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Howdy Friends,

While two of the biggest technical features in this cycle include Parameters and Components, one of the aspects we are most excited about is the new and improved Cornerstone page building experience!

This new paradigm will feel natural, powerful, and is built upon established conventions you know and love. Let's go on a quick tour, shall we?

First up, tabs! Inspired after modern browsing, this industry-first approach will allow you to surface all of the different document types in one centralized place.

This is especially helpful considering the family of builders and how they all work together in Cornerstone. Gone are the days of having to click back and forth from one builder to the next — now it's all together!

The Cornerstone Menu allows you to quickly filter by document type (pages, headers, layouts, etc) and then open as many different documents as you wish.

Saving is contextual to the document that is active, and there is also a helpful Edited nudge that will appear in the title of the Tab to remind you if something has been changed but not saved.

The heart and soul of the new experience is built around five workspace tabs.

• Outline: The outline of your entire document (same as before)
• Inspector: Where you customize your content (same as before)
• Elements: The all-important building blocks (the old Add Elements icon)
• Templates: Your own library plus provided assets (new experience)
• Globals: Theme Options, Fonts, and Colors (new experience)

Each workspace tab can be separated allowing maximum customizability to your preferences and workflow. Want Elements and Templates on the left and everything else on the right? No problem. Want the Inspector on the left and everything else on the right? You can do it. Want all on the left or all on the right? Simply drag to re-arrange...the choice is up to you!

Templating is also getting a major facelift, and we think you are going to love it.

First, only compatible templates will show meaning if you are working on a Header only Header and Section Templates will show. No more going to a completely separate screen and sorting through everything to find some specific asset. Now they are all right there, contextually organized, and they can all be installed with the click of a button.

You'll notice there are two options within the Template Tab: Themeco and Library. Themeco will contain all of the old Design Cloud assets. Library will contain all of your own Templates.

The current Design Cloud assets will be organized under Templates > Themeco moving forward (some will be removed due to age/compatibility).

Update Timeline

There are a handful of bugs and fixes left to complete at which point we will move on to beta testing. I would love to give you an exact date, but we have had several items come up right at the end (for example, needing to redo the entire permissions system), so we are systematically working through these last items.

Stay tuned to Facebook and Twitter for the latest. We are close!

New Products

If all that wasn't enough, the Elite team is launching a new performance product next week called Boost. If you've ever struggled to get your personal or clients sites fully optimized (no matter which theme or how many plugins you use), we have the solution for you!

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we will also be releasing a new standalone version of CS for those who want the most streamlined builder experience, devoid of any opinionated Stack styling.

It will be compatible with any theme but will also include its own native starter theme for those who want a truly blank canvas. You'll be able to turn off themeing all-together or use with the theme of your choice. A match made in heaven and coming to a website near you later this Summer!

All my best,
Kyle