Divi 2.5 is here, and it’s packed with some really great new features that are going to improve your experience with the Divi Builder by leaps and bounds. One of the big focuses in 2.5 was to add new features that save you time and remove unnecessary tedium from the building process. Many of these features were joined together to create Divi’s new Right Click Controls. Whenever you right click on something within the builder, you will now be presented with quick access to commonly-used functions, as well as some entirely new tools such as: copying and pasting modules from one place to another, locking content from being edited by other users, and disabling items within the builder from appearing on the front end. While I’m on the topic of saving time, let me just say that you are going to absolutely love Divi’s new Live Preview feature!
We have also introduced a brand new session-based revision system, including the ability to Undo & Redo, as well as travel backwards and forwards through time in order to revert or return to a desired history state. If you delete a section by mistake, just undo. If you change your mind, well you can redo too! If you want to scrap the alterations you have been working on for the past 10 minutes, just open up the new history panel and click back to your preferred state.
Divi 2.5 also represents a new focus towards helping and understanding the needs of freelance WordPress developers and small web design agencies. These small businesses constitute a large part of the Divi user base, and we want to add more features that make it easier to build amazing websites for their clients. This prompted us to create the Divi Role Editor, a brand new tool that gives developers the ability to control what types of actions can be taken by their clients within the Divi Builder.
Undo & Redo
Divi 2.5 introduces a new session-based revision system, giving you the ability to undo and redo any action you take inside the Divi Builder. You can also skip back and forth through time to any history state created during your current editing session.
Undo Your Mistakes & Redo Your Undo’s
Have you every deleted a module by mistake? Whoops! It happens to the best of us, and it can really throw off your editing sessions when you are forced to re-load the draft and start over. Such days are now behind us. In Divi 2.5, you can undo and redo any action you take inside of the Divi Builder. Have you deleted a module by mistake? Just undo it. Change your mind about your most recent Advanced Design Settings adjustments? Undo! Change your mind about your recent undo? Well you can redo that too 🙂
Browse Your Edit History And Switch Between Any Of Your History States
Not only can you undo and redo any action you take, Divi also logs all of these actions and creates a new history state for each. You can travel backwards and forwards through time to any of these history states with the click of a button. Each history state is logged based on the time the action was taken, and details about what specific action was taken are labeled within the history panel as well. All of these history states are saved as a Backbone collection / Javascript object and are not saved to your database and will not bloat your database.
Hotkey Support
It addition to being able to Undo and Redo your changes using the new Undo and Redo buttons, Divi 2.5 also introduces hotkey support for these actions. Just like pretty much every other software program you have ever used, if you make a mistake just press Ctrl + Z to undo. If you are on a Mac, press Command + Z. Redo works too. Redo your Undo by pressing Ctrl + Y on a Windows PC, or Command + Shift + Z on your Mac. You can also close settings windows by pressing the Esc key, or save your changes by pressing Enter. This is going to save you a ton of time.
Live Previews While Building
In Divi 2.5, live previews are now available within builder while you are editing a module, row or section. Simply click the preview button and you can get a clear look at the edits you are making, instead of having to save your changes and preview them on the frontend.
Instant Previews While Configuring Your Modules, Rows & Sections
Live previews are something we are really excited to introduce in Divi 2.5. In previous versions of Divi, any changes made to your module, row or section settings had to first be saved before they could be previewed on the front-end of your website. This can turn into a big waste of time, especially when you are making many fine-tuned adjustments to a module’s Advanced Design Settings. In Divi 2.5, you will notice that all settings windows have a new live preview icon. Clicking this icon will give you an instant look at the item you are working on, complete with all of the changes you have made so far.
Responsive Testing At Your Fingertips
The live preview feature also includes responsive design testing, allowing you to see exactly what your item will look like on desktop, tablet or smartphones resolutions. You can toggle back and forth between each of these, instead of having to mess around with the width of your browser window.
New Right Click Controls
Divi 2.5 introduces a whole slew of new controls within the builder, all of which are now available when right clicking on any item within the builder. These functions include: Copy, Paste, Undo, Redo, Lock, Disable, Preview, Collapse, Rename, and Save To Library.
Brand New Ways To Use Divi, Right Where You Need Them
In Divi 2.5, whenever you right click within the builder, there are a whole host of new features that can be explored. In addition, commonly-used features have been added to the right click menu for easy access. Now Divi works just like any standard software application, and the controls you are used to seeing upon right click are now available. We have added some new unique features as well!
Copy & Paste
Copy & Paste is now available in the Divi Builder! Modules, rows and sections can all be copied and then pasted anywhere on the page. This can be used instead of duplicating an item and dragging it into place, which is often quite difficult when you need to copy something from the top of a long page and place it at the bottom of the page. Dragging, dropping and scrolling at the same time can be a little tricky!
Copy From One Page To Another!
Copying and pasting is not limited to the page you are working on. In fact, you can now copy things from one page and then paste them onto an entirely different page. To accomplish such a task previously, you would have needed to save these items to the Divi Library, and then load them from the library on your new page. In cases where you only plan to copy and paste the item once, using the Divi Library is not ideal as it can lead to unnecessary clutter (also, right clicking to copy is a whole lot faster!).
Undo & Redo
Undo & Redo, while available using the standard undo and redo buttons and hotkeys, is also available upon right click for your convenience. If you ever make a mistake, just right click and undo.
Disable Content
Within Divi’s new right click controls is something entirely new called “Disable.” When a module, row or section is “disabled,” this item is removed from the page on the front end of your site, but remains available in the builder interface in disabled form. You will find items that are currently disabled within the builder have their opacity lowered for easy identification.
There are many reasons why you might want to disable an item and prevent it from displaying, but still keep it active within the builder for later use. For example, if you have a timely or seasonal offer you want to toggle on and off during sale days, or if you simply want to save the item for later because you aren’t 100% sure you want to commit to putting it live yet.
Lock Builder Items
An additional new feature available only on right click is “Lock.” Locking items prevent them from being edited, moved or deleted until they are unlocked. Only Administrators can lock and unlock items. If an Administrator locks items within the builder, lesser user roles will not be able to modify those items. This can be quite useful when you are working with clients and you want to prevent them from touching certain items, while still allowing them to modify others.
Renaming Modules Now Easier Than Ever
We have heard from many customers that re-naming items within the builder can be a bit tedious, especially since the Admin Label field is often at the bottom of the list of module settings. In Divi 2.5, renaming a module, row or section is now available on right click, so there is no need to dig into the settings panels to organize your page.
Preview
Divi 2.5’s new preview functionality is also readily available on right click. If you want to take a look at any module, row or section instantly, just right click and select “Preview.” This is especially useful when dealing with large pages where locating a specific item on the front-end preview can be difficult.
Collapse
The Divi Builder is now more organizable than ever. Whenever you right click a row or section, the new “collapse” option can be selected to minimize that particular item. Sections and rows can be toggled open and closed within the UI to help keep large pages more organized. In addition, rows and section can now be re-named, and these names appear within the builder when a section or row has been collapsed.
Save To Library
Saving items to the Divi Library is also available within Divi 2.5’s right click controls. You no longer need to edit an item within the builder to access the “Save To Library” button.
The Divi Role Editor
Divi 2.5 introduces the Divi Role Editor, a new way to limit functionality within the Divi Builder for your clients. For each WordPress user role, you can enable/disable features within the builder, depending on what you want these roles to be able to do. This is something we haven’t seen before in other multi-purpose themes, and we think it’s going to become an invaluable tool for WordPress freelancers and small web design agencies.
Control How Your Clients Can Use The Divi Builder
Have you ever been scared to hand off your completed Divi website to your client? Have you ever had a client adjust settings within the Divi Builder without first learning how to use them, resulting in all your hard work getting ruined? Well we are happy to say that those days are now behind us 🙂 Divi 2.5 introduces the Divi Role Editor, a new tool that can be used to limit/control every function within the Divi Builder for each of the WordPress user roles you are using (it works for custom user roles too). Assign your client a custom WordPress user role, and then open up the Divi Role Editor to control what the user is allowed to do.
You will soon find that the Divi Role Editor gives you the tools you need to safely pass on a website to your client, allowing the client to edit pages within the limitations that their role provides. For example, you might create a role that allows your clients to edit modules, but not delete them. You might create a role that allows clients to edit only certain categories of settings, but keep the rest hidden (for example, allow users to edit General Settings, but not Advanced Design Settings or Custom CSS). You can go even further and limit individual setting types within General Settings, for example, allowing clients to edit text content within a module, but not allowing them to adjust the module’s layout configuration and design options. And those are just a few examples!
Control Access To High Level Theme Settings
At the highest level, the Divi Role Editor allows you to limit access to large groups of theme settings. For example, if you wanted to create a custom role for your client with normal Administrator privileges, but you want to limit privileges within Divi that would normally be available to Administrators, you can do so. You can disable access to the Divi Theme Options, Theme Customizer, Module Customizer and Divi Library.
Limit Actions Within The Divi Builder
Where the Divi Role Editor really shines is when it’s used to limit privileges within the Divi Builder itself. Here you have fined-tuned control over everything your client is allowed to do. These privileges are ordered by the broadness of their implications. For example, at the broadest level you can do things like limit a user’s ability to edit, add or delete modules. If you have spent a lot of time creating the perfect Divi page layout, you might want to only allow your clients to edit modules, and disallow them from even adding new modules or accidentally deleting them. In fact, you might not want to allow them to use the Divi Builder at all if you are not confident that they will be able to use it effectively.
Control What Types of Settings Can Be Configured
If a user has the ability to add or edit modules, you can define very specific rules about what types of module settings they are allowed to change. For example, a good place to start might be to disable the Advanced Design Settings and Custom CSS Tabs. Beyond disabling entire settings tabs, however, you can also control the types of settings that are available in those tabs. For example, you might consider allowing your clients to edit only text content and colors within each module. These settings are very easy to understand and typically give clients everything they need to manage their own site, without giving them the ability to modify the structure or design of a page.
Limit Which Modules Can Be Used
Finally, you can also limit what types of modules are available for your client to add to their pages. It might be common to disable modules that are more complicated (such as the Portfolio modules), or modules that would be of no use to your clients (such as the Code module). Perhaps you only want your clients to be able to edit/add Text and Images to their pre-build pages, in which case you could disable access to everything except the Text and Image modules! Such a configuration, when combined with limiting Advanced Design Settings and Custom CSS within those modules, creates an incredibly streamlined Divi Builder experience! Now Divi can be as simple or as advanced as you want it to be.
A Stronger Foundation
The big features mentioned above, while totally awesome, are just a small part of what we worked on in Divi 2.5. For the past 3 weeks, we have been 100% focused on additional bug fixes and improvements that make this version of the Divi more stable than ever.