Thanks again, Paul!
Markus, one more quick question. I’m assuming that I can copy your blog (CMS structure) and use it into one of my existing sites correct? Since I really just need the blog page, I want it to act like a “blog section”, not as the homepage. I’m guessing this is copying the page from your template, putting it my existing elements project, and renaming it. I assume that that once I’ve done that, all of the folders / locations of the files will remain intact once I publish the site.
Hi Chris,
that should work. But if I can recommend, I would do it the opposite way around. I would use Maximilian as a base and then copy everything in from your project what you need. That will prevent that with all this copy and pastes the structure of the CMS stays intact.
The Elements CMS is a really good approach but it is in an early stage of development and if you are not carefull you easily can break something.
Roger that!
missed your message, away in a hotel wife got me going everywhere the hotel has poor internet and my 5g almost 0
not sure if you still want a video, below is a basic speed run video (Mac on my lap / track pad / limiting factor) Title, Date and Text, this does not have styling , it is not really for following to setup the basics, just really how long it takes to setup 6mins or so
I would slow this down and talk each part through explain what why how etc, next video would be images etc, how the markdown file is divided, if anyone would like a video with each step being talked through let me know here and I will dm a link to that version, it’s about 12 mins long
https://sjwjaw.co.uk/ this shows single page, double page, filter/search , related, featured, text pull, random images, random text, arrays, hover container, different ways of creating info in the body of the markdown, split area across my test site, don’t forget to refresh the pages for random to work
I think I can do this in my sleep, used the cms components so many times in various projects 
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Thanks for that!
FWIW, I read through Thom’s book today and found it perfectly clear and quite simple. The majority of it covers the step by step setup and once that’s done, creating posts and authors is a doddle. I’m struggling to see why a profanity ridden rant was necessary - it’s really quite easy.
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I wasn’t upset at Thom’s book. I was upset at the fact that a 100 page book needed to be written to create a blog.
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Hmm. Less than 20 years it took way more than 100 pages to describe how to create a blog, even without my extra explanations and diversions into things like YAML.
Personally, I’m not fond of the “needs no documentation” technologies. If you’re lucky these days you get a small card with a few “quick steps” and the assumption that you’ll figure everything else out (or just use the defaults forever). I’m also not fond of the online documentation style that is basically “if you know what you’re looking for, just look it up here.”
What you seem to be objecting to is learning something new and different, with a extra pinch of expecting it to just work. I’ll remind you that absolutely nothing in your home, your car, your work environment, your city, and all the services you rely upon these days came about because someone objected to learning something new.
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I’m kinda old school I guess. I like to have a printed instruction manual so I can read a page and then look at my screen and try to apply what I read. I tend to print out any of the pdf manuals that I get. Seeing and then doing is how I learn things. As far as learning CMS I have the good fortune of not being under any deadlines to learn it. If it takes two days, two weeks or two months it’s all good, I’ll eventually figure it out. And I appreciate very much the documentation that you’ve taken the time to create!
Thanks.
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wow that was a bit passive- aggressive! 
I did comment more or less the same in support of you with my dishwasher analogy! Once again well done!
No offense taken.
I guess I should come clean and say that I also own a software company. We make ClerkHound point of sale. We pride ourselves on ease of use right “out of the box”. I’m the front end developer (graphics, layout, UI, etc…). We have two full time developers (my business partners) that do all of the heavy lifting with MySql, React, Javascript, Lambda Functions, etc….
I’ve made a ton of videos on “how to do this” and “how to do that” that very few of our users will ever watch. The reality is that they don’t need to watch them. We get about two customer support calls a day and most are resolved within a minute. The customer grasps the concept and they move on.
We’ve had customers that have gone from a simple cash register (when their retail store has never had a point of sale) to our software and have only called a couple of times. I’m actively involved in support because I know how frustrating it is when things don’t work as expected.
In other words - I’m the guy on their side.
I’m a firm believer that good design will allow people to discover freely without fear of breaking things and that layout and workflow should be obvious to the user.
I realize that Elements had to make a move to a CMS based blog; I just wish it was already as easy as the old system.
And again, Paul. Thanks for your input.
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The CMS is still in Beta. While we do have plans to make it easier to setup and use, it is considered an advanced feature. We’ll be expanding the documentation (along with a clear getting started guide) as we progress.
Lots more good stuff to come 
Just looked at your site and products. They look great and very useful for perhaps some people on this community. WELL DONE!
Thanks, Dan!
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Thanks, Paul!
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