Elementor360 Newsletter – Issue 4
In this issue I mention my recent review of the plugin Happy Addons for Elementor. It has some nice features, but also some issues. In Elementor news, Unlimited Elements for Elementor recently added Toolset integration, the Crocoblock Suite released version 2 of the JetSearch and JetSmartFilters plugins, and Premium Addons for Elementor added templates. Although it is not Elementor specific, many Elementorites use the Astra Theme. Version 2 is now available.
Themes
Astra Version 2
Version 2 of the Astra theme and the Pro addon are now available for download from your Astra members panel. Automatic updates will begin on Monday. This release is all about the Customizer. There were some complaints that the Astra Customizer was hard to navigate and was sluggish. I personally never had any issues, but the Astra team has totally reordered the settings categories to make them more logical and to make it easier to find the settings you need. They also handled the issue of lots of options per panel by adding in mini-popup menus for subcategories of settings. One of the first things that jumped out at me is that there is now a “Global” section right at the top.
Plugins
Happy Addons for Elementor – Free Plugin
I’ve been looking at free Elementor addons and utilities to review. Sadly I spent a fair amount of time with one free addon package, ElementsPlus! from CSSIgniter. The CSSIgniter team is really sharp, but it seemed the plugin needed some updates. I paused reviewing it due to the large number of issues. I reported the problems to the developers and will circle back on that one.
In the MarTech Facebook group there was a shout out for the Happy Addons for Elementor plugin, which is a free option with good things said about it. I took it for a spin and found that it has some interesting features, but also some problems. This is the link to the review and video. I ended up giving it only 3 stars, reflecting its current status. I almost passed on reviewing this one also, but went ahead because I think there is some value in having reviews for users, even if the product needs work. I’m curious what newsletter readers think. Are you interested in the bad and the good, or would you prefer me to only highlight the good stuff? You can leave a comment to let me know.
Unlimited Elements for Elementor
The Unlimited Elements of Elementor addon package is different than all others because it includes a “Widget Creator.” Bring your own HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and use the Widget Creator to make your own Elementor widgets. This is definitely a power user or developer tool, but it supports the option to use dynamic data and has had support for Advanced Custom Fields. This means that you can create widgets for theme templates and that interact with your Custom Post Types and Custom Fields. The team developing Unlimited Elements recently added Toolset support also. This further extends the usefulness of the Widget Creator. I expect to see this addon package get more attention and greater adoption.
Be sure to look at the Widget Creator
Crocoblock JetSearch & JetSmartFilters
The Crocoblock team released version 2 of the JetSearch plugin. which added the ability to search in custom fields and show custom fields in the results. The JetSmartFilters plugin got a series of updates with more support for WooCommerce, enhancements for filter options, and better layout control for displaying the filters. JetSmartFilters supports all Custom Post Types and WooCommerce.
Premium Addons for Elementor
A big addition to the Premium Addons plugin are the newly added predesigned templates. There are already 155 templates available. Some of the templates can be used with the free version of the plugin in the WordPress directory, while others are only available with the premium version of Premium Addons. Like the Crocoblock template library, these are accessed with a separate button next to the regular Elementor template library. The templates are very attractive and include predesigned animation effects. Here is a link to their site. I was interested to note that their lifetime package dropped $50 in price.
Are you an Elementor user and fan? Know others who are deep into Elementor? Please share this newsletter with your friends and encourage them to subscribe.
That’s it for this issue. Happy Elementoring.
Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. You will still pay the standard amount so there is no extra cost to you.