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Divi 2.4 – More Versatile and Popular than Ever
Elegant Themes has just released their latest version of Divi, their flagship theme.Divi 2.4 is expected to become more popular than ever because of a massive revamping of key features, including header options, module settings, and the addition of a new library. You will in fact find significant enhancements and improvements in almost all areas.
Divi has been a popular WordPress theme since its inception, due in large part to its ease of use and flexibility. With this upgrade, both characteristics have been enhanced considerably, and to the point where the website developer has a nearly unlimited set of options to work with.
What’s in the 2.4 Box? – An Overview
Here are just a few of the surprises that await those who already use Divi’s WordPress theme, and are now available to anyone looking to purchase this premium theme.
- In many themes, creating headers present website designers with more limitations than opportunities. Divi’s new Header Module has been designed to fill a browser window no matter which browser or platform is the target, and additional modules ensure that header elements are easily placed where they are wanted.
- Modules are the building blocks the page builder uses to create page. TheModule Settings offer the designer a variety of options. More than 100 additional module settings have been added in 2.4, and every single module is affected, greatly enhancing the versatility of this theme.
- One of the more useful and exciting features of this latest upgrade is the newDivi Library. The library replaced the Saved Layouts function, which served well as a repository, but was not significantly involved in page building. The new Library can be used to store, edit, and retrieve layouts and individual elements of layouts.
- Page elements stored in the library can be globalized. Change an element on one page or section, and all corresponding elements will be changed, saving a tremendous amount of time and bookkeeping.
- The introduction of a fluid grid is another time- and labor-saving feature. Fixed grids, while often providing adequate solutions, have their limitations. These have now been removed.
- If it works, don’t try to fix it. Divi authors appear to have ignored this sage piece of advice. They took the very user friendly Page Builder interface, and totally revamped it, making it more useful and more user friendly than ever.
The list could go on, but you may just want to spend a little time to see for yourself what Divi 2.4 brings to the table. It is rather unusual for a highly popular theme such as this one to undergo such a large-scale revamping within a single upgrade, but that is precisely what Elegant Themes appears to have successfully accomplished.
Looking into the 2.4 Box in Greater Detail
What these and other improvements and enhancements do for the website developer is to open the door to an extremely large, and in fact virtually unlimited, set of design options. The designer can not only do more, but can do it in less time, and with less effort. That is the gist of the 2.4 upgrade.
The Library
For many, Divi’s new Library will be one of the most exciting enhancements included in 2.4. Rather than being an “off-to-the-side” theme component, the Library now plays an active role in the page-building process.
Divi’s Library feature saves and stores pre-made layouts, as did the Saved Layouts function it replaced, but it does much more. Layouts, customized layouts, and layout sections and individual elements, can be placed in the library where they can be saved for later use. What is really exciting however is the fact that layouts, elements, or modules that have been placed in the Library can be edited, and the editing can take place right in the Library which, with these enhancements, has now become an integral part of the design and page-building process.
Library Element Globalization
One additional thing can be accomplished with elements that have been stored, and sometimes edited, in the library. They can be made global.
If you change one global page or library element, all similar elements elsewhere on a page, or on other pages, will be changed as well. Since it is possible to add any instance of a section, row, or module in the library to any number of pages or layouts at any time, the ability to globalize these elements can result in huge time savings, not to mention a significant reduction in bookkeeping efforts. Elements can either be made global in the library or within the page builder.
Advanced Settings, Custom CSS, and the New Header Module
Just as exciting as the new Library is to Divi theme users, is what has changed in the area of module settings. These settings are what make a module so flexible in its use, and the design options they offer, and their usability, have both been significantly increased.
A nice variety of module settings was available before the 2.4 upgrade, but 100s of additional advanced settings have now been introduced, affecting each and every module. The result is a significant increase in the options available to customize a module, which in turn opens up an immense number of options available to the designer when constructing a web page. An equally significant and exciting enhancement involves the introduction of a fullscreen header module, resulting in a greater ease of use and versatility in Divi’s page and header building processes.
The Revamped Customizer is a Game Changer
Adding a few more design options is always a positive thing, but Divi’s authors went far beyond adding a few options. They completely revamped the Customizer.
New design options have been put in place, which add to the flexibility and versatility of this theme, but in revamping the Customizer, special attention was paid to those design options that were subject to various limitations, a number of which were successfully removed. The net result is that rows, content and sidebar widths, and other page and element characteristics can be more precisely controlled; and done so with greater ease. The designer is not as limited as was earlier the case in the exact placing of page blocks and elements.
The Divi Page and Post Builder
The ability to create posts using the Divi page builder has always been there, but the process was slightly cumbersome and not without its limitations. This has changed with 2.4.
A special post title module has been added, which functions to place items such as title, image, meta, and text where the designer wants them to appear, without having to go through extra effort. The post-building feature is now a stand-alone, user friendly feature.
The Divi Page Builder Interface
The original page builder interface was user-friendly and performed its function well. It might have remained as is, except the many other changes that made up 2.4 resulted in its becoming outdated.
The new interface is as user-friendly as ever, and perhaps even more so, in that it provides access to many more design options and features. As the illustration indicates, this interface is extremely easy to navigate.
Version 2.4 Pros and Cons, and why You should Purchase It
There are many positives about this latest Divi version, and the negatives are, for all practical purposes, nonexistent. It could be argued that a novice might find Divi difficult to work with due to a potential for information overload, but this is largely mitigated by the high quality of the accompanying user documentation. Most new users will find the learning curve is not at all steep; it is actually rather flat. For the more experienced user, Divi 2.4 is quite possibly the most flexible and versatile theme on the market, which is saying a lot. Divi 2.4 is highly recommended.
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