[Support request] Is Generate Blocks better for a newbie?

[Maria Iglesias]

Hi,

I am a newbie at Generate Press and a very basic user of wordpress (I am a Doctor by trade and never learnt anything related to computers unless as an end user until this year). I built a couple of pages using Elementor and they are up and running fine. I was however not happy with the speed of these pages. I downloaded GP premium based on the amount of reviews stating how fantastic it is (speed wise). I have spent countless hours watching tutorials in order to start my blog and I am finding Generate press quite confusing, especially when trying to use the templates provided with the premium version of the program. I seem to be unable to work with the widgets as things end up broken and not looking the way I want them to be. I am sure that for developers it’s such a great improvement, but I find the process to be not intuitive and visual like it was when I was using elementor). 

I would really like to persevere with Generate Press and learn how to make faster pages. However I don’t find a suitable tutorial and I just don’t think it’s the product for me.  I have just discovered Generate Blocks and I wonder if I’ve bought the wrong product all together! Generate Blocks seems much more like what I was looking for as an alternative to Elementor (visual and intuitive). 

My question is, if I want to build my website using Generate Blocks do I need the premium version of Generate Press? Or just purchasing the Pro version of Generate Blocks would be enough? Do these programs compliment each other or would I be able to build simple websites just using Generate Blocks? (To be honest I just want a very simple blog with a recipe section!).

I would appreciate any help. I have looked at the documents but have not found the answer to such simple question, which I am sure it’s probably a extremely basic and/or stupid question 😀 

Cheers!

[David]

Hi there,

Page Builders do make it very easy to create pages visually – but what they do is cover up the way WP, a Theme and the Post Editor work together.

So GeneratePress + GP Premium provide you the tools for setting global styles for your various templates eg. Single Post, Archives ( Blog and Categories ).

Whereas GenerateBlocks + GB Pro provide you the tools for designing content within the Post Editor.

The two are mutually exclusive ( you don’t need one to use the other ) but the two compliment each other.

As a beginner i would recommend using the Theme Customizer to set up your Layout, Colors, Fonts and Spacing. Your content ( in the post editor ) will automatically inherit these styles. Wherever possible you want to minimize changing styles directly within the post editor as you would need to manually change them in the future if you needed to.

So now the question is when to use the GenerateBlocks plugin:

1. If you’re just writing a Blog Post then you don’t require it for just writing. Keep to the core text and heading blocks.
2. If in your Blog Post you want to add a nicely designed box with columns, or background images – then you can use the GB Blocks to style it directly in the editor.
3. Creating Landing Pages – this where you may want to add Full Width sections with background colours/images and grids. In this instance I would suggest you set the Content Container to Full Width ( which can be found in the post editor sidebar see here ). This removes all the Themes padding and gives you a 100% wide blank canvas for your content. Now you can use the GB Container Block to create sections ( like in Elementor ) to build your page 🙂

Hope that helps. More than happy to help with any specific queries

[Maria Iglesias]

Hi David,

Thank you so much for your reply, that was very useful. Thank you for explaining it in plain words as that was exactly what I needed to get started.
The way I understand it is I can start my blog in generate press premium (create the content and the general style of the blog) and then when I want to customise it further (the style) I can use the blocks.

I will try to make a start with this and see how I go (will probably be back with more questions very soon, as I have so many doubts about the process!). For example, I have no issues in creating a landing page straight from scratch with generate blocks, but the issue I have is when I have to combine the two. If I am starting with content (either content that I have written or content that comes from a site template), I don’t know how to apply the blocks in this case…

I will give it a go and be more specific with the issues I am having.

Thank you.

[David]

Let us know if you get stuck 🙂

Glad to be of help

[Maria Iglesias]

Thank you 🙂

[David]

You’re welcome 🙂

[Author]

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