The WordPress remains the bride of many blogs and websites owners. It is the most trusted platform for those independently hosted blogs. It is not only easy to run, but it also gives you the fluidity to write and upload contents as well as update regularly.
Themes and plugins are the engine room of any WordPress site. They determine how responsive, beautiful or fast your site could be. Show me a very helpful and aesthetically built WordPress blog today and I will show you a site running on a well designed and secured theme.
Divi theme is one of those themes that will give you exactly what you desire and add rest of mind to it. Divi is the latest design from Elegant Themes, and it has been gaining a lot of fans since its release into the market. Thanks to the several features such as Divi page builder, layout options, diverse modules, Woo-commerce readiness, beautiful icons, large sliders, etc. The great design of Divi theme makes it an ideal theme for any kind of website.
How to Install Div Theme
Login to your blog’s admin area and click on the ‘Appearance’ menu; then go ahead and click ‘Themes’. You can then see the option to ‘Add New.’ Once you click on that, you then see the ‘Upload’ button. Clicking on this takes you to your computer hard drive where you choose the theme to upload. After uploading, activate it to make it active otherwise, it remains as one of the themes that are inactive.
Theme ePanel
Divi operates by using mainly the standard Elegant Themes control panel on its options page. It is on this epanel (under the General settings) that you upload your site’s logo, upload the favicon, Aweber authorization code, Mailchimp API, etc.
Divi Appearance Customization
It is quite easy to customize the Divi theme. Go to the ‘Appearance’ menu and then to ‘Customize’. It is where you can change the font, background, color schemes, site navigation, widgets, background image, etc. More features have been added to Divi 2.5 theme to improve its beauty and functionality.
The Divi Drag and Drop Page Builder
The greatest strength of this theme should be the Drag and Drop Page Builder. You can access this from the standard WordPress page and post editor through the new button on the theme. Under the standard ‘Add New’ page title bar, you see the ‘Use Page Builder’ button conspicuously displayed. With Divi’s 2.0 version and newer versions, the page builder works correctly for all types of posts.
There are 32 premade layouts to choose from should you decide to use the page builder. Otherwise, you can build your own custom page though there are several multipurpose layout available to suit your need. Once you click on the standard WordPress post editor, it transforms into the Divi page builder tool, thereby enabling you to build your pages as well as your custom layouts. It is made possible by deploying three hierarchy systems made of rows, sections, and modules.
To build a row, section or module, just click on one of the ‘+’ symbols available and then insert what you want. Remember that to do this successfully, you need to configure the column so as to make it divide up a row as you desire. Each row could further have its own column configuration since the section can have multiple rows.
You have the liberty to move your work to any position you like since the rows or sections can be rearranged on your page. To do this, just drag and drop them wherever you want them to be and you are done.
For those bloggers or site owners who are not too good at conceptualizing what they want, or if they do not have in-depth knowledge of creating their own custom pages and layouts, it is advisable to make do with the premade layouts. It will help to save a lot of time and make your job easier and smoother. Should you decide to create a site with several new pages, the page builder comes handy as the ideal tool to accomplish your dream.
When you add a new section, you would need to add columns before adding modules as the columns help to share the sections into different widths as part of the total width of the entire site. Having created the columns, you can now add modules to improve the functionality of the different sections of your new page. There are 17 modules to choose from; and they include Newsletter signup, slider, images, pricing tables, text, portfolios, etc.
Editing a module is done by clicking on the icon related to the module that is displayed on the page layout screen. By so doing, you can easily customize the module using the standard WordPress post editor or forms accordingly.
However, if you choose the option of not adding the columns manually, you are free to add the specialty section where you have different types of columns with multiple blocks of diverse sizes to choose from.
Modules are not the only things you can add; you can as well decide how you want the site to look by adding your own CSS to change the appearance of the module. It is also possible to add a custom background to each section.
One other feature that makes building your layouts easier is the Layout Importer, which allows you to import layouts from your previous themes and website to complement the one you are building. With that, the burden of having to create everything from scratch is lifted.
At any stage of the building of the site, you can use the page preview button to preview your job just to have an idea how your site color, margins, fonts, etc. would look like when your job is completed.
This page builder is designed for people who are non-tech savvy, to enable them to do the job themselves. But it might be a bit confusing for a newbie to use, especially because of the number of options available. However, after some practice, and after using the premade layouts to build simple sites, creating more complex sites eventually becomes easier.
Other available Options
English is not the only language supported on this theme. There are a total of 32 language translations including Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese that are built in. Isn’t that great? With this, a regional barrier is almost non-existent.
Security
Security is of utmost concern for a site that is intended for income and high traffic generation. Apart from the fact that WordPress is a highly secured site, Divi theme has partnered with Sucuri to beef further up the security on the site. Sucuri has finally found zero issues with the Divi theme after thorough security screening. After several screening by the Sucuri audit team, and having found zero issues with this theme, the theme was awarded a Safe Theme Seal.
Support
Most of “Elegant Themes” customers have attested to the fact that the support team is up and doing. Unlike what happens with some of the themes out there, the Elegant Themes support team is a very caring one, offering their customers both email and phone support whenever they have challenges. Besides, there is also forum support where you get the assistance of other theme users.
Documentation
If you are not a developer or tech-savvy, you need not worry as Elegant themes have thorough documentation that would help you familiarize yourself with the theme, its functionality, and features. Detailed explanations exist in the following areas: A Summary of the Builder, Saving and Loading Custom Layouts, Importing and Exporting Saved Layouts, Using Premade Layouts, The Theme Options, etc. If in any doubt, take a look at the available documentation.
Pricing
For just $69 per month, you get a personal package that comprises the 86 themes without the plugins. But with $86 per month, you get Divi alongside other 86 themes and six other WordPress plugins. However, a one-time payment of $249 gives you lifetime access to all the themes and the plugins, including future updates, etc. What a competitive price? The price shouldn’t deceive you like the plugins, and other themes that come with Divi are equally great and well designed to meet your need.
Divi 2.4 With Improved Features and Functionality
With the recent upgrade of Divi 2.0 to 2.4, the Elegant theme builders have shown how important the theme is to them. Divi was updated to 2.0 the previous year to add more features and functionality to it. Now, it has been further updated to 2.4, thereby making it the greatest update in the history of Divi. Some of the newly added features include new module design setting, more theme customizer controls, the use of the builder on posts, more header and navigation layouts, improved custom CSS handling, addition of a library of reusable content, etc.
More Control Over Your Page Layout
With the upgrade to 2.4, you can now improve the layout of your site. You can now control the settings of the width, height, and spacing of individual elements of your site. The 100% fluid grid makes viewing your site on any browser a beauty. The pixel pusher improves the feel and look of your content much better.
Compatible with all post types
The new improved Divi page builder can be used to add more beauty to your individual blog posts. It is unlike in the older version where the page builder worked with the WordPress pages and so was only useful for creating static pages like the About page, Home page, and landing pages.
Topography Control
Divi 2.4 makes it possible for you to customize the various aspects of the topography of your site. You can now seamlessly customize the header, footer, links, title and body of the site. You can easily change the height, weight, color, size capitalization, spacing, etc.
Full-width content
With Divi 2.4, you can insert full-width content to your post and pages. Using the new row setting of the builder tool, it is possible to insert a full-width row into your blog post, populate it with custom content to be able to insert large full-width images into the post without altering the fixed width of the text area. You can also add other modules to make your post cute. Apart from the ability to add full-width images, you also have the capacity to insert other modules into full-width row thereby enabling you create better post layouts.
Four New Demo Websites
The designers have also included four new demo websites you can use for your inspirational site. You can choose from them without having to do any code customizations.
Create Reusable content with the Divi library
The addition of the Divi library makes it easy for you to save and reuse your modules, rows and sections in the future without having to start all over again. The materials you keep in your library can then be inserted into your layouts, directly from the builder.
If you are a developer handling the building of sites for several clients, you might be interested in keeping a repository of the pre-built elements you can easily use for other clients. With the Divi library, you can easily handle that by having a place to keep the element for reuse.
Improved Custom CSS Handling
With the improved custom CSS handling, you can never be limited in giving your site the great touch it deserves. The custom CSS tab enables you to add whatever you wish to add to personalize your site. With the addition of this feature, you can now design a better looking and more responsive website. Furthermore, it enables you to showcase your CSS knowledge, helping you to bring to life whatever is not captured by the Divi creative team.
Better Header Navigation Design and Layout
The header area of any website is the first part to be noticed by visitors. So, if your header area is poorly designed, the chances are that visitors may never scroll down to the body or footer area.
With the new Divi customizer controls, it is now relatively easier for you to improve the look of your header area. You can now use fixed header area or even change the position and size of your header area as well as the logo area. It will enable you to project your concept without being limited by what Divi provides for you.
Besides, you can improve the look of your video and background image by adjusting the transparency of your header area. Everything is really made more flexible for you.
Pros
- Page Builder Tool: This comes handy for those who are newbie or nontech-savvy
- Beautiful design: Divi is beautifully designed no doubt. It’s, for me, is a plus for the theme.
- Regular update: This theme is regularly updated and upgraded to add more features and improve its functionality.
- Great price: Priced at a paltry $86 in a company of 86 other themes and six plugins makes it over-delivered regarding pricing.
- Lots of templates and layouts: The user has got a lot of options to choose from when using this theme to build his/her blog or website.
- Documentation for new users: using the theme for the first time should not pose a serious problem as documentation on how to configure the theme is readily available.
- Price back guarantee: If for any reason you are not satisfied with buying Divi, you can shoot them a mail and your money would be refunded within 30 days of purchase. You are even allowed to keep your theme after refunding your money back.
- Compatible with WooCommerce, Google Maps, Aweber, Mailchimp, etc.
- Lifetime updates and great support
- Landing page builder: You can use it to build your powerful, engaging landing page even though you have no knowledge of CSS and HTML.
Cons
- Too many design options: This can become a source of confusion for new users
- Document: Agreed there are documentations for fresh users. However, there are hardly proper documentations for developers who wish to use Divi Theme for building their clients’ websites.
- Main theme panel appears obsolete
- Switching from Divi to other themes could potentially cause havoc on your site.
Summary of the Divi 2.4 Upgrade
Divi 2.4 upgrade has added more useful features to the Divi theme, making it possible for you to have more flexibility while working. The addition of the improved custom CSS control, content library, full-width content, better topography control, improved header navigation area designs and layouts, etc. is to make it possible for you to take your design to a greater height. It helps you come up with a more personalized, aesthetic and responsive website. And next time you want to build your new website with Divi theme, remember that your limitation has been taken care of.
