Rapid Customization With Design Control
Today we released version 1.2.0 of PlatformPro, with lots of new improvements. The main set of features, Design Control, will help you create custom sites super fast.
Design control consists of three new features:
- Color Control
- Background Image
- Improved Design Modes
Combined, these three features make it ridiculously easy to create or recreate whatever ‘look and feel’ you want with your site.
The Problem
Before Design Control, most design customization was done using Custom CSS. Custom CSS is a good solution, but it requires a lot of digging around and CSS knowledge to build things quickly.
Another problem with Custom CSS is that it takes a lot of time to apply changes to all applicable elements in the theme. You may change one element, just to find out that you need to change 20 more.
Ridiculously Easy, Rapid Customization
Design control seriously speeds up the time it takes you to create a ‘look-and-feel’ when using a theme. This was actually a design challenge for us. How would we take the 100+ color related lines of CSS and make them manageable with a few options? How would we make it intuitive, easy and fast?
The solution was to rewrite and optimize a vast portion of the Platform CSS. Then restructure and add to the design-modes so that the design options could be applied in an intuitive way.
The end result is a new set of options including color pickers, background image setup and design modes; that literally lets you create a completely custom site in less than 5 minutes.
Don’t believe us? Here is a quick screencast (from the docs) that shows you how it’s done…
More Information on Design Control
For more information on Design Control, and how to use it, check out the docs on it here: Design Control Doc.
Upgrade To 1.2.0
If you are using PlatformPro and need to upgrade to version 1.2.0, just visit your launchpad account. Here is a link to the member page login.
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Hey guys - very impressive product! We've been bouncing around between a smattering of theme providers for a while and are pretty sick of it - ready to choose a platform like PP. However, I've heard a LOT of good things about Thesis and am wondering what you consider to be PP's advantages over it.
I'm in that "impressionable buyers" frame of mind now, so give me your best pitch!
this is the hardest template and super non-user friendly. the tutorials are totally unclear.
I'm sorry that you are having difficulties... Is there something we can clarify for you?
A month ago someone said you were planning 1.3 ... I'm totally sold on Platform, but I'd hate to purchase it and then there be an upgrade that costs me more money. What can we do about that?
It's out now! :) No need to wait (although for future reference, all minor release upgrades are free for everyone).
There are lots of awesome tutorials out there that can help you to learn
css. You can always try a Google search for css fixed width! :) Also, if
you're going to start playing with css, Firebug for Firefox is a very good
(and free) tool that can help.
Hope this helps! Thanks for being a Pagelines fan!
Alyson
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Pre-Sales FAQ |
Documentation |
Forum
Hi Andrew,
I asked your support few days ago, but I will ask you here for a favor:
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Please make your forums read only for people/visitors who want to learn and familiarize with Pagelines before buying the theme.
It will reduce unnecessary support questions and also lead to more sales as we feel more comfortable reading topics/replies in the forums.
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Thank you,
RKB
Hi there... You should be able to accomplish a fixed width simply by editing the CSS. Hope that helps!
Can I ask a newby question? I'm impressed by what I see here with all the Pageline themes. I mistakenly was also impressed with Headway Themes and am returning it (30 day guarantee). It's way clunkly to use. I'm new to WP, but can figure things out. I'm just wondering if anyone can compare the 2. Thanks for any help.
I paid for Headway (amongst others) and unfort no refund for me though I could dearly use it. I'll have to give more thought to specifics - but basically I found Pagelines PRO to be more intuitive and user-friendly. There is a learning curbe (as with anything), but Headway still came across as more work once I found PRO.
Having exactly the same problem as "Swimb" trying to upgrade to 1.2.0. Can't seem to get it uploaded.
Everytime I try to upload the platformbase(2).zip file into WordPress it doesn't allow me to do so. How do I upload the file?
You should be able to upload it that way, maybe remove the (2) if that doesn't work take the actual unzipped folder and use an ftp upload method
Hi! Just found the PageLines theme today after searching for a decent Theme/CSS editor... Love the simplicity, even of the free version!
Before we take the plunge into Pro, just a couple of questions...
Can the Themes include transparency? We'd like to have transparency on the blogs/posts to allow the background to show through.
Can the background be static? In the video above I noticed it scrolled with the mouse movement.
I read about version 1.2.0 then I also read about 1.2.3.
Do you guys have a changelog.txt file that we can see? I absolutly love to read all the change and fixes with every updates.
Thanks
I found the changelog.txt file in the package but my question was if the changelog is available here so we can look at it before processing an update.
Yes, using hooks. This functionality is even more improved with version 1.2.3 (out this weekend)
Is there any way that this could be updated through the main Wordpress Updates for my blog (same as plugins and other themes)? I think that would be a lot easier for most users (although my blogs aren't customized at all). Not sure if/how that would work since this is a paid theme.
Peter
I saw that guide shortly after I posted, all sorted now but, Platform Pro was the only updated one? Still OK to use base?
First off, you guys and your themes are awesome! That said, not everybody is up to your level of coding/web design know-how.
Could you please put some step by step instructions for how to 'upgrade' my PlatformPro to 1.2.2? Do I just download the entire theme? I tried that, but it wouldn't install.
Also, I never received an answer to my question from days ago in the docs section about the feature slider. How can we make the 'features' transition to each other. I would like to be able to set an x-second delay, and an x-second transition so they fade to each other every few seconds. I was really hoping this would be 'out of the box' functionality. Is there a way to do it, or can you guys add it in the next update? That type of dynamic transition is very nice.
You guys have an amazing theme here, but please do more videos and/or step by step instructions to help people out.
Thanks.
Working on it... all the questions/support take away from developing vids and the product.. its like spinning plates.
Would it help the Pagelines Team if community members sent you vids or docs we develop ourselves - which you could make available? Then the most you would have to do is just double-check ...?
I'm used to doing that for clients and will still be doing it even now that I've switched to using the PRO platform.
Yes it would, we absolutely love when people get involved to help.
That said, we are working on getting better video tutorials.
More video tutts would be nice. I've given up on this platform waste of time and money I'll never get back.
Have to strongly disagree.
I'm a professional graphic / web designer and echo John Griffith's sentiments above "his theme allows designers to reduce their costs, and increase their profitability WHILE lowering their fees. "
I have spent hundreds of dollars on themes that promised a lot but had little to offer in return. I had to put a lot of effort chopping and tweaking code that consumed a lot more time than I could afford for a single client.
Pagelines does exactly what it says on the tin and does it brilliantly. I can actually work on more than one project at a time and experiment with minimum fuss. I cannot say that about any other products that I've tried.
Quite frankly, WordPress would do well to partner with these guys.
IconicImagery - thanks for your thoughts on PlatformPro - we're debating whether to use this or Thesis as our choice framework going forward. Have you had equal experience or thoughts on Thesis compared to PP?
This is the first I'm upgrading this theme and it's currently active on my site (Platform Pro Base). Whats the best practices when upgrading?
Put the site in maintenace mode? Delete current and upload updated them? What about all the customisations done to Base theme?
Please advice
Thanks.
This theme is simply amazing. I have zero web design experience and minimal Wordpress experience and I am able to get my site up the way I want within days! This has been a lifesaver and I have been able to now put multiple sites up with ease which is allowing me to focus on content creation vs dealing with the technical mumbo jumbo. $95 is totally bang for the buck! Absolutely loves this product!!!
Hey guys, just bought pagelines and it was a little frustrating that i have to set all the category pages the same way. I have two different types of posts that i keep in two separate categories and I would like to style them differently. Please add next time :)
Gigi,
You get what you pay for. This is a superior theme with excellent functionality and various customization options for a small price.
The price is right, look at other themes that charge more and you can't do as much as this!
Gigi .. I own Pagelines PRO. It's a steal at this price for what you get. I don't regret my purchase one bit and feel it's a great product.