Back about 6 months ago, the BETA had numerous pre-built components (menu, banner, CTA banner, etc.) and there was even a “Back to Basics” video (Ep23) highlighting the ease of building with these components. @dan - you even acknowledged that you had received feedback that the discussions around using ChatGPT to create custom components, etc. had intimidated some users (paraphrasing).
I may be the exception among BETA users, as a non-developer, but one of the main appeals of Elements was the promise of easy drag and drop, WYSIWYG-building…and that persuaded me to buy in early!
Since then, the pre-built components have been removed and development and discussions have gone back things like Tailwind, custom components from AI, and a multitude of other complex development scenarios.
I’m sure that these are very exciting for many in the community, and I totally acknowledge that many of the dev discussions surrounding the BETA go WAY over my head, BUT, as a paying BETA user, I’d still like to be part of the conversation!
Is there any way to get some pre-built components back in the BETA build so that users like me can simulate the customer-base of “newer” website builders who will no doubt be attracted to Elements upon its release?
Keep up the great work…Elements is looking awesome!
I agree and have mentioned it a few times as well - as have others.
@Dan has said they’re coming but I firmly believe if they’re put back - even if they’re fairly basic - it would make the first steps into Elements much, much simpler for the expanding number of beta testers.
The original paradigm of drag and drop simplicity has been over-shadowed by the extremely customisable options for custom components.
Both are great features but more love needs be be aimed at getting the basic foundational blocks back in place. A blank page can be an intimidating thing.
You don’t want to lose people because it’s too hard to get started.
I’d like to add my voice to those advocating from a return of the pre-built components, such as, cards. I am constantly building similar elements out of the existing components, but it would be so much more productive to have one that I can just drag and drop into the editor.
I’m happy to build my own, but not everyone is going to be inclined to do the same, which might steer people away from Elements. That would be a shame.
@miketee Like you, I am not a developer. However, I am from the school of “If it can easily be built from included components, it doesn’t need to be included as a component”. A Banner is just a container with some other stuff in it, like an image component and/or text or typography component. While it might be nice to have a banner component, it isn’t necessary. Note that I am not saying that they shouldn’t be included, just that I think they don’t need to be.
Menu is a different story. Much more complicated to build and involves a bit more than just existing base components. Menu component needs to be included. Also drop down menus (hint hint @dan). So I agree with you here.
