Replacing WooThemes Canvas

I was pretty shocked when I received an email from Pootle saying that WooThemes Canvas was no longer going to be developed, and that it would be incompatible with the changes coming to WordPress in 2018. I had used Canvas for, I’m guessing, 10+ years and currently maintained 11 sites with Canvas. I’m not a coder and feared the worst. I spent a couple weeks searching for an adequate replacement for people like me who had come to rely on the Canvas backend where we could avoid CSS and make a ton of settings using checkboxes, sliders, and color pickers.

Anyway, I’m absolutely delighted to tell other Canvas users who find themselves in the same boat that I DID find a replacement that not only works quite a bit like Canvas but is much BETTER. In short, it’s the GeneratePress theme. I use it with CSS Hero to do stuff that GP can’t do straight out of the box – little things like centering items in main nav menus. CSS Hero is incredible – you highlight the element you want to format, click the Edit Item button, and fill in the blanks for margins, padding, alignment, paragraph spacing, etc. I’m also using Elementor, but only very rarely, for “fancy” pages (e.g., a story about our school’s trip to the now-apparently defunct Google Science Fair).

Anyhow, I would HIGHLY recommend that Canvas users give these products a look. I was stunned when I read the comments on the WooCommerce announcement – there were devs who were facing the need to convert 200+ websites, and I can tell you, they were NOT amused. I created a page with links to some useful demo videos and tutorials for all three products. I included some affiliate links there (feeling, why not make a few bucks for the school?), because frankly I don’t give a s*&^t if I make a single penny for myself, but the school is doing fantastic work, with 40 years of showing how kids can be inspired and happy AND successful in school. The page is http://www.convertingwoothemescanvas.com. Cheers – George