Hey there,
The ability to change fonts is coming in a future update, this isn’t really an easy thing to implement as you think. Nevertheless, it’s going to be a cool addition.
We support both highlighting text and dragging whole elements. If you click on the text then move your mouse, it will highlight the text, but if you click and hold the mouse for a longer time, it will trigger the whole thing to be dragged.
I agree that the HR is quite hard to delete in some themes using the delete button because it’s thin or when the theme doesn’t have padding on them. We will definitely address themes that do this, and it’s already planned to move the hr into a separate element to ensure that doesn’t happen. In the meantime, you can delete hrs using the backspace key when you have the hr highlighted, or when your cursor is on the next paragraph.
We’re trying to limit the amount of settings panels that litter the screen and we’re continually improving the experience with suggestions from users like yourself.
Hi,
Thanks for the response, I really hope all of this gets addressed
sooner than later, it’s so basic (in terms of design needs and UX, like
I said, things like fonts choice is in virtually every page builder).
Same with the HR issue. These aren’t ‘features’ that should be somewhere
down the road in an update, these are design and UX flaws.
I understand not wanting to add unnecessary panels but I’m talking about
adding basic options to already existing panels.
And even just using the delete button on your keyboard should work IMO..
Another thing that’s frustrating is the panel to insert new elements is
automatically closing and so requires constantly making unnecessary
moves and clicks to the button that opens the panel, before you can
continue designing. This wasn’t in the earlier versions, where it
stayed open until you decided to close or preview the site.
Even if some users have requested this new behavior, it just makes no
sense UX wise as it breaks workflow and adds unnecessary steps
for something you constantly need in most cases when first building a page.
I really think this should be changed back to either not close by default
or have a setting to choose this behavior.
I really liked where the tool was going initially but it just feels
like it’s not built with either sound UX principles nor the developer in mind
but just a cool flashy tool to sell to consumers,
which is a shame as it has a lot of potential š
Hey yesyeswordpress,
I’ve released version 4.1 just now.
It fixes the HR as you’ve mentioned. It’s now an element instead of being found in the top formatting bar, and I’ve ensured it’s size across different themes. While I was at it, I’ve also fixed a few stuff in the formatting bar. For example the alignment buttons are now grouped together, the font-size button is now split into a minus and a plus for easier usage, and the line height button is now a slider. There are a lot of other bug fixes as well.
As I’ve mentioned, we improve PBS through the help of people using it š
If you hover your mouse to the left side of the window, the Add Elements panel should appear. There was a bug with the tour video not playing at the start, so this might not have been apparent, but that has also been fixed in 4.1. If you use the hover thing, it’s a much more pleasant experience.
You’re right, the panel to insert elements didn’t close a few months ago (back when it was version 2, and when it was also used for changing all the element’s properties). Before, the window squished the page a bit to make room for the elements. We decided that it would be better to just make that left panel into an “add elements” panel. Because we did that, the only reason for that area to be visible is when you’re going to add something.
I urge you to keep checking back with PBS. The release just now 4.1 focused on the UX of the formatting bar. The next release will focus on fonts (that’s why some buttons have been changed to make room) – this will be released near the end of Feb 2017. After that there will be a lot of UX changes with regards to the inspector to make it a more pleasurable experience.