It has been fun to play with elements even though most my time has been spent finishing jobs with Classic at the moment. I haven’t had a chance to read through all the long threads that have started since the program came out but I thought I would give my take on the basics after over a week of using it.
The way container works is really cool! I’ve always struggled a bit understanding the differences between margins and padding but the way elements displays it makes so much sense. I know this was shown off in a video but I actually forgot about it.
The current implementation of moving the different elements on the page is a bit baffling to me. Other parts of it have potential. It is interesting to have a page layout tree or hierarchy, I’m not sure what that section is called. The way each element label overlaps each other needs to be fixed. Not only is hard to read but I don’t know what I am dragging when I click on an element.
The icon that says “content” in the sidebar tree I don’t get, it confuses me since everything you would drop under an element is content what else could be? If the idea is to group different content a part from each other then I would like a better way to describe it. That is traditionally what a folder is used for but again I can’t understand what it is trying to achieve right now. I can’t add more content sections or rename them so it doesn’t seem to have the functionality of a folder.
While rearranging elements in a sidebar is a welcome advancement dragging items into parent items is just strange to me. I don’t know how explain this but an element doesn’t seem to nest as well inside its parent as a stacks does. The UI in Stacks is way more clear for what is inside of what.
From what I remember Stacks introduced shortcut keys in version 5 (or did they just add more of them in version 5?) I would also like an easier shortcut key way in elements. I don’t think the shortcuts in Stacks 5 quite does this right. I don’t tend to move items one step up or down or move it all the way from the top of the page or to the bottom of the page.
The shortcut I would use the most is “move up (and down) within the next closest parent to where the item current resides.” For an example I may be testing out several different reveal animation stacks one after the other in a row on the page. In order to do this operation without dragging it with the mouse it can’t be done on the keyboard. This is usually what I do though and the biggest candidate for a shortcut key. I frequently move up and down within the parents, not skipping over them which is what happens with the “move stacks down” command.
So this is my brief summery of the first elements beta. I’m excited to see where the program goes!
