Post pobrano z: 8 Best WordPress Forum Plugins to Build a Thriving Online Community

These days, social media can play a significant role in community building. But there is also another way that existed way before Facebook or other platforms.

Yes, I’m talking about forums.

The easiest way to build a forum around your WordPress website is to use a plugin. But there’s a problem. There are too many potential candidates that can be a good solution for you.

The purpose of this post is to show you the solutions you should consider. So let’s get started!

What to Look for in a WordPress Forum Plugin?

Take a strategic approach when choosing a plugin for your WordPress website. Instead of picking any plugin you can find, make sure to pay attention to at least these seven factors.

1. Price

Both free and paid plugins exist. Both types have their advantages and disadvantages.

While a free plugin doesn’t cost you anything, it may lack the support options that the paid version offers.

2. The usage

Do you intend to use the plugin only as a forum, or in some other ways, too?

For instance, certain plugins work better as a Question and Answer (Q&A) site. Then again, some solutions are more flexible, and you can use them in many ways.

3. Support

I’ve already touched on this area in point number 1, but let me elaborate further.

So when you are picking a forum for your website, make sure it also offers proper support options.

For instance, if technical issues come up, do you know where to find help, and how? Find out all the support options in advance so that you get help if you need i.

4. Extensibility

I know it sounds a bit confusing, but it’s true: forum plugins can have their own plugins. These plugins extend the functionality of the forum by adding new useful features to it.

While most of the forum solutions can be extended, some are not. So make sure to learn in advance whether your forum supports add-ons or not.

5. Integration

How well does the forum plugin support the custom branding of your website? Also, is it possible to integrate the forum into other systems?

6. Development

Plugin development is an ongoing process. But is your product updated and developed frequently?

For instance, if the plugin was updated a year ago, should you consider using another solution instead.

7. Basic Functionality

What features you value depends on your needs. But as a general guideline, I would make sure that:

• The forum is easy to set up and maintain.
• The user interface, both for the user and the admin, is simple to use.
• The end-user can format the posts easily.
• You can secure your site from spam and bots.
• You can optimize the SEO of your forums.
• The solution contains all the essential features. These include creating new threads, replying to comments, or editing your posts.
• The forum is optimized for mobile devices.

The Top 8 WordPress Forum Plugins for 2020

Now that you know what to look for in a forum, let’s go through the top-8 WordPress plugins.

1. bbPress

bbPress is probably the most popular forum plugin for WordPress. It’s an open-source solution, and it comes from the same folks who develop WordPress.

The guiding principles behind bbPress are simplicity, web standards, flexibility, and speed. The forum integrates well with WordPress, and you can also extend it via plugins.

The plugin supports 11 languages. It’s easy to set up and simple to use.

Pros

• Light-weight forum solution.
• Fast setup.
• The solution integrates well with WordPress.
• The forum can be translated into many languages.
• Flexible layout options.
• Active community forums.
• Free to download.

Cons

• Adding new forum categories is a bit inconvenient at first.
• Plugins are developed by many people, which means that the support options may vary, depending on the developer.

Price

• Free to download and use. You can extend bbPress with free and premium plugins.

2. wpForo Forums

wpForo Forums is another fully-featured forum plugin for WordPress. While the core version is free, you can also extend your forum with premium add-ons.

The solution is light-weight and easy-to-use. You can quickly manage your current forum structure through the forum’s admin panel.

The forum has four layout options: Extended, Simplified, Q&A, and Threaded. Each layout option provides features that make your forums unique.

wpForo Forums also integrates well with systems like BuddyPress or Ultimate Members.

Pros

• Free to download and use.
• The plugin comes with five premium add-ons.
• You can drag and drop the forums and categories into any order you wish.
• SEO-friendly forum solution.
• The forum can be easily translated into other languages.

Cons

• The forum configuration may not be intuitive at first. So be prepared to visit wpForo’s support forum frequently.
• If you deactivate the plugin, you’ll have to submit a feedback form to the developer first.

Price

• Free to download and use. You can also extend the forum with premium add-ons.

3. DW Question & Answer Pro

DW Question & Answer is a light-weight WordPress forum plugin by DesignerWall. It helps you to build a site like StackOverflow, where the visitors can vote for each other’s answers.

The plugin provides a clean interface for the forum visitors. From the administrator’s perspective, the setup and maintenance tasks are also easy to do.

The plugin contains Default, Flat, and HelpDesk themes. Each of these options adds their nuance to the forum layout.

The forum integrates with the Akismet spam solution. The plugin also supports two different types of captchas, FunCaptcha and Google captcha.

Finally, the plugin includes six different add-ons. For instance, you can use the DW Q&A Markdown for editing forum posts without HTML language. Or with DW Q&A Leaderboard, you can list great forum contributors. You can also provide competitions for the community.

Pros

• Clean user interface.
• Quick to setup and configure.
• Various captcha options.

Cons

• Custom styling should be easier.
• It has limited options as a discussion forum.

Price

• The plugin costs $29. There is also a free version

4. CM Answers Pro

CM Answers is another elegant solution if you want to build a Q&A site, like Yahoo Answers or Quora.

The solution lets users vote for their favorite answers. Administrators can customize forum layout or localize the community to their preferred language.

You can also replace the default WordPress comment system with a Q&A discussion forum. With this feature, you can turn your website into a real community.

You can also integrate the plugin with Facebook, LinkedIn, or BuddyPress.

Pros

• You can turn WordPress comments as part of a discussion board.
• Users can vote for their favorite answers.
• Users can add many attachments to questions or answers.
• Ultimate Edition has the payment and micropayment support.

Cons

• The user guide section (in the admin panel) looks messy.
• You’ll find a link to the ticket system on the plugin’s home page after digging around a bit. Yet, the support options should be more easily available.

Price

• Premium versions: Pro: $39. Pro Anonymous: $59. Ultimate: $99. There is also a free version

5. Discussion Board Pro

Discussion Board plugin comes in two flavors: free and paid.

During the installation, the plugin creates three pages:

• A login-in page.
• A page for posting new topics.
• A page for viewing existing topics.

These pages act as the backbone of your forum. And once the forum is live, users can register their user account through your website’s front-end.

The forum includes features like user management, which defines who can see it and who can post to it. You can also reduce the spam by blocking specific email addresses or domains.

The forum is mobile-responsive and works with any theme.

Pros

• It integrates well with your website.
• The plugin is easy to set up and configure.
• A simple solution that adds a forum to your website without extra hassles.
• It can be used in many ways, such as a community forum, a Q&A site, or as a job board.

Cons

• It would be nice to see a comparison table between the free and the premium versions. That would make the selection between the free and the paid version easier.

Price

• Versions: Basic: $49 per year (one site). Pro: $89 per year (unlimited sites). The free version is also available.

6. BuddyPress

Would you like to run a social network hub on top of your WordPress website? If so, you should consider using BuddyPress.

With BuddyPress, you can build a website with social network features. These features include things like user profiles, activity streams, or internal messaging. You can also create user groups to build mini-communities.

Contributors to WordPress also build BuddyPress. It integrates well with WordPress, Akismet, and even with bbPress.

Pros

• Active development community.
• It has plenty of plugins that extend the core plugin functionality.
• It is continuously developed and maintained.

Cons

• You need to do more configuration than with some other forum plugins.

Price

• Free to download and use.

7. Simple:Press

Simple:Press has a long history behind it. It’s over 12 years old, and it now spans over 70 modules.

The free version includes features like great support for SEO or a spam protection tool. The premium version gives you private messaging and a TinyMCE editor for post formatting.

The forum is mobile responsive, so you can use it with your desktop, mobile phone or tablet.

Pros

• Plenty of features already in the free version.
• The forum developer creates all the add-ons, not a third-party. This factor makes it easier to get support for any questions.

Cons

• Premium version prices can be too much for some people.

Price

• Premium versions: Silver Bundle: $99 per year (one site). Gold Bundle: $149 per year (one site). Platinum Bundle: $199 per year (one site). The free version is also available.

8. Asgaros Forums

Asgaros Forums is a light-weight and forum-rich forum solution coming from Germany.

The forum is easy to set up. It creates a page titled Forum on your WordPress during the installation. The page includes a shortcode, and you can also place the shortcode on another page if you wish.

The forum is SEO-friendly, and it supports uploads, polls, and activity feeds. Forum users can also earn reputation points based on their activity on the forums.

Pros

• Free (developer accepts optional donations).
• Loads fast.
• Easy to set up.

Cons

• No plugins are available.
• Can’t migrate from other forum systems (at least without coding).

Price

• Free to download and use.

What WordPress Forum Plugin Is the Best for You?

So there you have it: 8 WordPress forum plugins, which each promise to be the perfect fit for you. But the hot question is: which one should you pick for your WordPress website?

Remember the seven factors I talked about in the beginning about what to look for in a forum? When I think about all the plugins against these factors, there are two forums that you should consider: Simple:Press and wpForo.

Simple:Press

• Price: There are both free versions and paid versions available.
• Usage: The plugin can only be used as a community forum. But if you invest into other premium Simple:Press components, you can create various types of websites.These include helpdesk sites, membership sites or donation sites.
• Support: The free version gives you community support. The premium versions provide access to standard or premium support. You also get all the add-ons and support from one vendor, instead of from many.
• Extensibility: Premium versions include over 70 add-ons. These include anonymous posting, polls and surveys, or profanity filter.
• Integrations: Integrates with WordPress dashboard, logins, and registrations. The premium version adds integration to BuddyPress or WooCommerce.
• Development: New features are continuously developed. Also, the old code is kept up-to-date.
• Technical Features: The forum solution is easy to use, and it is mobile responsive. It has proper SEO functionality and has security features to protect you from forum spam.

Try the free version first. If you like what you see, then upgrade to the premium one. This way, you’ll learn if the solution is a good fit for you. You can also access the Simple:Press demo site to learn more about the solution.

wpForo

• Price: Free to download. This is great if you want to have a forum solution, but are on a budget.
• Usage: The main usage of the plugin is to use it as a forum. However, you can also use it as a Q&A/support site.
• Support: You get the support through wpForo’s support forums.
• Extensibility: You can extend the solution with 10 premium plugins. The prices range between $11 and $125. The premium plugins include ad manager or polls.
• Integrations: wpForo integrates with BuddyPress and with Ultimate
  Members plugins.
• Development: The forum is actively developed and old code is kept up-to-date.
• Technical Features: The forum is mobile responsive, and it supports various forum layouts. It also provides great SEO support, and has tools for user management.

Like Simple:Press, give a forum a test drive first. You can also visit the vendor’s website to see how the forum looks in action.

I hope you enjoyed our blog post on the best WordPress forum plugins. Next, you may want to check out our comprehensive article on the best list building plugins for WordPress.

The post 8 Best WordPress Forum Plugins to Build a Thriving Online Community appeared first on WebresourcesDepot.

Post pobrano z: 8 Best WordPress Forum Plugins to Build a Thriving Online Community

These days, social media can play a significant role in community building. But there is also another way that existed way before Facebook or other platforms.

Yes, I’m talking about forums.

The easiest way to build a forum around your WordPress website is to use a plugin. But there’s a problem. There are too many potential candidates that can be a good solution for you.

The purpose of this post is to show you the solutions you should consider. So let’s get started!

What to Look for in a WordPress Forum Plugin?

Take a strategic approach when choosing a plugin for your WordPress website. Instead of picking any plugin you can find, make sure to pay attention to at least these seven factors.

1. Price

Both free and paid plugins exist. Both types have their advantages and disadvantages.

While a free plugin doesn’t cost you anything, it may lack the support options that the paid version offers.

2. The usage

Do you intend to use the plugin only as a forum, or in some other ways, too?

For instance, certain plugins work better as a Question and Answer (Q&A) site. Then again, some solutions are more flexible, and you can use them in many ways.

3. Support

I’ve already touched on this area in point number 1, but let me elaborate further.

So when you are picking a forum for your website, make sure it also offers proper support options.

For instance, if technical issues come up, do you know where to find help, and how? Find out all the support options in advance so that you get help if you need i.

4. Extensibility

I know it sounds a bit confusing, but it’s true: forum plugins can have their own plugins. These plugins extend the functionality of the forum by adding new useful features to it.

While most of the forum solutions can be extended, some are not. So make sure to learn in advance whether your forum supports add-ons or not.

5. Integration

How well does the forum plugin support the custom branding of your website? Also, is it possible to integrate the forum into other systems?

6. Development

Plugin development is an ongoing process. But is your product updated and developed frequently?

For instance, if the plugin was updated a year ago, should you consider using another solution instead.

7. Basic Functionality

What features you value depends on your needs. But as a general guideline, I would make sure that:

• The forum is easy to set up and maintain.
• The user interface, both for the user and the admin, is simple to use.
• The end-user can format the posts easily.
• You can secure your site from spam and bots.
• You can optimize the SEO of your forums.
• The solution contains all the essential features. These include creating new threads, replying to comments, or editing your posts.
• The forum is optimized for mobile devices.

The Top 8 WordPress Forum Plugins for 2020

Now that you know what to look for in a forum, let’s go through the top-8 WordPress plugins.

1. bbPress

bbPress is probably the most popular forum plugin for WordPress. It’s an open-source solution, and it comes from the same folks who develop WordPress.

The guiding principles behind bbPress are simplicity, web standards, flexibility, and speed. The forum integrates well with WordPress, and you can also extend it via plugins.

The plugin supports 11 languages. It’s easy to set up and simple to use.

Pros

• Light-weight forum solution.
• Fast setup.
• The solution integrates well with WordPress.
• The forum can be translated into many languages.
• Flexible layout options.
• Active community forums.
• Free to download.

Cons

• Adding new forum categories is a bit inconvenient at first.
• Plugins are developed by many people, which means that the support options may vary, depending on the developer.

Price

• Free to download and use. You can extend bbPress with free and premium plugins.

2. wpForo Forums

wpForo Forums is another fully-featured forum plugin for WordPress. While the core version is free, you can also extend your forum with premium add-ons.

The solution is light-weight and easy-to-use. You can quickly manage your current forum structure through the forum’s admin panel.

The forum has four layout options: Extended, Simplified, Q&A, and Threaded. Each layout option provides features that make your forums unique.

wpForo Forums also integrates well with systems like BuddyPress or Ultimate Members.

Pros

• Free to download and use.
• The plugin comes with five premium add-ons.
• You can drag and drop the forums and categories into any order you wish.
• SEO-friendly forum solution.
• The forum can be easily translated into other languages.

Cons

• The forum configuration may not be intuitive at first. So be prepared to visit wpForo’s support forum frequently.
• If you deactivate the plugin, you’ll have to submit a feedback form to the developer first.

Price

• Free to download and use. You can also extend the forum with premium add-ons.

3. DW Question & Answer Pro

DW Question & Answer is a light-weight WordPress forum plugin by DesignerWall. It helps you to build a site like StackOverflow, where the visitors can vote for each other’s answers.

The plugin provides a clean interface for the forum visitors. From the administrator’s perspective, the setup and maintenance tasks are also easy to do.

The plugin contains Default, Flat, and HelpDesk themes. Each of these options adds their nuance to the forum layout.

The forum integrates with the Akismet spam solution. The plugin also supports two different types of captchas, FunCaptcha and Google captcha.

Finally, the plugin includes six different add-ons. For instance, you can use the DW Q&A Markdown for editing forum posts without HTML language. Or with DW Q&A Leaderboard, you can list great forum contributors. You can also provide competitions for the community.

Pros

• Clean user interface.
• Quick to setup and configure.
• Various captcha options.

Cons

• Custom styling should be easier.
• It has limited options as a discussion forum.

Price

• The plugin costs $29. There is also a free version

4. CM Answers Pro

CM Answers is another elegant solution if you want to build a Q&A site, like Yahoo Answers or Quora.

The solution lets users vote for their favorite answers. Administrators can customize forum layout or localize the community to their preferred language.

You can also replace the default WordPress comment system with a Q&A discussion forum. With this feature, you can turn your website into a real community.

You can also integrate the plugin with Facebook, LinkedIn, or BuddyPress.

Pros

• You can turn WordPress comments as part of a discussion board.
• Users can vote for their favorite answers.
• Users can add many attachments to questions or answers.
• Ultimate Edition has the payment and micropayment support.

Cons

• The user guide section (in the admin panel) looks messy.
• You’ll find a link to the ticket system on the plugin’s home page after digging around a bit. Yet, the support options should be more easily available.

Price

• Premium versions: Pro: $39. Pro Anonymous: $59. Ultimate: $99. There is also a free version

5. Discussion Board Pro

Discussion Board plugin comes in two flavors: free and paid.

During the installation, the plugin creates three pages:

• A login-in page.
• A page for posting new topics.
• A page for viewing existing topics.

These pages act as the backbone of your forum. And once the forum is live, users can register their user account through your website’s front-end.

The forum includes features like user management, which defines who can see it and who can post to it. You can also reduce the spam by blocking specific email addresses or domains.

The forum is mobile-responsive and works with any theme.

Pros

• It integrates well with your website.
• The plugin is easy to set up and configure.
• A simple solution that adds a forum to your website without extra hassles.
• It can be used in many ways, such as a community forum, a Q&A site, or as a job board.

Cons

• It would be nice to see a comparison table between the free and the premium versions. That would make the selection between the free and the paid version easier.

Price

• Versions: Basic: $49 per year (one site). Pro: $89 per year (unlimited sites). The free version is also available.

6. BuddyPress

Would you like to run a social network hub on top of your WordPress website? If so, you should consider using BuddyPress.

With BuddyPress, you can build a website with social network features. These features include things like user profiles, activity streams, or internal messaging. You can also create user groups to build mini-communities.

Contributors to WordPress also build BuddyPress. It integrates well with WordPress, Akismet, and even with bbPress.

Pros

• Active development community.
• It has plenty of plugins that extend the core plugin functionality.
• It is continuously developed and maintained.

Cons

• You need to do more configuration than with some other forum plugins.

Price

• Free to download and use.

7. Simple:Press

Simple:Press has a long history behind it. It’s over 12 years old, and it now spans over 70 modules.

The free version includes features like great support for SEO or a spam protection tool. The premium version gives you private messaging and a TinyMCE editor for post formatting.

The forum is mobile responsive, so you can use it with your desktop, mobile phone or tablet.

Pros

• Plenty of features already in the free version.
• The forum developer creates all the add-ons, not a third-party. This factor makes it easier to get support for any questions.

Cons

• Premium version prices can be too much for some people.

Price

• Premium versions: Silver Bundle: $99 per year (one site). Gold Bundle: $149 per year (one site). Platinum Bundle: $199 per year (one site). The free version is also available.

8. Asgaros Forums

Asgaros Forums is a light-weight and forum-rich forum solution coming from Germany.

The forum is easy to set up. It creates a page titled Forum on your WordPress during the installation. The page includes a shortcode, and you can also place the shortcode on another page if you wish.

The forum is SEO-friendly, and it supports uploads, polls, and activity feeds. Forum users can also earn reputation points based on their activity on the forums.

Pros

• Free (developer accepts optional donations).
• Loads fast.
• Easy to set up.

Cons

• No plugins are available.
• Can’t migrate from other forum systems (at least without coding).

Price

• Free to download and use.

What WordPress Forum Plugin Is the Best for You?

So there you have it: 8 WordPress forum plugins, which each promise to be the perfect fit for you. But the hot question is: which one should you pick for your WordPress website?

Remember the seven factors I talked about in the beginning about what to look for in a forum? When I think about all the plugins against these factors, there are two forums that you should consider: Simple:Press and wpForo.

Simple:Press

• Price: There are both free versions and paid versions available.
• Usage: The plugin can only be used as a community forum. But if you invest into other premium Simple:Press components, you can create various types of websites.These include helpdesk sites, membership sites or donation sites.
• Support: The free version gives you community support. The premium versions provide access to standard or premium support. You also get all the add-ons and support from one vendor, instead of from many.
• Extensibility: Premium versions include over 70 add-ons. These include anonymous posting, polls and surveys, or profanity filter.
• Integrations: Integrates with WordPress dashboard, logins, and registrations. The premium version adds integration to BuddyPress or WooCommerce.
• Development: New features are continuously developed. Also, the old code is kept up-to-date.
• Technical Features: The forum solution is easy to use, and it is mobile responsive. It has proper SEO functionality and has security features to protect you from forum spam.

Try the free version first. If you like what you see, then upgrade to the premium one. This way, you’ll learn if the solution is a good fit for you. You can also access the Simple:Press demo site to learn more about the solution.

wpForo

• Price: Free to download. This is great if you want to have a forum solution, but are on a budget.
• Usage: The main usage of the plugin is to use it as a forum. However, you can also use it as a Q&A/support site.
• Support: You get the support through wpForo’s support forums.
• Extensibility: You can extend the solution with 10 premium plugins. The prices range between $11 and $125. The premium plugins include ad manager or polls.
• Integrations: wpForo integrates with BuddyPress and with Ultimate
  Members plugins.
• Development: The forum is actively developed and old code is kept up-to-date.
• Technical Features: The forum is mobile responsive, and it supports various forum layouts. It also provides great SEO support, and has tools for user management.

Like Simple:Press, give a forum a test drive first. You can also visit the vendor’s website to see how the forum looks in action.

I hope you enjoyed our blog post on the best WordPress forum plugins. Next, you may want to check out our comprehensive article on the best list building plugins for WordPress.

The post 8 Best WordPress Forum Plugins to Build a Thriving Online Community appeared first on WebresourcesDepot.

Post pobrano z: 8 Best WordPress Forum Plugins to Build a Thriving Online Community

These days, social media can play a significant role in community building. But there is also another way that existed way before Facebook or other platforms.

Yes, I’m talking about forums.

The easiest way to build a forum around your WordPress website is to use a plugin. But there’s a problem. There are too many potential candidates that can be a good solution for you.

The purpose of this post is to show you the solutions you should consider. So let’s get started!

What to Look for in a WordPress Forum Plugin?

Take a strategic approach when choosing a plugin for your WordPress website. Instead of picking any plugin you can find, make sure to pay attention to at least these seven factors.

1. Price

Both free and paid plugins exist. Both types have their advantages and disadvantages.

While a free plugin doesn’t cost you anything, it may lack the support options that the paid version offers.

2. The usage

Do you intend to use the plugin only as a forum, or in some other ways, too?

For instance, certain plugins work better as a Question and Answer (Q&A) site. Then again, some solutions are more flexible, and you can use them in many ways.

3. Support

I’ve already touched on this area in point number 1, but let me elaborate further.

So when you are picking a forum for your website, make sure it also offers proper support options.

For instance, if technical issues come up, do you know where to find help, and how? Find out all the support options in advance so that you get help if you need i.

4. Extensibility

I know it sounds a bit confusing, but it’s true: forum plugins can have their own plugins. These plugins extend the functionality of the forum by adding new useful features to it.

While most of the forum solutions can be extended, some are not. So make sure to learn in advance whether your forum supports add-ons or not.

5. Integration

How well does the forum plugin support the custom branding of your website? Also, is it possible to integrate the forum into other systems?

6. Development

Plugin development is an ongoing process. But is your product updated and developed frequently?

For instance, if the plugin was updated a year ago, should you consider using another solution instead.

7. Basic Functionality

What features you value depends on your needs. But as a general guideline, I would make sure that:

• The forum is easy to set up and maintain.
• The user interface, both for the user and the admin, is simple to use.
• The end-user can format the posts easily.
• You can secure your site from spam and bots.
• You can optimize the SEO of your forums.
• The solution contains all the essential features. These include creating new threads, replying to comments, or editing your posts.
• The forum is optimized for mobile devices.

The Top 8 WordPress Forum Plugins for 2020

Now that you know what to look for in a forum, let’s go through the top-8 WordPress plugins.

1. bbPress

bbPress is probably the most popular forum plugin for WordPress. It’s an open-source solution, and it comes from the same folks who develop WordPress.

The guiding principles behind bbPress are simplicity, web standards, flexibility, and speed. The forum integrates well with WordPress, and you can also extend it via plugins.

The plugin supports 11 languages. It’s easy to set up and simple to use.

Pros

• Light-weight forum solution.
• Fast setup.
• The solution integrates well with WordPress.
• The forum can be translated into many languages.
• Flexible layout options.
• Active community forums.
• Free to download.

Cons

• Adding new forum categories is a bit inconvenient at first.
• Plugins are developed by many people, which means that the support options may vary, depending on the developer.

Price

• Free to download and use. You can extend bbPress with free and premium plugins.

2. wpForo Forums

wpForo Forums is another fully-featured forum plugin for WordPress. While the core version is free, you can also extend your forum with premium add-ons.

The solution is light-weight and easy-to-use. You can quickly manage your current forum structure through the forum’s admin panel.

The forum has four layout options: Extended, Simplified, Q&A, and Threaded. Each layout option provides features that make your forums unique.

wpForo Forums also integrates well with systems like BuddyPress or Ultimate Members.

Pros

• Free to download and use.
• The plugin comes with five premium add-ons.
• You can drag and drop the forums and categories into any order you wish.
• SEO-friendly forum solution.
• The forum can be easily translated into other languages.

Cons

• The forum configuration may not be intuitive at first. So be prepared to visit wpForo’s support forum frequently.
• If you deactivate the plugin, you’ll have to submit a feedback form to the developer first.

Price

• Free to download and use. You can also extend the forum with premium add-ons.

3. DW Question & Answer Pro

DW Question & Answer is a light-weight WordPress forum plugin by DesignerWall. It helps you to build a site like StackOverflow, where the visitors can vote for each other’s answers.

The plugin provides a clean interface for the forum visitors. From the administrator’s perspective, the setup and maintenance tasks are also easy to do.

The plugin contains Default, Flat, and HelpDesk themes. Each of these options adds their nuance to the forum layout.

The forum integrates with the Akismet spam solution. The plugin also supports two different types of captchas, FunCaptcha and Google captcha.

Finally, the plugin includes six different add-ons. For instance, you can use the DW Q&A Markdown for editing forum posts without HTML language. Or with DW Q&A Leaderboard, you can list great forum contributors. You can also provide competitions for the community.

Pros

• Clean user interface.
• Quick to setup and configure.
• Various captcha options.

Cons

• Custom styling should be easier.
• It has limited options as a discussion forum.

Price

• The plugin costs $29. There is also a free version

4. CM Answers Pro

CM Answers is another elegant solution if you want to build a Q&A site, like Yahoo Answers or Quora.

The solution lets users vote for their favorite answers. Administrators can customize forum layout or localize the community to their preferred language.

You can also replace the default WordPress comment system with a Q&A discussion forum. With this feature, you can turn your website into a real community.

You can also integrate the plugin with Facebook, LinkedIn, or BuddyPress.

Pros

• You can turn WordPress comments as part of a discussion board.
• Users can vote for their favorite answers.
• Users can add many attachments to questions or answers.
• Ultimate Edition has the payment and micropayment support.

Cons

• The user guide section (in the admin panel) looks messy.
• You’ll find a link to the ticket system on the plugin’s home page after digging around a bit. Yet, the support options should be more easily available.

Price

• Premium versions: Pro: $39. Pro Anonymous: $59. Ultimate: $99. There is also a free version

5. Discussion Board Pro

Discussion Board plugin comes in two flavors: free and paid.

During the installation, the plugin creates three pages:

• A login-in page.
• A page for posting new topics.
• A page for viewing existing topics.

These pages act as the backbone of your forum. And once the forum is live, users can register their user account through your website’s front-end.

The forum includes features like user management, which defines who can see it and who can post to it. You can also reduce the spam by blocking specific email addresses or domains.

The forum is mobile-responsive and works with any theme.

Pros

• It integrates well with your website.
• The plugin is easy to set up and configure.
• A simple solution that adds a forum to your website without extra hassles.
• It can be used in many ways, such as a community forum, a Q&A site, or as a job board.

Cons

• It would be nice to see a comparison table between the free and the premium versions. That would make the selection between the free and the paid version easier.

Price

• Versions: Basic: $49 per year (one site). Pro: $89 per year (unlimited sites). The free version is also available.

6. BuddyPress

Would you like to run a social network hub on top of your WordPress website? If so, you should consider using BuddyPress.

With BuddyPress, you can build a website with social network features. These features include things like user profiles, activity streams, or internal messaging. You can also create user groups to build mini-communities.

Contributors to WordPress also build BuddyPress. It integrates well with WordPress, Akismet, and even with bbPress.

Pros

• Active development community.
• It has plenty of plugins that extend the core plugin functionality.
• It is continuously developed and maintained.

Cons

• You need to do more configuration than with some other forum plugins.

Price

• Free to download and use.

7. Simple:Press

Simple:Press has a long history behind it. It’s over 12 years old, and it now spans over 70 modules.

The free version includes features like great support for SEO or a spam protection tool. The premium version gives you private messaging and a TinyMCE editor for post formatting.

The forum is mobile responsive, so you can use it with your desktop, mobile phone or tablet.

Pros

• Plenty of features already in the free version.
• The forum developer creates all the add-ons, not a third-party. This factor makes it easier to get support for any questions.

Cons

• Premium version prices can be too much for some people.

Price

• Premium versions: Silver Bundle: $99 per year (one site). Gold Bundle: $149 per year (one site). Platinum Bundle: $199 per year (one site). The free version is also available.

8. Asgaros Forums

Asgaros Forums is a light-weight and forum-rich forum solution coming from Germany.

The forum is easy to set up. It creates a page titled Forum on your WordPress during the installation. The page includes a shortcode, and you can also place the shortcode on another page if you wish.

The forum is SEO-friendly, and it supports uploads, polls, and activity feeds. Forum users can also earn reputation points based on their activity on the forums.

Pros

• Free (developer accepts optional donations).
• Loads fast.
• Easy to set up.

Cons

• No plugins are available.
• Can’t migrate from other forum systems (at least without coding).

Price

• Free to download and use.

What WordPress Forum Plugin Is the Best for You?

So there you have it: 8 WordPress forum plugins, which each promise to be the perfect fit for you. But the hot question is: which one should you pick for your WordPress website?

Remember the seven factors I talked about in the beginning about what to look for in a forum? When I think about all the plugins against these factors, there are two forums that you should consider: Simple:Press and wpForo.

Simple:Press

• Price: There are both free versions and paid versions available.
• Usage: The plugin can only be used as a community forum. But if you invest into other premium Simple:Press components, you can create various types of websites.These include helpdesk sites, membership sites or donation sites.
• Support: The free version gives you community support. The premium versions provide access to standard or premium support. You also get all the add-ons and support from one vendor, instead of from many.
• Extensibility: Premium versions include over 70 add-ons. These include anonymous posting, polls and surveys, or profanity filter.
• Integrations: Integrates with WordPress dashboard, logins, and registrations. The premium version adds integration to BuddyPress or WooCommerce.
• Development: New features are continuously developed. Also, the old code is kept up-to-date.
• Technical Features: The forum solution is easy to use, and it is mobile responsive. It has proper SEO functionality and has security features to protect you from forum spam.

Try the free version first. If you like what you see, then upgrade to the premium one. This way, you’ll learn if the solution is a good fit for you. You can also access the Simple:Press demo site to learn more about the solution.

wpForo

• Price: Free to download. This is great if you want to have a forum solution, but are on a budget.
• Usage: The main usage of the plugin is to use it as a forum. However, you can also use it as a Q&A/support site.
• Support: You get the support through wpForo’s support forums.
• Extensibility: You can extend the solution with 10 premium plugins. The prices range between $11 and $125. The premium plugins include ad manager or polls.
• Integrations: wpForo integrates with BuddyPress and with Ultimate
  Members plugins.
• Development: The forum is actively developed and old code is kept up-to-date.
• Technical Features: The forum is mobile responsive, and it supports various forum layouts. It also provides great SEO support, and has tools for user management.

Like Simple:Press, give a forum a test drive first. You can also visit the vendor’s website to see how the forum looks in action.

I hope you enjoyed our blog post on the best WordPress forum plugins. Next, you may want to check out our comprehensive article on the best list building plugins for WordPress.

The post 8 Best WordPress Forum Plugins to Build a Thriving Online Community appeared first on WebresourcesDepot.

Post pobrano z: How to Create a Typewriter Font Text Effect (And the Best Typewriter Fonts)

Do you love old typewriters and the style they apply to the letters? Those duplicated letters, and the illegible and sometimes even blurred and almost missed symbols?

In this tutorial, I will show you a quick and easy way to create a vintage typewriter font effect using a displacement map, textures, and smart filters. And if you want to know what a typewriter font looks like, check the best typewriter font collection available on Envato Elements:

Enigma Typewriter Sans Font

This classic typewriter font will help you to recreate the style of old documents and papers. It was inspired by the „Enigma machine” and has a great vintage and grungy look. This typewriter font supports multilingual glyphs and comes in one TTF file.

Silk Remington

Inspired by the name of the old brand, this product is an authentic old typewriter font, created by Jadugar Design Studio. This vintage typewriter font comes in five variations, from Thin to Rough, so it could be really useful for different types of projects.

Not my type typewriter font

If you ask what font looks like a typewriter, the answer is the one that is created with a real typewriter. This typewriter font was made with an Oliver Courier Typewriter from an antique market. If you need a simple old typewriter font with a great number of alternates, this one is the best choice for you.

AMTW

If you are looking for an American typewriter font, take a look at AMTW. This classic typewriter font could be used in many ways because it comes in three styles: regular, rough, and rough-rough.

Catalina Typewriter

If you are looking for a font that looks like a typewriter but was made by hand, Catalina Typewriter is the best typewriter font for you. This neatly handwritten font would be perfect for creating typewriter font tattoo sketches, table cards, menus, and much more.

Let’s start to create our own vintage typewriter font effect. If you want to learn this effect via video, check out our lesson on the Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel:

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used in the production of this tutorial:

• AMTW font
• Textures and Displacement Map

1. How to Prepare the Document

Step 1

Let’s get started by setting up a New Document by pressing Control-N. Set the document size to 1500 by 1000 px.

Step 2

Drag and Drop the textures from the tutorial assets to the document, and then make these layers Invisible.

Step 3

Hit T and create two text layers with any words you want to use.

Step 4

After that, add a Mask to each layer.

Step 5

Select the text layers while holding Shift, and hit Control-G to create a group of the layers. Then add a mask to this group as we did before.

Step 6

Now we need to create four duplicates of the group using Right Click > Duplicate Layer.

2. How to Create a Typewriter Font Text Effect

Step 1

Select the mask of the first text layer and then Control-click on the icon of the text layer.

Step 2

Go to Select > Modify > Contract  and use the following setting: Contract By: 4 px.

Step 3

Press Shift-Control-I to invert the selection, and then hit Shift-F5 to fill the selection with black.

Step 4

Add the same mask effect to the second text layer and hit Control-D to deselect.

Step 5

Select the mask of the first layer and then go to Filter Gallery > Brush Strokes > Splatter and use the following settings: Set Radius: 10; Smoothness: 15. After that, add the same filter to the mask of the second layer using Alt-Control-F.

Step 6

Put the ink texture inside the first group of layers.

Step 7

Double-Click on the ink texture in the Layers panel, and then go to Color Overlay and use white.

Step 8

Now we need to add the selection to the masks of the second group of layers, as we did before. But this time we’ll use the following settings: Contract By: 2 px.

Step 9

After that, select the mask of the text layer and go to Filter > Filter Gallery > Brush Strokes > Sprayed Strokes and set the Stroke Length to 20, Spray Radius to 0, and the Direction to Horizontal. Then add the same effect to the second layer mask using Alt-Control-F.

Step 10

Now let’s go to the next group of layers and add the masking effect to both text layers as we did before, but this time we don’t need to use the contract function.

Step 11

Select the Mask of the layer and then go to Filter > Distort > Displace and use the following settings: 

• Horizontal Scale: 4
• Vertical Scale: 4
• Displacement map: Tile
• Undefined Areas: Repeat Edge Pixels

Hit the OK button, and now you need to select the PSD file from the tutorial assets as a displacement map. Add the same effect to the second layer using Alt-Control-F.

Step 12

Add the masking effect to the text layers in the fourth group with the Contract by 4 px setting. 

Step 13

Select the mask of the text layer and go to Filter > Distortion > Ripple, using the following settings: Amount: 69%; Size: Medium. After that, select the mask of the second text layer and hit Alt-Control-F to add the same filter.

Step 14

Select the mask of the first layer and then go to Filter Gallery > Sketch > Torn Edges and use the following settings:

• Image Balance: 40 
  
• Smoothness: 15
  
• Contrast: 15

After that, add the same filter to the mask of the second layer using Alt-Control-F.

Step 15

Now let’s go to the last group of layers and create a mask effect as we did before using Contract by 4 px.

Step 16

Go to Filter Gallery > Brush Strokes > Splatter and use the following settings: Spray Radius: 10; Smoothness: 15. After that, add the same filter to the mask of the second layer using Alt-Control-F.

Step 17

And finally, let’s add the last filter to the mask. Go to Filter Gallery again, and then select Texture > Craquelure and set the Crack Spacing to 35, Depth to 10, and Brightness to 0. Use the same effect for the mask of the second layer.

Step 18

Now we need to make some of the elements invisible. Select the mask of the first group of layers, and then hit M and select some words you would like to make visible. Hold Shift to make multiple selections.

Step 19

Hit Shift-Control-I to invert the selection and then Control-I to invert the mask.

Step 20

Delete some parts of different group masks as we did before.

Step 21

Move the first group of layers about 10 px to the left while holding Shift.

Step 22

Change the Opacity of the group to 90%.

Step 23

Create a duplicate of the overlay texture and move both layers above all the groups. Then change the Blending Mode of the first texture to Hard Light and the Opacity to 52%. After that, change the Blending Mode of the second texture to Multiply.

Step 24

Select the first overlay texture and hit Alt-Shift-Control-B. Then hit OK.

Step 25

Go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and set the Brightness to -80 and Contrast to 100.

Step 26

And for the last step, we need to put all the previous groups in a new group and then Right-Click on the first texture and select Create a Clipping Mask.

Awesome Work, You’re Now Done!

Congratulations! You have created an old typewriter font effect using a displacement map, textures, and smart filters. Here is our final result:

If you would like to learn more about Photoshop text effects, check these tutorials:

• 

  How to Create a Grunge Text Effect Using a Displacement Map in Adobe Photoshop

  In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a grunge text effect using displacement mapping in Adobe Photoshop.
• 

  How to Create a Stylized Chalk Text Effect in Adobe Photoshop

  Use a texture, a couple of filters, and some drop shadow effects to create a super easy and quick stylized chalk text effect
• 

  How to Create a Distressed Painted Wall Text Effect in InDesign

  This quick and simple text effect will transport you to the colorful streets of Mexico. It’s easy to put together using Adobe InDesign, and you can adapt the…
• 

  How to Create a Copper Foil Texture Text Effect in Adobe Photoshop

  Learn a simple way to create a foil texture text effect, using a couple of filters, adjustments, and layer styles.

Post pobrano z: How to Create a Typewriter Font Text Effect (And the Best Typewriter Fonts)

Do you love old typewriters and the style they apply to the letters? Those duplicated letters, and the illegible and sometimes even blurred and almost missed symbols?

In this tutorial, I will show you a quick and easy way to create a vintage typewriter font effect using a displacement map, textures, and smart filters. And if you want to know what a typewriter font looks like, check the best typewriter font collection available on Envato Elements:

Enigma Typewriter Sans Font

This classic typewriter font will help you to recreate the style of old documents and papers. It was inspired by the „Enigma machine” and has a great vintage and grungy look. This typewriter font supports multilingual glyphs and comes in one TTF file.

Silk Remington

Inspired by the name of the old brand, this product is an authentic old typewriter font, created by Jadugar Design Studio. This vintage typewriter font comes in five variations, from Thin to Rough, so it could be really useful for different types of projects.

Not my type typewriter font

If you ask what font looks like a typewriter, the answer is the one that is created with a real typewriter. This typewriter font was made with an Oliver Courier Typewriter from an antique market. If you need a simple old typewriter font with a great number of alternates, this one is the best choice for you.

AMTW

If you are looking for an American typewriter font, take a look at AMTW. This classic typewriter font could be used in many ways because it comes in three styles: regular, rough, and rough-rough.

Catalina Typewriter

If you are looking for a font that looks like a typewriter but was made by hand, Catalina Typewriter is the best typewriter font for you. This neatly handwritten font would be perfect for creating typewriter font tattoo sketches, table cards, menus, and much more.

Let’s start to create our own vintage typewriter font effect. If you want to learn this effect via video, check out our lesson on the Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel:

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used in the production of this tutorial:

• AMTW font
• Textures and Displacement Map

1. How to Prepare the Document

Step 1

Let’s get started by setting up a New Document by pressing Control-N. Set the document size to 1500 by 1000 px.

Step 2

Drag and Drop the textures from the tutorial assets to the document, and then make these layers Invisible.

Step 3

Hit T and create two text layers with any words you want to use.

Step 4

After that, add a Mask to each layer.

Step 5

Select the text layers while holding Shift, and hit Control-G to create a group of the layers. Then add a mask to this group as we did before.

Step 6

Now we need to create four duplicates of the group using Right Click > Duplicate Layer.

2. How to Create a Typewriter Font Text Effect

Step 1

Select the mask of the first text layer and then Control-click on the icon of the text layer.

Step 2

Go to Select > Modify > Contract  and use the following setting: Contract By: 4 px.

Step 3

Press Shift-Control-I to invert the selection, and then hit Shift-F5 to fill the selection with black.

Step 4

Add the same mask effect to the second text layer and hit Control-D to deselect.

Step 5

Select the mask of the first layer and then go to Filter Gallery > Brush Strokes > Splatter and use the following settings: Set Radius: 10; Smoothness: 15. After that, add the same filter to the mask of the second layer using Alt-Control-F.

Step 6

Put the ink texture inside the first group of layers.

Step 7

Double-Click on the ink texture in the Layers panel, and then go to Color Overlay and use white.

Step 8

Now we need to add the selection to the masks of the second group of layers, as we did before. But this time we’ll use the following settings: Contract By: 2 px.

Step 9

After that, select the mask of the text layer and go to Filter > Filter Gallery > Brush Strokes > Sprayed Strokes and set the Stroke Length to 20, Spray Radius to 0, and the Direction to Horizontal. Then add the same effect to the second layer mask using Alt-Control-F.

Step 10

Now let’s go to the next group of layers and add the masking effect to both text layers as we did before, but this time we don’t need to use the contract function.

Step 11

Select the Mask of the layer and then go to Filter > Distort > Displace and use the following settings: 

• Horizontal Scale: 4
• Vertical Scale: 4
• Displacement map: Tile
• Undefined Areas: Repeat Edge Pixels

Hit the OK button, and now you need to select the PSD file from the tutorial assets as a displacement map. Add the same effect to the second layer using Alt-Control-F.

Step 12

Add the masking effect to the text layers in the fourth group with the Contract by 4 px setting. 

Step 13

Select the mask of the text layer and go to Filter > Distortion > Ripple, using the following settings: Amount: 69%; Size: Medium. After that, select the mask of the second text layer and hit Alt-Control-F to add the same filter.

Step 14

Select the mask of the first layer and then go to Filter Gallery > Sketch > Torn Edges and use the following settings:

• Image Balance: 40 
  
• Smoothness: 15
  
• Contrast: 15

After that, add the same filter to the mask of the second layer using Alt-Control-F.

Step 15

Now let’s go to the last group of layers and create a mask effect as we did before using Contract by 4 px.

Step 16

Go to Filter Gallery > Brush Strokes > Splatter and use the following settings: Spray Radius: 10; Smoothness: 15. After that, add the same filter to the mask of the second layer using Alt-Control-F.

Step 17

And finally, let’s add the last filter to the mask. Go to Filter Gallery again, and then select Texture > Craquelure and set the Crack Spacing to 35, Depth to 10, and Brightness to 0. Use the same effect for the mask of the second layer.

Step 18

Now we need to make some of the elements invisible. Select the mask of the first group of layers, and then hit M and select some words you would like to make visible. Hold Shift to make multiple selections.

Step 19

Hit Shift-Control-I to invert the selection and then Control-I to invert the mask.

Step 20

Delete some parts of different group masks as we did before.

Step 21

Move the first group of layers about 10 px to the left while holding Shift.

Step 22

Change the Opacity of the group to 90%.

Step 23

Create a duplicate of the overlay texture and move both layers above all the groups. Then change the Blending Mode of the first texture to Hard Light and the Opacity to 52%. After that, change the Blending Mode of the second texture to Multiply.

Step 24

Select the first overlay texture and hit Alt-Shift-Control-B. Then hit OK.

Step 25

Go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and set the Brightness to -80 and Contrast to 100.

Step 26

And for the last step, we need to put all the previous groups in a new group and then Right-Click on the first texture and select Create a Clipping Mask.

Awesome Work, You’re Now Done!

Congratulations! You have created an old typewriter font effect using a displacement map, textures, and smart filters. Here is our final result:

If you would like to learn more about Photoshop text effects, check these tutorials:

• 

  How to Create a Grunge Text Effect Using a Displacement Map in Adobe Photoshop

  In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a grunge text effect using displacement mapping in Adobe Photoshop.
• 

  How to Create a Stylized Chalk Text Effect in Adobe Photoshop

  Use a texture, a couple of filters, and some drop shadow effects to create a super easy and quick stylized chalk text effect
• 

  How to Create a Distressed Painted Wall Text Effect in InDesign

  This quick and simple text effect will transport you to the colorful streets of Mexico. It’s easy to put together using Adobe InDesign, and you can adapt the…
• 

  How to Create a Copper Foil Texture Text Effect in Adobe Photoshop

  Learn a simple way to create a foil texture text effect, using a couple of filters, adjustments, and layer styles.

Post pobrano z: How to Create a Typewriter Font Text Effect (And the Best Typewriter Fonts)

Do you love old typewriters and the style they apply to the letters? Those duplicated letters, and the illegible and sometimes even blurred and almost missed symbols?

In this tutorial, I will show you a quick and easy way to create a vintage typewriter font effect using a displacement map, textures, and smart filters. And if you want to know what a typewriter font looks like, check the best typewriter font collection available on Envato Elements:

Enigma Typewriter Sans Font

This classic typewriter font will help you to recreate the style of old documents and papers. It was inspired by the „Enigma machine” and has a great vintage and grungy look. This typewriter font supports multilingual glyphs and comes in one TTF file.

Silk Remington

Inspired by the name of the old brand, this product is an authentic old typewriter font, created by Jadugar Design Studio. This vintage typewriter font comes in five variations, from Thin to Rough, so it could be really useful for different types of projects.

Not my type typewriter font

If you ask what font looks like a typewriter, the answer is the one that is created with a real typewriter. This typewriter font was made with an Oliver Courier Typewriter from an antique market. If you need a simple old typewriter font with a great number of alternates, this one is the best choice for you.

AMTW

If you are looking for an American typewriter font, take a look at AMTW. This classic typewriter font could be used in many ways because it comes in three styles: regular, rough, and rough-rough.

Catalina Typewriter

If you are looking for a font that looks like a typewriter but was made by hand, Catalina Typewriter is the best typewriter font for you. This neatly handwritten font would be perfect for creating typewriter font tattoo sketches, table cards, menus, and much more.

Let’s start to create our own vintage typewriter font effect. If you want to learn this effect via video, check out our lesson on the Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel:

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used in the production of this tutorial:

• AMTW font
• Textures and Displacement Map

1. How to Prepare the Document

Step 1

Let’s get started by setting up a New Document by pressing Control-N. Set the document size to 1500 by 1000 px.

Step 2

Drag and Drop the textures from the tutorial assets to the document, and then make these layers Invisible.

Step 3

Hit T and create two text layers with any words you want to use.

Step 4

After that, add a Mask to each layer.

Step 5

Select the text layers while holding Shift, and hit Control-G to create a group of the layers. Then add a mask to this group as we did before.

Step 6

Now we need to create four duplicates of the group using Right Click > Duplicate Layer.

2. How to Create a Typewriter Font Text Effect

Step 1

Select the mask of the first text layer and then Control-click on the icon of the text layer.

Step 2

Go to Select > Modify > Contract  and use the following setting: Contract By: 4 px.

Step 3

Press Shift-Control-I to invert the selection, and then hit Shift-F5 to fill the selection with black.

Step 4

Add the same mask effect to the second text layer and hit Control-D to deselect.

Step 5

Select the mask of the first layer and then go to Filter Gallery > Brush Strokes > Splatter and use the following settings: Set Radius: 10; Smoothness: 15. After that, add the same filter to the mask of the second layer using Alt-Control-F.

Step 6

Put the ink texture inside the first group of layers.

Step 7

Double-Click on the ink texture in the Layers panel, and then go to Color Overlay and use white.

Step 8

Now we need to add the selection to the masks of the second group of layers, as we did before. But this time we’ll use the following settings: Contract By: 2 px.

Step 9

After that, select the mask of the text layer and go to Filter > Filter Gallery > Brush Strokes > Sprayed Strokes and set the Stroke Length to 20, Spray Radius to 0, and the Direction to Horizontal. Then add the same effect to the second layer mask using Alt-Control-F.

Step 10

Now let’s go to the next group of layers and add the masking effect to both text layers as we did before, but this time we don’t need to use the contract function.

Step 11

Select the Mask of the layer and then go to Filter > Distort > Displace and use the following settings: 

• Horizontal Scale: 4
• Vertical Scale: 4
• Displacement map: Tile
• Undefined Areas: Repeat Edge Pixels

Hit the OK button, and now you need to select the PSD file from the tutorial assets as a displacement map. Add the same effect to the second layer using Alt-Control-F.

Step 12

Add the masking effect to the text layers in the fourth group with the Contract by 4 px setting. 

Step 13

Select the mask of the text layer and go to Filter > Distortion > Ripple, using the following settings: Amount: 69%; Size: Medium. After that, select the mask of the second text layer and hit Alt-Control-F to add the same filter.

Step 14

Select the mask of the first layer and then go to Filter Gallery > Sketch > Torn Edges and use the following settings:

• Image Balance: 40 
  
• Smoothness: 15
  
• Contrast: 15

After that, add the same filter to the mask of the second layer using Alt-Control-F.

Step 15

Now let’s go to the last group of layers and create a mask effect as we did before using Contract by 4 px.

Step 16

Go to Filter Gallery > Brush Strokes > Splatter and use the following settings: Spray Radius: 10; Smoothness: 15. After that, add the same filter to the mask of the second layer using Alt-Control-F.

Step 17

And finally, let’s add the last filter to the mask. Go to Filter Gallery again, and then select Texture > Craquelure and set the Crack Spacing to 35, Depth to 10, and Brightness to 0. Use the same effect for the mask of the second layer.

Step 18

Now we need to make some of the elements invisible. Select the mask of the first group of layers, and then hit M and select some words you would like to make visible. Hold Shift to make multiple selections.

Step 19

Hit Shift-Control-I to invert the selection and then Control-I to invert the mask.

Step 20

Delete some parts of different group masks as we did before.

Step 21

Move the first group of layers about 10 px to the left while holding Shift.

Step 22

Change the Opacity of the group to 90%.

Step 23

Create a duplicate of the overlay texture and move both layers above all the groups. Then change the Blending Mode of the first texture to Hard Light and the Opacity to 52%. After that, change the Blending Mode of the second texture to Multiply.

Step 24

Select the first overlay texture and hit Alt-Shift-Control-B. Then hit OK.

Step 25

Go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and set the Brightness to -80 and Contrast to 100.

Step 26

And for the last step, we need to put all the previous groups in a new group and then Right-Click on the first texture and select Create a Clipping Mask.

Awesome Work, You’re Now Done!

Congratulations! You have created an old typewriter font effect using a displacement map, textures, and smart filters. Here is our final result:

If you would like to learn more about Photoshop text effects, check these tutorials:

• 

  How to Create a Grunge Text Effect Using a Displacement Map in Adobe Photoshop

  In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a grunge text effect using displacement mapping in Adobe Photoshop.
• 

  How to Create a Stylized Chalk Text Effect in Adobe Photoshop

  Use a texture, a couple of filters, and some drop shadow effects to create a super easy and quick stylized chalk text effect
• 

  How to Create a Distressed Painted Wall Text Effect in InDesign

  This quick and simple text effect will transport you to the colorful streets of Mexico. It’s easy to put together using Adobe InDesign, and you can adapt the…
• 

  How to Create a Copper Foil Texture Text Effect in Adobe Photoshop

  Learn a simple way to create a foil texture text effect, using a couple of filters, adjustments, and layer styles.

Post pobrano z: Quick Tip: Quickly Convert CMYK to Pantone

Have you ever found yourself rushing a file for the printer, but your client hasn’t specified a spot color for their design?

Finding a spot color equivalent to CMYK can be difficult. What your client sees is often different from what you see. Here’s a quick way to find the Pantone© equivalent for a CMYK process color without the use of a color book. This tip is perfect for designers who need to use professional offset printing.

Follow along with us over on our Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel:

Method #1: CMYK to Pantone

Step 1

Let’s say you get this logo from a designer.

Select the shape highlighted in the following image and focus on the Color panel (Window > Color) to inspect the current fill color. You can see that the orange is made up of 6% cyan, 70% magenta, and 90% yellow. These three colors plus black make for a four-color job. Now, you might want to turn it into a two-color job, and you want that orange to be the same color anytime anybody prints it.

In the following steps, you will learn how to make this change and avoid scrolling through 1,000+ Pantone colors looking for the perfect match.

Step 2

Make sure that your shape is still selected. To find your perfect Pantone, go to Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork (or click the Recolor Artwork button from the control panel).

In the newly opened dialog box, click the highlighted button to limit the color changes to the color library that you’re about to specify. Go to Color Books > PANTONE+ Solid Coated. Looking back at the Color panel, you will see that the orange has been converted into a Pantone, and the Pantone spot color swatch has been added inside the Swatches panel (Window > Swatches).

Step 3

Now, you can select that starburst shape, assign that same Pantone color from the Swatches panel, and lower its tint to about 50%.

So with the black and the Pantone orange, you have a two-color printing job.

Method #2: CMYK to Pantone (Two-Color Job)

Step 1

Select everything in the logo and go to Edit > Edit Color > Recolor with Preset > 2 color…. Choose the PANTONE+ Solid Coated library and click OK to open the Recolor Artwork window. Here you can change the presets if you ever change your mind. This is not the case, so click OK.

Step 2

Now you can see that the darker orange is the Pantone, the lighter orange is the same Pantone with a 50% tint, and the black is a Pantone process black.

Voila!

There you have it! A two-color print job with just a few clicks.

• 
  Adobe Photoshop
  Photoshop in 60 Seconds: RGB vs. CMYK
  Melody Nieves

• 
  Adobe Illustrator
  The Ultimate Guide to Adobe Illustrator Swatches
  Andrei Stefan

• 
  Branding
  How to Create Your Own Brand Guidelines
  Grace Fussell

• 
  InDesign Templates
  How to Make a Fancy Menu Template
  Grace Fussell

• 
  Brochure
  How to Create a Product Brochure Template in Adobe InDesign
  Grace Fussell

• 
  Brochure
  How to Create a Science Brochure Template in Adobe InDesign
  Grace Fussell

• 
  Book Cover
  How to Design a Romance Book Cover
  Monika Zagrobelna

• 
  Brochure
  How to Make a Business Brochure in InDesign
  Grace Fussell

• 
  Brochure
  How to Make a Brochure
  Grace Fussell

Post pobrano z: Quick Tip: Quickly Convert CMYK to Pantone

Have you ever found yourself rushing a file for the printer, but your client hasn’t specified a spot color for their design?

Finding a spot color equivalent to CMYK can be difficult. What your client sees is often different from what you see. Here’s a quick way to find the Pantone© equivalent for a CMYK process color without the use of a color book. This tip is perfect for designers who need to use professional offset printing.

Follow along with us over on our Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel:

Method #1: CMYK to Pantone

Step 1

Let’s say you get this logo from a designer.

Select the shape highlighted in the following image and focus on the Color panel (Window > Color) to inspect the current fill color. You can see that the orange is made up of 6% cyan, 70% magenta, and 90% yellow. These three colors plus black make for a four-color job. Now, you might want to turn it into a two-color job, and you want that orange to be the same color anytime anybody prints it.

In the following steps, you will learn how to make this change and avoid scrolling through 1,000+ Pantone colors looking for the perfect match.

Step 2

Make sure that your shape is still selected. To find your perfect Pantone, go to Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork (or click the Recolor Artwork button from the control panel).

In the newly opened dialog box, click the highlighted button to limit the color changes to the color library that you’re about to specify. Go to Color Books > PANTONE+ Solid Coated. Looking back at the Color panel, you will see that the orange has been converted into a Pantone, and the Pantone spot color swatch has been added inside the Swatches panel (Window > Swatches).

Step 3

Now, you can select that starburst shape, assign that same Pantone color from the Swatches panel, and lower its tint to about 50%.

So with the black and the Pantone orange, you have a two-color printing job.

Method #2: CMYK to Pantone (Two-Color Job)

Step 1

Select everything in the logo and go to Edit > Edit Color > Recolor with Preset > 2 color…. Choose the PANTONE+ Solid Coated library and click OK to open the Recolor Artwork window. Here you can change the presets if you ever change your mind. This is not the case, so click OK.

Step 2

Now you can see that the darker orange is the Pantone, the lighter orange is the same Pantone with a 50% tint, and the black is a Pantone process black.

Voila!

There you have it! A two-color print job with just a few clicks.

• 
  Adobe Photoshop
  Photoshop in 60 Seconds: RGB vs. CMYK
  Melody Nieves

• 
  Adobe Illustrator
  The Ultimate Guide to Adobe Illustrator Swatches
  Andrei Stefan

• 
  Branding
  How to Create Your Own Brand Guidelines
  Grace Fussell

• 
  InDesign Templates
  How to Make a Fancy Menu Template
  Grace Fussell

• 
  Brochure
  How to Create a Product Brochure Template in Adobe InDesign
  Grace Fussell

• 
  Brochure
  How to Create a Science Brochure Template in Adobe InDesign
  Grace Fussell

• 
  Book Cover
  How to Design a Romance Book Cover
  Monika Zagrobelna

• 
  Brochure
  How to Make a Business Brochure in InDesign
  Grace Fussell

• 
  Brochure
  How to Make a Brochure
  Grace Fussell

Post pobrano z: Elegant Themes Review: Excellent Themes, but Do They Justify the Price?

If you are searching for a theme to install on a new WordPress website, then one provider you will certainly come across is Elegant Themes.

Founded by Nick Roach in his college apartment, Elegant Themes is one of the most popular WordPress theme stores around. What started as a repository of 80+ themes and a handful of plugins has now become home to 2 powerful themes – Divi and Extra – and 3 premium plugins built to help you expand your digital footprint.

But are its themes the right choice for your website? More importantly, do they justify the $89/year price tag that Elegant Themes has put on its membership?

In this Elegant Themes review, we’ll break down everything the WordPress theme provider has to offer so you can make an informed decision for yourself.

By the time you finish reading, you’ll hopefully be able to determine if the Elegant Themes membership worth your investment.

Let’s get started!

What is Elegant Themes?

Elegant Themes creates WordPress themes and plugins that are available through its membership scheme. Unlike other WordPress theme companies that allow you to browse many premium themes and purchase them individually (usually at a high price), Elegant Themes gives you access to all of its products in one subscription. Each of its themes is beautifully designed by different layouts and colors and well-structured by simple coding.

The passionate work from the Elegant Themes team has put the provider on the map as one of the best WordPress theme providers. You’ll find people recommending Elegant Themes on Reddit, Quora, and several other platforms. Not to mention, this popular theme store boasts an impressive number of 649,032 customers and counting.

To top it off, the store lets its customers use all of the company’s themes, plugins, and layouts on an unlimited number of websites.

Now that you have some idea about the Elegant Themes’ background, let’s take a closer look at its offerings.

WordPress Themes: Divi and Extra

As of this writing, Elegant Themes offers two premium WordPress themes: Divi and Extra. Here’s how each of them works.

Divi

Divi
is a web designer’s dream and the most popular product in the whole collection.
It comes with a template and visual builder that lets you create any type of
website. Whether you want to launch an eCommerce website, a WordPress blog, or
a B2B microsite, Divi’s multi-purpose nature will ensure that you’re able to
adapt the design and layout to your liking. (Check out our roundup of
the best Divi theme websites.)

The theme offers 150 layout packs and more than 1000 pre-made site layouts for you to choose from, which fresh layouts being added every week. We love that Elegant Themes categorizes these layouts to help site owners find what they need fast.

And to make things really simple, Divi comes pre-packaged with a powerful drag and drop page editor – Divi Builder. The tool lets you organize rows, columns, and exclusive Divi elements to create your own unique layouts (without requiring any knowledge of code).

After recent updates to the Divi theme, the Divi Builder can also be accessed through the live, front-end interface. This means that you can customize your website’s design in real-time. Simply insert a module on your website’s homepage (or one of its inner pages) and start customizing.

To make things really easy, Elegant Themes has packed over 40 content modules in the Divi Builder, making website setup even faster. You can use them to add images, sliders, counters, CTAs, and so much more.

You
can also customize the modules you select –from content to color schemes, from
animations to border shadows – to fit your needs. This gives you full control
over how your theme, and therefore your site, looks.

Of course, these are just the core features of Divi. The theme offers a lot more, including built-in marketing tools, split testing, and WooCommerce compatibility. If you’re interested in knowing everything about it, then we recommend that you read our comprehensive Divi theme review where we cover every aspect of this popular offering.

Extra

Extra,
introduced after Divi, is an Elegant Themes product designed for magazines, blogs,
and other content-rich websites. It’s also powered by the Divi Builder plugin, which
makes site creation a breeze.

The default homepage layout of this theme gives you the ability to showcase your best content in an elegant grid format. You can use mini-article sliders, post carousels, custom widgets, and tabbed areas to share previews of your work.

One
exciting feature of the Divi Builder in Extra is post-based modules. These modules,
referred to as the Category Builder, allow you to use the builder’s
drag-and-drop function on your category pages. This lets you design unique
category pages that let you control how lists of content, such as blog posts
and portfolio items, are displayed on your website.

For example, you can use the Category Builder to display a list of posts accompanied by their featured image in a carousel-themed slider.

Apart from the Divi Builder, Extra comes with a native review system. The tool features an integrated user rating system that allows site visitors to rate your posts. By using the review system on your content-rich website, you can foster visitor engagement while gaining valuable insight into your content.

Other
noteworthy features present in Extra include:

• WooCommerce integration: Extra comes with the capability to integrate with WooCommerce, which means you can monetize your site by selling eCommerce products, services, or even digital downloads.
• Projects and Products: Besides standard blog posts, Extra offers complete support for these two assets. If you’re a designer looking to display your recent projects, the theme makes it dead simple.
• Mega Menus: These allow you to create beautiful dropdown menus so people can explore all the content present on your website.  

Although Elegant Themes prioritizes Divi, Extra was introduced to make website creation easy for online publications and bloggers – and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. It’s a flexible yet beautiful theme that any content creator or magazine owner would love to get their hands on.

WordPress Plugins: Divi Builder, Bloom, and Monarch

Purchasing an Elegant Themes membership also gives you access to three high-quality WordPress plugins:

1. Divi Builder

We’ve already discussed the majority of its capabilities. Another useful feature of the Divi builder is the ability to create and save your own layouts to the Divi Library. When a custom layout is saved in the Library, it can be inserted into new pages.

Another
cool thing about this WordPress plugin is that it can be used to customize any
WordPress website. Even if you’re not using Divi or Extra, you should be able
to use the Divi Builder to create custom designs on your webpages.

All you have to do is open the webpage and use the Divi Builder interface. So, instead of using Gutenberg or the classic WordPress editor, you’ll use Divi Builder to build and adjust things like rows, content modules, etc.

2. Bloom

How many times have you heard the saying the money is in the list?

Having a list of people whom you can promote your products and services to can work wonders for your business. Bloom is an Elegant Themes plugin that makes list building easy by encouraging your visitors to subscribe and hand over their email addresses.

After
installing and activating Bloom, you’ll be able to create beautiful opt-in forms
using one of these display types:

• Pop Up
• Fly In
• Below Post
• Inline
• Locked Content
• Widget

The plugin also offers a decent range of opt-in form templates you can customize through Bloom’s editor. However, if you prefer to create a form from the ground up, Bloom offers that option as well.

With Bloom’s form display settings, you can choose an intro animation for the form, set a time delay to control its appearance, and define where on your website each form will show up. Customized edges and borders can also be applied to separate forms from the site’s content.

Everyone from eCommerce store owners to part-time bloggers can benefit from building an email list, and Bloom is the ideal plugin to help you achieve that goal.  

3. Monarch

Monarch is a social sharing plugin from Elegant Themes. It lets you add social share buttons to different areas on your website – including on popups and sidebars.

You
can create social share buttons for more than 20 social media websites. Also, Monarch
lets you choose from a variety of triggers for your popups and fly-ins, so the
right people see the right message at the right time.

For
instance, you can opt to display your popup or fly-in social sharing buttons:

• At the bottom of a blog post
• After time delay
• When someone leaves a comment
• After a purchase
• When someone is inactive
  for a long time
• After someone scrolls a
  certain percentage down your content

In addition, you can use the plugin to display links to your profiles, complete with usernames and follower counts. What better way to add social proof to your site than letting people know that thousands follow you on social networks? It can be a quick way to gain recognition within your niche.

All
of these features make Monarch one of the best social sharing plugins available
for WordPress.

To top it off, Monarch even gives an option to export and import data from one site to another. Should you decide to switch websites in the future, you’ll have peace of mind knowing your social shares will continue from existing numbers (rather than zero).  

Elegant Themes Support and Updates

When you become an Elegant Themes member, you’ll get access to its support forums, extensive documentation, and a wonderful customer support team that’s available 24/7 via live chat. In case you don’t get a response right away, someone from the support team will follow up via email.

In addition, you’ll be able to join the exclusive Facebook group, interact in community discussion boards, and attend local meetups to get all your queries answered one way or another.  

And don’t forget to check out Elegant Themes’ YouTube channel. With plenty of new videos being released on a frequent basis, anything looking to learn about the Divi, Extra, etc. will never run short on guidance.

As well as providing stellar support to its customers, Elegant Themes releases regular updates to ensure its themes and plugins are compatible with the latest version of WordPress. Plus, you’ll also get routine updates that introduce more advanced features and improve the security of your website.

Elegant Themes Pricing

Elegant Themes offers two different membership plans:

1. Yearly membership – $89/year

The yearly membership gives you access to all of Elegant Themes’ products and plugins, as well as community access, premium support, and product updates.

2. Lifetime membership – $249 one-time fee

The lifetime plan includes everything from the yearly plan plus lifetime support and updates.

It’s also worth mentioning that regardless of the plan you sign up for, Elegant Themes throws in a 30-day money-back guarantee. So, if for any reason you’re not satisfied with your membership, you can get a 100% refund (no questions asked).

The Verdict

After this honest and extensive Elegant Themes review, there’s no doubt that the provider is an excellent resource for anyone looking to create a high-performing WordPress website.

Besides good looks, Elegant Themes has so many features to make your website stand out. You get one of the best website builders in the world in the form of Divi Builder. Plus, regular updates and around the clock support ensure you never run into any problems while customizing your site’s design.

All of Elegant Themes’ products are also search engine friendly and mobile optimized. Whether you’re looking to attract search engine visitors or impress audiences on mobile, the products by Elegant Themes are built to support your growth ambitions.

That being said, if you’re still on the fence about making a purchase, here’s a look at Elegant Themes pros and cons.

Pros:

• Suitable for business owners with limited technical expertise
• Front-end page design with real-time previews
• Hundreds of beautiful templates for inspiration
• Compatible with email marketing services and eCommerce platforms
• Extensive support – Facebook group, tutorials, and live chat
• Value for money (including single payment lifetime access)

Cons:

• No individual themes for sale
• Number of features can be overwhelming to beginner site owners
• No advanced documentation for developers

Conclusion

To conclude, Elegant Themes combines great themes with a variety of features to deliver a truly unique site building experience. And with Divi being one of the most popular themes in the world right now, you can’t question the value for money you’ll get by joining the Elegant Themes member club. What’s more, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose by trying its products to see if you like them.

As
a bonus, we’re leaving this exclusive Elegant
Themes coupon for you. Click it to get 20% OFF on an Elegant Themes membership
today. No thanks necessary, just doing our part!

The post Elegant Themes Review: Excellent Themes, but Do They Justify the Price? appeared first on WebresourcesDepot.

Post pobrano z: Elegant Themes Review: Excellent Themes, but Do They Justify the Price?

If you are searching for a theme to install on a new WordPress website, then one provider you will certainly come across is Elegant Themes.

Founded by Nick Roach in his college apartment, Elegant Themes is one of the most popular WordPress theme stores around. What started as a repository of 80+ themes and a handful of plugins has now become home to 2 powerful themes – Divi and Extra – and 3 premium plugins built to help you expand your digital footprint.

But are its themes the right choice for your website? More importantly, do they justify the $89/year price tag that Elegant Themes has put on its membership?

In this Elegant Themes review, we’ll break down everything the WordPress theme provider has to offer so you can make an informed decision for yourself.

By the time you finish reading, you’ll hopefully be able to determine if the Elegant Themes membership worth your investment.

Let’s get started!

What is Elegant Themes?

Elegant Themes creates WordPress themes and plugins that are available through its membership scheme. Unlike other WordPress theme companies that allow you to browse many premium themes and purchase them individually (usually at a high price), Elegant Themes gives you access to all of its products in one subscription. Each of its themes is beautifully designed by different layouts and colors and well-structured by simple coding.

The passionate work from the Elegant Themes team has put the provider on the map as one of the best WordPress theme providers. You’ll find people recommending Elegant Themes on Reddit, Quora, and several other platforms. Not to mention, this popular theme store boasts an impressive number of 649,032 customers and counting.

To top it off, the store lets its customers use all of the company’s themes, plugins, and layouts on an unlimited number of websites.

Now that you have some idea about the Elegant Themes’ background, let’s take a closer look at its offerings.

WordPress Themes: Divi and Extra

As of this writing, Elegant Themes offers two premium WordPress themes: Divi and Extra. Here’s how each of them works.

Divi

Divi
is a web designer’s dream and the most popular product in the whole collection.
It comes with a template and visual builder that lets you create any type of
website. Whether you want to launch an eCommerce website, a WordPress blog, or
a B2B microsite, Divi’s multi-purpose nature will ensure that you’re able to
adapt the design and layout to your liking. (Check out our roundup of
the best Divi theme websites.)

The theme offers 150 layout packs and more than 1000 pre-made site layouts for you to choose from, which fresh layouts being added every week. We love that Elegant Themes categorizes these layouts to help site owners find what they need fast.

And to make things really simple, Divi comes pre-packaged with a powerful drag and drop page editor – Divi Builder. The tool lets you organize rows, columns, and exclusive Divi elements to create your own unique layouts (without requiring any knowledge of code).

After recent updates to the Divi theme, the Divi Builder can also be accessed through the live, front-end interface. This means that you can customize your website’s design in real-time. Simply insert a module on your website’s homepage (or one of its inner pages) and start customizing.

To make things really easy, Elegant Themes has packed over 40 content modules in the Divi Builder, making website setup even faster. You can use them to add images, sliders, counters, CTAs, and so much more.

You
can also customize the modules you select –from content to color schemes, from
animations to border shadows – to fit your needs. This gives you full control
over how your theme, and therefore your site, looks.

Of course, these are just the core features of Divi. The theme offers a lot more, including built-in marketing tools, split testing, and WooCommerce compatibility. If you’re interested in knowing everything about it, then we recommend that you read our comprehensive Divi theme review where we cover every aspect of this popular offering.

Extra

Extra,
introduced after Divi, is an Elegant Themes product designed for magazines, blogs,
and other content-rich websites. It’s also powered by the Divi Builder plugin, which
makes site creation a breeze.

The default homepage layout of this theme gives you the ability to showcase your best content in an elegant grid format. You can use mini-article sliders, post carousels, custom widgets, and tabbed areas to share previews of your work.

One
exciting feature of the Divi Builder in Extra is post-based modules. These modules,
referred to as the Category Builder, allow you to use the builder’s
drag-and-drop function on your category pages. This lets you design unique
category pages that let you control how lists of content, such as blog posts
and portfolio items, are displayed on your website.

For example, you can use the Category Builder to display a list of posts accompanied by their featured image in a carousel-themed slider.

Apart from the Divi Builder, Extra comes with a native review system. The tool features an integrated user rating system that allows site visitors to rate your posts. By using the review system on your content-rich website, you can foster visitor engagement while gaining valuable insight into your content.

Other
noteworthy features present in Extra include:

• WooCommerce integration: Extra comes with the capability to integrate with WooCommerce, which means you can monetize your site by selling eCommerce products, services, or even digital downloads.
• Projects and Products: Besides standard blog posts, Extra offers complete support for these two assets. If you’re a designer looking to display your recent projects, the theme makes it dead simple.
• Mega Menus: These allow you to create beautiful dropdown menus so people can explore all the content present on your website.  

Although Elegant Themes prioritizes Divi, Extra was introduced to make website creation easy for online publications and bloggers – and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. It’s a flexible yet beautiful theme that any content creator or magazine owner would love to get their hands on.

WordPress Plugins: Divi Builder, Bloom, and Monarch

Purchasing an Elegant Themes membership also gives you access to three high-quality WordPress plugins:

1. Divi Builder

We’ve already discussed the majority of its capabilities. Another useful feature of the Divi builder is the ability to create and save your own layouts to the Divi Library. When a custom layout is saved in the Library, it can be inserted into new pages.

Another
cool thing about this WordPress plugin is that it can be used to customize any
WordPress website. Even if you’re not using Divi or Extra, you should be able
to use the Divi Builder to create custom designs on your webpages.

All you have to do is open the webpage and use the Divi Builder interface. So, instead of using Gutenberg or the classic WordPress editor, you’ll use Divi Builder to build and adjust things like rows, content modules, etc.

2. Bloom

How many times have you heard the saying the money is in the list?

Having a list of people whom you can promote your products and services to can work wonders for your business. Bloom is an Elegant Themes plugin that makes list building easy by encouraging your visitors to subscribe and hand over their email addresses.

After
installing and activating Bloom, you’ll be able to create beautiful opt-in forms
using one of these display types:

• Pop Up
• Fly In
• Below Post
• Inline
• Locked Content
• Widget

The plugin also offers a decent range of opt-in form templates you can customize through Bloom’s editor. However, if you prefer to create a form from the ground up, Bloom offers that option as well.

With Bloom’s form display settings, you can choose an intro animation for the form, set a time delay to control its appearance, and define where on your website each form will show up. Customized edges and borders can also be applied to separate forms from the site’s content.

Everyone from eCommerce store owners to part-time bloggers can benefit from building an email list, and Bloom is the ideal plugin to help you achieve that goal.  

3. Monarch

Monarch is a social sharing plugin from Elegant Themes. It lets you add social share buttons to different areas on your website – including on popups and sidebars.

You
can create social share buttons for more than 20 social media websites. Also, Monarch
lets you choose from a variety of triggers for your popups and fly-ins, so the
right people see the right message at the right time.

For
instance, you can opt to display your popup or fly-in social sharing buttons:

• At the bottom of a blog post
• After time delay
• When someone leaves a comment
• After a purchase
• When someone is inactive
  for a long time
• After someone scrolls a
  certain percentage down your content

In addition, you can use the plugin to display links to your profiles, complete with usernames and follower counts. What better way to add social proof to your site than letting people know that thousands follow you on social networks? It can be a quick way to gain recognition within your niche.

All
of these features make Monarch one of the best social sharing plugins available
for WordPress.

To top it off, Monarch even gives an option to export and import data from one site to another. Should you decide to switch websites in the future, you’ll have peace of mind knowing your social shares will continue from existing numbers (rather than zero).  

Elegant Themes Support and Updates

When you become an Elegant Themes member, you’ll get access to its support forums, extensive documentation, and a wonderful customer support team that’s available 24/7 via live chat. In case you don’t get a response right away, someone from the support team will follow up via email.

In addition, you’ll be able to join the exclusive Facebook group, interact in community discussion boards, and attend local meetups to get all your queries answered one way or another.  

And don’t forget to check out Elegant Themes’ YouTube channel. With plenty of new videos being released on a frequent basis, anything looking to learn about the Divi, Extra, etc. will never run short on guidance.

As well as providing stellar support to its customers, Elegant Themes releases regular updates to ensure its themes and plugins are compatible with the latest version of WordPress. Plus, you’ll also get routine updates that introduce more advanced features and improve the security of your website.

Elegant Themes Pricing

Elegant Themes offers two different membership plans:

1. Yearly membership – $89/year

The yearly membership gives you access to all of Elegant Themes’ products and plugins, as well as community access, premium support, and product updates.

2. Lifetime membership – $249 one-time fee

The lifetime plan includes everything from the yearly plan plus lifetime support and updates.

It’s also worth mentioning that regardless of the plan you sign up for, Elegant Themes throws in a 30-day money-back guarantee. So, if for any reason you’re not satisfied with your membership, you can get a 100% refund (no questions asked).

The Verdict

After this honest and extensive Elegant Themes review, there’s no doubt that the provider is an excellent resource for anyone looking to create a high-performing WordPress website.

Besides good looks, Elegant Themes has so many features to make your website stand out. You get one of the best website builders in the world in the form of Divi Builder. Plus, regular updates and around the clock support ensure you never run into any problems while customizing your site’s design.

All of Elegant Themes’ products are also search engine friendly and mobile optimized. Whether you’re looking to attract search engine visitors or impress audiences on mobile, the products by Elegant Themes are built to support your growth ambitions.

That being said, if you’re still on the fence about making a purchase, here’s a look at Elegant Themes pros and cons.

Pros:

• Suitable for business owners with limited technical expertise
• Front-end page design with real-time previews
• Hundreds of beautiful templates for inspiration
• Compatible with email marketing services and eCommerce platforms
• Extensive support – Facebook group, tutorials, and live chat
• Value for money (including single payment lifetime access)

Cons:

• No individual themes for sale
• Number of features can be overwhelming to beginner site owners
• No advanced documentation for developers

Conclusion

To conclude, Elegant Themes combines great themes with a variety of features to deliver a truly unique site building experience. And with Divi being one of the most popular themes in the world right now, you can’t question the value for money you’ll get by joining the Elegant Themes member club. What’s more, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose by trying its products to see if you like them.

As
a bonus, we’re leaving this exclusive Elegant
Themes coupon for you. Click it to get 20% OFF on an Elegant Themes membership
today. No thanks necessary, just doing our part!

The post Elegant Themes Review: Excellent Themes, but Do They Justify the Price? appeared first on WebresourcesDepot.