Gutenberg as upcoming replacement for the Classic Editor this Fall is forcing an issue for WordPress users from newbies to hard-in-the-trenches WP Pro Developers – what is the best WordPress editor for them to use? There are three main candidates. The tried and true Classic WordPress Editor known as TinyMCE with maybe some  addons to give it a new shine. Gutenberg, Autommatic’s new block oriented and React.js driven replacement WordPress editor. And the Legion of Super Heroic PageBuilders which are rapidly transforming themselves into complete WordPress SiteBuilders.

Now doing the due diligence research for an upcoming Toronto WordPress Meetup on this very topic, I had just started looking at some of the addons for the WordPress Classic editor when I ran across Zedity. This addon brings some breathtaking 3D editing capabilities to the Classic WordPress editor. Yet it syncs well working with the Classic Editor or the PageBuilders.

Zedity’s Z-index Magic

What Zedity does is allow users to place blocks of text and/or media anywhere on a page, in any orientation, and overlapping however the user or Web Designer  chooses as seen in this screenshot:

This complete freedom of placement, sizing and orientation is enabled by careful  use of the z-index CSS attribute that can be attached to just about any HTML tag used in WordPress. So what does this mean? It means WordPress content editors now have available to them editing capability matching what Wix users have had for the past 4 years  Yes, Smart Slider 3 and  Slider Revolution users have had this same design flexibility in creating landing pages for the past 2-3 years but n effect that was for slider hero images or landing pages – not any length Zedity pages/posts.

As the screenshot shows, images overlap and are rotated into any position desired. Ditto for text blocks which also can have any desired opacity, shadow, border settings among the many styling options. Even better the Zedity code integrates well with Classic Edits above and below the Zedity block  as seen in this screen shot:

So now the WordPress Classic Editor has a 3D page layout  add-on starting at $39 US. What has yet to be tested and proven is the  mobile responsiveness of Zedity designs. Also tests for resizing and  reuse stability have  yet to be done. But the bottom line is that Zedity delivers multi-layer designs that have eluded Gutenberg and  most popular WP PageBuilders. But of course in early Fall, WordPress will see a deluge  of Content editing tools. So it shall be a most interesting season discovering  what the next generation  WordPress Editors will be able to deliver in terms of easy, drag and drop UI design and development.