, and WordPress Playground for free temporary WP sites
WordPress Help Desk Support Eagle’s website with links to other meetups and resources