We’re on a bit of a roll right now… Ep34 we added Hover Effects, Ep35 we added Elements Cloud, and now this week for Ep36 we’ve added Scroll Effects
So, what can you do with scroll effects? Well, you can create beautiful animated headers, content that fades, rotates, and slides into view, and so much more.
Watch this weeks dev diary video below to learn how these powerful new scroll effects work👇
I have to agree with @Godber in that so far Elements is all style, with very little substance. Every time I use Elements (which is less and less each week) I ask myself why you’re bothering with adding flashy features when you haven’t got the basics down yet.
The way you’ve implemented many of these effects and features is baked into certain Elements (ie: grid items, flex items, etc ) and not available on others. This means that users have to remember which Elements/components they can access these properties on, and which they cannot. You’ve essentially created a frustrating puzzle where users try to fit random Elements together to achieve their goals. I’m also struggling to see how 3rd party components will fit into this jigsaw in any meaningful way.
The whole inspector is still just a never-ending game of whack-a-mole and “Where’s Waldo?”, and the constant refrain of “it’s so powerful and intuitive“ is getting old, especially as it doesn’t represent my experience using Elements at all.
It’s unintuitive, awkward, and completely devoid of the essential features of a modern web design tool. I’m hoping to see Elements become what you envision, but based on the current ‘beta’, you’ve got a very long way to go.
Elements is shaping up nicely, with a lot of power integrated into one package.
The Realmac community asked for more features at a lower price. Let’s not forget how third-party plugins for every small feature created support nightmares, leading to inconsistencies in the interface and compatibility issues with the main app. I’m REALLY HAPPY AND EXCITED to see this progress.
Delays in some features are normal for a beta release—it takes time to build. While you might expect a basic, functional website after paying for the release, system-wide features like navigation and text styling need to be integrated into almost every part of the app, which is hard to do when the app isn’t fully built yet. Early proof-of-concept videos were exciting but reflected early, buggy stages that Dan likely demoed carefully to avoid public failures.
Now, with the beta in hand, bugs are getting squashed, and feature requests are being filled. If your request isn’t yet addressed, hang tight—it will be.
The interface is still a work in progress, but I’m personally growing more accustomed to the “Elements way” and appreciate the process. Over time, the flashy features will take a backseat as everyday essentials are polished and released. Let’s remember, this is a beta release—not version 1 or 21. This is all part of the normal beta process.
I see Elements more as a perpetual beta, a strategy which typically works well for Software As a Service, but not necessarily for ‘packaged’ software. Very different customers, and very different expectations.
I aint…but there are betas and there are betas…I dont know about you but when I create a website first thing I put on is a menu bar…still being re written…second thing I put on is a paragraph to tell people about myself…cant edit in elements…still being re written…cant put a gallery in a container…being sorted…put a video on my opening page and set to play when scrolled over…nothing happens…
totally agree…love classic and foundry with stacks…counted over 70 ‘‘elements’’ I can add to the page…loads more choices…couple of added photo gallery packages one of buys and im good to go
I’m just asking this remain a positive place. Keep critical comments positive and constructive. If you’re not sure how, use AI to build a positive constructive tone for your comment before you post. The beta process is to “work it out.”
You can’t even easily link a few pages together, something that is absolutely fundamental to a website. To create a simple template that you want to use, you have to learn about ‘Globals’ (which are needlessly complex IMHO), and then learn how to apply them to every page where you want to use them.
Every week we seem to learn more and more TailwindCSS, how to apply it as custom styles, and even how to use AI tools to help us generate it. This isn’t exactly what I would expect in a modern WYSIWYG web editor.
Honestly, if you want to design a modern website, there are FAR better ‘no code’ tools around that you can already use today. And judging by the look of Unicorn Studio, which Dan has been advertising in his tab bar, there’s even more on the horizon.
