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Hey all! It’s been a mild fall in our neck of the woods. Lots of sunshine and warm temperatures. In the States, we’re putting away the Halloween decorations, gorging ourselves on left-over candy, and getting prepared for the looming holiday season. There is a bunch of exciting news to discuss, including new features and updates to Page Builder and the Beaver Builder Theme, along with a spattering of plugs and footnotes. Let’s do it!
Beaver Builder Theme 1.7
Version 1.7 of the Beaver Builder Theme is live! This update rolled out a few weeks back and includes a long list of enhancements and fixes. Some highlights are:
- Improved Gutenberg support.
- Bootstrap 4 support.
- A toggle to select Bootstrap 3, 4, or no framework at all.
- Font Awesome 5 and Font Awesome Pro support.
- Several performance and load-time improvements.
- A whole lot more…
Many people ask why they should choose the Beaver Builder Theme and our answer always sounds a little like this: the WordPress theme market suffers from “shiny ball syndrome.” Theme authors compete to see who can add more features, bells, and whistles, and this leads to bugs, bloat, and stability issues.
Our approach has always been to keep and maintain a simple, yet powerful framework to customize and build on. You have proven there is a demand for this approach as the BB Theme is now active on over 160,000 websites. Yee-haw!
Beaver Builder 2.2
The big news of the day is Beaver Builder 2.2! In Beaver Builder 2.0 and 2.1, we overhauled and modernized the Beaver Builder interface and user experience. In 2.2, we’re working hard to modernize and improve on what can be built with Beaver Builder. As always, we’re implementing some of the most popular and highly-requested features directly from your feedback. Thanks for that!
Here are a few things you can look forward to in 2.2.
Unit Selection Additions
This was a hugely popular feature request and, frankly, a challenge to implement, but we did it. In 2.2, we’re moving beyond pixels and bringing percentages, vh, and vw values as options for padding, margins, and sizing.
Row Shapes and Gradients
Row shapes and gradients are coming in 2.2. This one is exciting because it opens a whole new world of design possibilities. Nothing screams “page builder” or “bootstrap” like boxy, row-after-row designs and these new features will let you break out of that box. To see these in action, check out this preview video from our buddy David Waumsley.
Border, Shadow, and improved Font Styling
Do you see the theme developing here? 🙂 Along with new design features for rows, we’re also adding box shadows, border options, and improved typography settings in 2.2.
Modular & Funnel-focused Row Templates
2.2 is bringing a new suite of pre-made designs to work with. In the past, we released full-page templates, but this time we chose a more modular approach. 2.2 will feature over 80 new row templates that can be mixed, matched, or used a la carte. The designs are a collaboration with our good friend, Paul Lacey, of Dickiebirds Studio.
The pre-made rows take advantage of some of the new features in 2.2 like gradients and row shapes, and they look HOT 🔥. Paul talks about the process of building said templates in this interview with another good friend, Kim Doyal, on her podcast.
A Whole Lot More
This is just scratching the surface of what’s to come in 2.2. You can check out the Page Builder changelog for more details or stay tuned for a future blog post where we will dig deeper into what’s coming.
2.2 is currently in beta status. We don’t recommend using it on live sites just yet. We’re planning to release 2.2 towards the end of this month, November 2018.
The Elephant in the Room
Regular readers of the blog have noticed and mentioned our publishing schedule has been sparse recently. Sorry about that. I take full responsibility. No one likes hearing excuses, but I can say we’ll be better about communicating in the future and would like to apologize for the radio silence. Rest assured, we’re still here. Beaver Builder is still very much in active development. Our community is still growing and thriving.
On that note, we’re looking to bring someone on the team to help with marketing and community building – a product evangelist if you will. Interested? Know someone who might be? Check out our job listing here.
What about Gutenberg?
Speaking of elephants and rooms, Gutenberg, WordPress’ new editor project, is on the cusp of launching. Here’s what you need to know. Beaver Builder and Gutenberg are totally compatible. Once you update to WordPress 5.0, you’ll be able to switch between Gutenberg and Beaver Builder easily. We’re excited to see what the WordPress user community does with Gutenberg once it becomes the standard. As we’ve said in the past, we’re firm supporters and optimistic about the future!
Not to worry. Gutenberg and Beaver Builder are and will remain totally compatible. #nofud Share on XFarewell to a Few Friends
Regrettfully, we learned that two members of our community passed recently. I struggle with what’s appropriate regarding “brands” offering condolences, but these were friends, and I feel like it’s important to mention. They’ll be missed, and our sincere condolences go out to their friends, families, and loved ones.
I grew up online, and one of my early programming mentors was someone I never met in person. I would sneak out of my bed at night, fire up AOL, and chat about coding and websites. I only ever knew him by his handle, Chip.
I discovered several years later that he passed away in a car accident. Despite never even knowing his real name, it was a profound—and confusing—moment of loss and sadness. The bonds that form from online relationships are real.
Also, I’d like to point out WP&UP, an organization that supports and promotes positive mental health within the WordPress community. If you’re looking for support right now or in the future, it’s a great place to start.
Footnotes and Plugs
WordCamp Seattle & WordCamp Dallas/Fortworth
The Beaver Builder team is hitting the road this weekend! Brent will be attending and speaking at WordCamp – Dallas / FortWorth doing a session called “CSS Jam Session.” Don’t miss it.
Robby McCullough will be at WordCamp Seattle–not speaking–but looking for hearty handshakes and fellow beer drinking enthusiasts. 🍻
We’ll both have stickers on hand. Find us and say hi!
Can it be done with Beaver Builder?
Tickyboom Design has been creating a fantastic video series called, “Can it be done with Beaver Builder?” Over the 19 episodes, Tim picks various well-known landing pages and design standards and answers whether they can be recreated with Beaver Builder. It’s a great series with lots of tips and tricks sprinkled over some genuinely entertaining content. Thanks, Tim!
Landing Pages with Beaver Builder by Chris Lema
Justin and I recently returned from our favorite business event of the year, CaboPress. It’s an intimate, business-focused conference hosted in Cabo by Mr. Chris Lema. We’ve been fortunate to attend several years in a row now, and each year, we leave feeling fresh and inspired. Chris, as part of his role at Liquid Web, recently published a fantastic video tutorial on building landing pages with Beaver Builder. Definitely worth a watch. Thanks, Chris!
WP Builds Interview with Matt Mullenweg
Many of you have likely heard of the WP Builds podcast. A few Beaver Builder regulars do it. By the time this is published, their interview with Matt Mullenweg should be live. I got a few insights into some questions and answers, and it sounds like it will be an excellent episode!
WPMU Dev Partnership
I wanted to give a tip of the hat to some friends over at WPMU DEV. We had the opportunity to talk shop with some of the crew when Justin and I were at WordCamp London. The result of all is a partnership where we’re offering reciprocal discounts to each other’s customers. They are real go-getters over there, so their discount is live already, but we’re planning to offer a similar discount to all of you soon. Stay tuned.
What’s your favorite new Beaver Builder content?
As mentioned before, the blog has been quiet, and I’m afraid we might have missed some great content. Please, please leave a comment with a link to anything Beaver Builder related that you’ve enjoyed or found helpful. Also, if you haven’t already, feel free to pop by the Beaver Builders’ Facebook Group and share it there as well.
With that, we’ll see you next time around. As always, thanks for your support and being part of the Beaver Builder community.
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Thank you for the update, Robby! I got pretty excited when I saw there was a new blog post. It looks like there are a lot of awesome things coming up.
Thank you again for all the hard work and making life easier for the rest of us!
Our please, Miles. Thanks for the comment!
I got your email about switching the newsletter format. I like this better. But keep sending the email with the direct link. You could even turn the email into a cool design each month. maybe a cool gif, interactive email, or something. Sorta like Googles search page or some of the things MailChimp does.
That is a fun idea. I like it!
Awesome!! But hey, I’m not surprised , you guys are always doing an amazing job!
BB & Gutenberg shooting in a tree…
AWESOME
Thank you so much guys. I’m always excited for new features and enhancements. I’m a BB for life.
Hi,
I’d like to know if BB will have the capability of adding a “Read More” button, allowing a dropdown so the reader can continue reading if they want to. Thanks!
Hey Susan, you might want to shoot an email to our support team about that one. Off the top of my head, I am not sure…
Are there any mobile friendly video backgrounds yet?
Definitely excited for some of these new features. Any chance Beaver Builder plugin will incorporate Beaver Builder Boxes for use within Gutenberg? In a similar way to how Elementor are with this plugin? https://wordpress.org/plugins/block-builder/
I’d also love to see a Webflow like animation tool someday. 🙂 Maybe once the Gutenberg dust has settled though! 🙂
You can use shortcodes to insert Beaver Builder content into posts/pages written with Gutenberg. The question we’ve been asking ourselves is, do we want to encourage people to do this? Is it best practice and a sustainable way to build sites? The verdict isn’t out yet. It’s doable, we just don’t see the need to put a UI on it.
What do you think?
Thank you Robby, you guys make my life so much easier! Keep up the awesome work and thank you for links to more great content! Looking forward to 2.2 going live at the end of the month!
Lovely update Robby. I’ve just renewed for my 5th year with Beaver Builder and have never been happier.
It always so exciting to get a mention in this posts so heartfelt thanks for that.
We really appreciate your on-going support. Beaver Builder OG!
Is BB 2.2 (not beta) released already?
Can’t update & can’t see it in the change-log … only for beta.
So excited about it =)))
Kind regards
Alex
Can we expect a Black Friday sale pretty please? 🙂
Yup! Details are on the blog now.
Looks great Robby and all the team! I am also excited to use the new BB live.
I use it a lot with GeneratePress theme which works fine.
Thanks for keeping us updated with news.
I am glad to see a partnership with WPMUDEV. I have been using them for about one year. I decided to start building my own freelance service using BB and WPMUDEV about the same time so this is good news.
See you in Seattle this weekend. I’m sure there will be alot of beer buyers there. 🙂
Thanks for the update! I wonder if the accessibility issues with the drop-down menu are addressed as well. (no keyboard nav possible)
Hey Monique, unfortunately not in this update, but it’s on our radar. FWIW, if you or anyone you know would be interested in contributing code to address this issue, we can gladly get them set up to submit code to our private repo.
Extremely excited for this coming update. Thanks! 🙂
> “you’ll be able to switch between Gutenberg and Beaver Builder easily”
This should say:
“you’ll be able to switch between Gutenberg EDITOR and Beaver Builder easily”
The Gutenberg editor is phase 1 of the project, there will be phase 2, 3, and 4 of Gutenberg, after which it will be a full and complete page builder with blocks everywhere, menus, sidebars, footers, all will be blocks.
Other existing page builders then will “leave the market” as we have been told recently at local WordPress meetups.
Good luck.
Thanks, Harriet. It’s going to be an interesting time ahead. We’re optimistic that page builders will continue to have a niche in the WordPress ecosystem. One analogy I like to use is that Gutenberg could be like an Instagram. It’s features are going to be tuned for a massive audience whereas page builder might be more like a Photoshop and cater to professionals and power users. We’ll see… 🙂
I like the sound of that, Robby. Additionally, it seems to me that it would be great if Beaver Builder could be safely removed. That would certainly make it more appetizing for me as a developer going forward. Knowing that I can turn off Beaver Builder and have the published pages still work properly would give me greater confidence to keep installing BB alongside Gutenberg, and worry less about the uncertainty what the future may bring.
Hmm. If you deactivate BB, your content will get ported back into the WordPress editor, but we need to load our styles and Javascript to properly render and display pages built with Beaver Builder. You could disable the Beaver Builder editor in the settings, but the plugin would still need to be installed.
That Robby is such a nice boy! =)
You’re a sweetheart 😍
What about Gutenberg?
Can I just clarify that when all my sites update to v5 of WordPress all my Beaver Builder sites will remain untouched by the update, we won’t see any weird conflicts or find it necessary to disable Gutenberg completely and editing will be as the same as it currently is?
In terms of Beaver Builder and Gutenberg compatibility, you have nothing to worry about. We can’t speak for other themes and plugins, though.
We only use the Beaver Builder theme so we should be OK on that side then and we have a trusted set of premium plugins so hopefully, those will be updated as well.