The Essential Grid Plugin for WordPress: A Complete Guide
After the advent of Gutenberg, what was a classic editor in WordPress, got changed to blocks. Each type of element got converted to a block.
These elements could be lists, headings, posts, images, videos, or even these modern stunning slider designs. You could create columns, rows, or sections of each block and insert any of the above-mentioned elements in it.
Though some people are still against Gutenberg, frankly speaking, I am enjoying Gutenberg and extensively using it to create custom layouts.
What is a grid builder?
The grid builder builds a loop of iterating elements one after the other in a certain fashion that helps the user select one of them. The below image is a grid of posts that we have published.
When one element like a post or image has a variable list of items to display, they can be displayed in several ways. This is when we need a grid builder.
Though this comes with a lot of options, there are many premium plugins out there that can do a much better job. One such plugin is the Essential Grid which is priced at about $69.
What is the Essential Grid?
The Essential grid is a premium plugin, which comes with WordPress, and displays various elements in a way that is customizable at an extremely high level. The elements that the plugin supports are posts, woo-commerce, images, videos, product sliders, testimonials, etc
There is a lot of customization that the Essential Grid offers. These customizations bring high value to the website, as they increase the usability of a particular layout.
This Grid is available on our beloved CodeCanyon website that you can download, after purchasing, of course.
You won’t get to know in their write-up, the exhaustive list of customizations that they offer, because it is not mentioned anywhere. But trust me, it is a worthy plugin that can help your design go to the next level.
How do I install the essential grid?
It is just like any other plugin. You need to purchase. A link will be updated in your code canyon account. Download it from there.
Go to Plugins > Add new and upload the downloaded zip file. Click on the install button and you are now ready to activate the plugin. Once you activate, you will have new tabs that you can see on the left sidebar of the admin dashboard.
You are not done until you activate the plugin. This has to be done by visiting the first link from the Essential Grid Plugin
From there you have to find this section and enter the code to activate and then use.
How do I use the essential grid plugin in WordPress?
Now that you have installed the grid, it is now time to explore the plugin. The plugin starts from where you entered the purchase code. If you go to the top of the same page, you can see the created grids if you have created or empty if you are yet to create.
We are assuming you have not created any grids as yet. So, let us start by creating one. For now, let us not consider the AddOns. We will only consider an “Empty Grid” or a “Grid from Template“.
If you want to start editing a grid from an already created template, you can click the button that says “Create Grid from Template”. But since we will be creating from scratch we will go ahead and click the Create an Empty Grid.
How do I add a grid in WordPress?
Once we do that we will be taken to a page where we will be creating the grid. Let us see what the page looks like.
Now, we have different tabs on top of the page that serves different purposes while creating the grid.
The first one is to name the grid. The naming starts with the title and alias. The alias is used in referring to the grid from the shortcode.
So your alias should be unique for each grid that you create. The shortcode is what you will be using in a post or a page for the Essential Grid to display.
Create an essential grid photo gallery
Since will be creating an image grid photo gallery, let us call it so along with an alias. This is what the page looks like after entering the details. We have only the extract of the details.
The next step is to create the grid associated with this title. Let us go to the next tab that has the title Source.
You have three options here.
- Create a post, page, or similar grid by selecting the first option.
- Create a Custom Grid by selecting the second option (we will get to this soon)
- Create a stream or live feed from social media like Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook, etc. by connecting to them directly
Now that we are creating an image grid, we are interested in the second option. But selecting the second option, the page looks as follows.
Now we will select the Feature Images tab and go down to see the other options.
How do I add a picture to the essential grid?
You can add a single image or bulk images by selecting the right options. We will select the “Add Bulk Images” button.
Click on the Choose Images button.
Your Essential Grid is already displayed at the bottom of the page like so:
This is how it is easy to create a grid using Essential Grid. Once the grid is ready, you need to save it from the top right corner of the page.
This saves the Essential Grid along with the shortcode.
How to use the Essential Grid Shortcode?
You have to go to the first link from the Essential Grid Menu.
From there you can see the list of Essential Grids that you have just created. You will see four options in different colors there.
Select the shortcode highlighted in red. Copy it and paste it into any post, page, or widget. The grid will be shown in that particular place where you just pasted your shortcode.
How to get Essential Grid Support?
When you are creating or editing an Essential Grid, on the top right corner of the page, you will see the red colored button with the label “Help Center”.
Click the button to search through several articles.
If you are not happy or did not find the solution to the problem you are facing, go to the Help Center menu and Select the Ticket Support option in the sub-menu.
