As mentioned I’ve been struggling with this endeavor since March.
Coming from a graphics and photography (visual design) background I keep hoping to find an interface that will facilitate those skills. I naturally began with what was offered free like what came with hosting - Weebly for instance.
Those were rudimentary and too limited.
I next looked into portfolio/website services - Adobe Portfolio, WIX, SquareSpace, Cargo, IMCreator, Bookmark, Portfolio Box, Jimdo and Visual Composer. They were also structurally constraining and despite claims to the contrary resulted in sites looking pretty much like every other.
The site itself is as important to distinguishing the owner as the content.
So … I’ll have to do it myself. (Oh God)
First it was Elementor because it insists on itself when one installs on the hosting site. Then I upgraded to Elementor Pro. Then it was on to Themify, Divi, Beaver Builder, Visual Builder and finally OceanWP.
This is what I’m after: A vertical header element on the right side of the browser screen that will contain the main navigation, search function and a contact link. Perhaps a headline or logo if I wanted to go wild.
That’s it!
That’s the bit apparently is so difficult or perhaps so disdained that none of the above aside from OceanWP could facilitate it. But even then the option is limited to a few presets. Anything further requires CSS and the expertise of tech support.
As to my misunderstanding of your applications and components sets; I will own it. But I’d point out that after the last 4 months of learning and researching and learning so many different builders coupled with the incoherent assemblage and interface of WP itself it’s easy to have been a bit confused.
I’ve come to thoroughly despise the whole niggling necessity of the website building game.
It’s a joyless chore for one that’s visually oriented. One would think with these ‘you don’t need to code’ builder apps one might actually be able to drag and drop an element in the workspace. Nonsense!
(You thought you’d place that image up there …. no …. its down here off screen. Why? Welcome to another adventure - a mystery for you …. you’re welcome!)
The entire interface for WP is a ridiculous assemblage of misleading menus, incoherent categories, confusing terms and sloppy language. I’m not kidding.
One turns to builders to be relieved of that underlying mess and actually get something done. I suppose creating such a thing is a very complicated and time intensive project. It likely takes years and thousands of hours. However, the party that finally relieves the customer of that underlying confusion (the OS if you will) with a well designed UX and UI will be have very profitable and highly esteemed product.
There are probably hundreds of page builders for WP.
Why does anyone choose one over another?
- Price
- Ease of use / Intuitiveness
- Customization potential
- Third party compatibility
Regarding Themeco’s Pro interface:
The inspector pallets are not reliably scrollable when in a vertical condition.
The navigation of the same is awkward and confusing with a ribbon atop the options that’s not clearly indicating where the changes are to be made as in for instance the toggle and graphic areas in the menu panels.
The many details that are customizable are not always desired - certainly not in every stage of design and the necessity of scrolling past them and further making certain one’s still in the appropriate panel is an unwanted waste of time.
The option of simplifying the inspector menu turns off the flex box setting interface.
It’s not necessarily a matter of “advanced” vs simple for desired settings. It’s a matter of professional proficiency.
Styling the hamburger icon has been an ongoing failure as despite changes made by the tech I continue to get a mess on my end. This takes place in Chrome as well as Safari.
When checking the layout in various formats the option to do so disappears once anything is called up for editing. This necessitates repeating a couple extra clicks to get back to the interface feature.
Every extra click is wasted time. Adding them up over several hours of work they account for a significant waste.
The application has an irritating feature which obliges one to confirm anytime an inadvertent click is made to leave a page even when no changes have been made!
Wasted time is the most unprofessional trait of all. (perhaps clicking through an interface is as well but all the same the design/interface responsibility is on the designer)
Your app is called PRO!
Now of course, I’m not a pro. I don’t aspire to be a professional website designer. I just want to put up my works and notes in a professional and singular style for the pursuit of design conversations and portfolio samples.
But again, despite all the granular control offered I cannot manage the line thickness on a hamburger Icon!
I must click and drag the scroll bar - have you bothered to read any of the posts I’ve made the last month?
I can’t go forward with a defective interface. I can’t commit any more of my limited time to an application that may ultimately have be abandoned.
The ideal is a site that can grow to accommodate new works with a means of adding such in a simple drag and drop manner. I detest the ongoing ‘exceptions’ that require some tech support to accomplish. That’s not a useful application.
I appreciate the level of control in the offing and I’m well aware of graphics construction. The problem is the interface. If that’s not to be remedied, any future use will be an unwelcome - time sucking chore.