How to customize blog posts with these rich features?

[beastlocal]

Looking at the dummy content https://prnt.sc/rux0xs I’ve put a red box around the features I’m talking about. It includes: drop caps, having quotes across half the post with text wrap, highlight text in yellow. Also the ‘share’ code at the bottom.

I would like to know more about including these, and other features in my blog posts to avoid reams of text. Note: posts, not pages.

When I look at the visual editor for this post however, it looks like this: https://prnt.sc/ruvf97 (classic) or https://prnt.sc/ruwpav (block). Just showing code.

So, how were the rich features added in? Are they shortcodes? I cannot see a way, except by manually writing code, rather than selecting something in the post editor.

Is there something I’m missing? This article https://theme.co/docs/post-settings did not touch on the topic.

I thought using Cornerstone would help, but the post itself doesn’t appear. I thought also Beaver Builder would help, but it didn’t. Do I need Pro to get these features?

It may seem like a simple question but I’m stuck and have spent hours trying to figure it out. Any pointers would be appreciated.

[lely]

Hi @modernanxiety,

Thank you for your detailed post.

First, the demo content is not build using the CORNERSTONE. To enable cornerstone on POST, please go to X > Settings: Enable Cornerstone for post:

For pullquote element, we do have v2 QUOTE element.

For dropcap, you can add it on text like this:

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is one of the most...

Here’s our documentation for more guidance.

Hope this helps.

[beastlocal]

Trying my best after having spent long days figuring this out, but I still don’t get a couple of basic things.

I’m looking for how to add into a blog POST a range of any pre-made shortcodeI want. I understood these were part of xtheme according to this from your dummy post: https://prnt.sc/ry6coz and this: https://demo.theme.co/ethos-1/shortcodes/accordion/

Now, I understand that what’s mentioned above has been replaced by this: https://demo.theme.co/elements/

So… picked one of these ‘elements’ at random to try to figure things out - The Quote. See these template designs?: https://prnt.sc/rynwd6

Where can I find them? They aren’t Gutenberg blocks (https://prnt.sc/rynxn1 - that only has one basic style).

It isn’t here in the Global Blocks: https://prnt.sc/ryny6x as that just has three very basic styles, and not this: https://prnt.sc/rynwd6

So where are those elements? Are they a paid extra that’s available in Design Cloud when I upgrade to Pro?

When you upgrade to Pro, could I now get those elements to appear as a Gutenburg block so they can be added quickly in from the WP post-writing screen?

Also, I am only using the ‘posts’ functionality using Gutenberg (blocks). I don’t care about pages, as my website is a blog with the only important content being posts.

I would rather avoid having to set each element myself as a Global Block and customize everything myself and set Every. Single. Element as a Shortcode myself - would rather just quickly and easily add in these beautiful Xtheme-designed elements https://demo.theme.co/elements/ to my blog POSTS to make them more appealing to look at.

Many thanks and stay safe!

[friech]

Hi @modernanxiety,

Sorry for all the confusion, to clarify things, I think we need a little bit of history here. Before we develop the Cornerstone, there is the X - Shortcodes plugin, even though we discontinue this plugin to give way to Cornerstone builder, you can still use those shortcodes, you can see all those shortcodes here.

The things that you highlighted on your screenshot are all shortcodes.

• 
  
  
  

Dropcap
Blockquote
Highlight

We ported most of these shortcodes as Classic elements on the Cornerstone/Content Builder, unfortunately, Dropcap and Highlight are not among them, so you need to do a manual copy and paste if you want to use these shortcodes.

In Gutenberg (Block editor) you can use the Custom HTML Block for pasting shortcode, in Cornerstone you can use the Content Area element for pasting shortcodes.

The Elements that you saw here are the V2 Elements, a new generation of elements that has advance and more controls, these V2 Elements has no corresponding shortcode so you can not use these outsides of Cornerstone/Content Builder.

Hope that shed some lights,
Stay safe!

[beastlocal]

Hi there,

No need to apologize at all - completely understand and was just looking for some clarification that what I understood was actually what was happening, and it seems it is.

The theme is not really what I was hoping for, which was great functionality for bloggers, and ease of use. I’ve switched to another theme after spending a solid week trying to get to grips with Xtheme, and trying out a handful.

Unfortunately it wasn’t for me, but I certainly appreciate your efforts and speedy help answering my questions to help me reach a decision.

[christopher]

Hi Catsandtravel,

We certainly appreciate your reply and do understand that our theme has a learning curve as it has many features and functionalities.

If in any case, you decide to use the theme again we suggest that you start your journey here and follow up with some cool pointers here.

Thank you.