Elementor360 Newsletter – Issue 6

In this issue: Elementor 2.7 news, an Elementor and Astra tutorial, the Neve theme is on sale, a plugin security alert, and new widgets in several addon packs.

Elementor 2.7 News

Pro Version: Elementor 2.7 Pro just went into beta. It brings a new enhanced Gallery widget with a lot of display options. It also adds a new skin for the Posts widget and more email action options (MailChimp, MailerLite). I personally am into the Elementor Theme Builder and am happy to see support for dynamic number fields, user profile pictures, and custom field keys. Checkout the details in the beta release announcement.

Free Version: Elementor Free 2.7 added background slideshows and fancy dividers. Looking at the announcement, I found the background slideshows attractive. In the Facebook group Web Creators Community, a number of site builders. Some people greeted the announcement as an example of “bloat” as it adds some extra CSS and JavaScript. I’m thinking that is it always good to only load resources on the pages where they are needed, but realistically, the web is getting so fast that a few KB isn’t making a big difference. What do you think?

Themes

Astra and Elementor Tutorial

Yours truly published a tutorial on coordinating Elementor and theme styles and breakpoints. I’ve seen several people ask in the Astra Facebook group about the theme’s breakpoints, so I found out and did some tests. In the tutorial I show some cases where a mismatch might make a difference. Generally, I think the tutorial shows that matching the settings is a good first step when starting a project.

Neve

Neve is a relatively new theme that was mentioned in the first issue of the newsletter. The free theme launched a year ago and the pro version last June. They are already up to 50,000 active installs and the company, ThemeIsle, is thrilled. Wanting to get the word out about the theme, they went live on AppSumo. They are offering three themes in the lifetime deal: ShopIsle Pro is a WooCommerce focused theme, Hestia Pro is a one page theme, and Neve Pro is their new multipurpose and page builder friendly theme. My opinion: if you have a lifetime package of one of the main Elementor friendly themes then pass. Otherwise, this is a rare chance to get full featured lifetime package at an inexpensive price.

Plugins

Premium Addons for Elementor Security Alert!

Last week Premium Addons for Elementor posted a notice of a security update and urged all users to update the plugin to the latest version. If you have Premium Addons installed then make sure you are running the updated version.

PowerPack for Elementor

Elementor doesn’t natively support conditionals. PowerPack for Elementor just released a new Conditional extension to fill in the gaps. It can be activated on existing widgets and adds a large number of variable conditions. These include visitor browser, operating system, logged-in and role, content type and page, as well as date and time. It could be a nice way to show holiday messages or a different message based on open business hours. The announcement page shows some likely uses.

Unlimited Addons for Elementor

Unlimited Addons added a new Retina Image widget. It allows you to set two copies of an image, a regular version and a x2 version. The higher resolution image is automatically shown on hi-def screens. If you are creating your own header template then you can use the Retina Image widget for the site logo.

Elements for LifterLMS

This is a really cool idea. Have you used a WordPress LMS plugin? I have. There are often limited design choices. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to design your course with Elementor? Elements for LifterLMS has a dozen widgets for LifterLMS courses and 7 for use with lesson designs. You can use Elementor for laying out and designing your LifterLMS pages.

Elementor Extras

A luminary in the Elementor Community mentioned that Elementor Extras was one of his go-to Elementor widget plugins. I haven’t tried it yet because I’ve seen lots of support requests in their Facebook group. However, based on the mention I checked out the change log. Wow, they have releases almost twice a week. These are fixes, tweaks, and additions made in response to user requests. For example, they recently added Advanced Custom Fields options to their Display Conditions widget. You can use ACF dates, choice fields and relationship fields in your conditions. Are you using Elementor Extras? What is your experience?

Templates

Katka Elementor Template Packs are beautiful block, popup, and page templates. Barna Buxbaum, the founder, started making Elementor templates as a labor of love and the community talked him into launching premium kits. The latest additions are focused on local businesses (wellness and beauty). There are free and premium options. If you are looking for inspiration or a quick start then it is worth taking a look.

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 same amount so there is no extra cost to you.