If you have ever noticed the trend today, some popular WordPress themes come with a built-in page builder plugin. Jupiter X with Elementor and Newspaper with tagDiv Composer. In this article, we will cover tagDiv Composer.
One crucial thing to note. The tagDiv Composer page builder is only available on the themes from tagDiv: Newspaper and Newsmag. It is available as one of the required plugins on those themes. Newspaper (the current version is Newspaper X) and Newsmag themselves are WordPress themes aimed at dynamic websites (blog, news portal, and so on).
tagDiv Composer is provided to help you to design the homepage of your website, create the supporting pages (about page, contact, team page and so on).
Interface and Ease of Use
Right after installing Newspaper theme or Newsmag, you will be asked to install tagDiv Composer. Well, this plugin is technically already installed as you install the theme, but not activated yet. tagDiV Composer itself only works on pages, unlike Elementor which also works on posts.
To start using tagDiv Composer, you can create a new page on your WordPress dashboard (Pages -> Add New) and click the TAGDIV COMPOSER button above the WordPress editor. The editor will open after you click the button.
The interface of the tagDiv Composer editor consists of two parts. The left panel to host the design elements as well as to make the settings and the right panel (the canvas area) where you can design your page. Just like other page builder plugins, tagDiv Composer also comes with drag-and-drop functionality.
You can simply drag the design element from the left panel to the canvas area on the right side. To add a new element, you can click the ADD ELEMENT button on the top side.
To make the settings to the element you have just added, you can hover your mouse over the element and click the Element button. The left panel will turn into the editing mode after you click the Element button.
You will see the different setting options according to the element you are going to edit. tagDiv Composer allows you to edit your page live. What you are currently seeing on the canvas area is what you will see once the page is live.
By default, the preview is applied to the desktop device. You can preview your page on other types of devices by clicking the icons on the left panel.
You can also hide the left panel to see the real look of your page before you publish it. Simply click the arrow button on the bottom-left corner of the settings panel to do so.
The interface, as well as the user experience of the tagDiv Composer, are actually good enough. However, there are parts we don’t too impressed with.
For instance, you have to manually enter the numbers to set the margins, paddings, column gaps and other parameters that use numbers. In some page builders, you can do so using a dropdown menu.
Another minor is when you use an element that involves images. You have to also enter the numbers manually to set the image size (height and width). Plus, the image thumbnail is too small and nearly invisible.
Design Elements
Before going further on this section, please note once again that tagDiv Composer is built specifically for Newspaper and Newsmag themes, which are designed for dynamic websites. tagDiv Composer is mainly built to help you to design the layout of your dynamic website.
In tagDiv Composers, a design element is called a shortcode.
To ease your job in designing the homepage of your dynamic website, tagDiv Composers offers shortcodes called Big Grid(s). There are 12 different Big Grid styles offered by tagDiv Composer. A Big Grid itself hosts the content from your website (posts), which is displayed in stylized columns. You can filter the content on a Big Grid from the Filter tab on the left panel.
Another useful widget that you can use to design the layout of your homepage is Block(s). Same as Big Grid(s), a Block also hosts the content from your website (posts in this case), but with a different style. While a Big Grid is great to display content like featured articles, Block is ideal to display articles from certain categories.
You can filter content on a Block by category or tag. tagDiv Composer offers 25 different Block styles. Here is one of the examples.
Of course, there are also other shortcodes you can use to create other pages on your website. For instance, there is a Team Member widget that will be very handy to create the team page. Or Pricing Table to create a “pricing” page. Here are the shortcodes offered by tagDiv Composer, other than Big Grid(s) and Block(s).
| Header Main Manu | News Ticker | Call to Action |
| Header Category List | Client | |
| Header Logo | Popular Category | Column Content |
| Header Live Search | Raw HTML | Column Title |
| Header Login | Recent Comments | Fancy Text with Image |
| Header Date | Search Form | Hero |
| Header Weather | Separator | Icon |
| Mobile Menu | Single Image | Icon Box |
| Mobile Horizontal Menu | Slide | Inline Single Image |
| Mobile Live Search | Text with Title | Inline Text |
| Ad Box | Title | List |
| Author Box | Video Playlist | Menu Product |
| Authors Box | Weather | Numbered Counter |
| Categories/Tags List | Widget Sidebar | Pricing Table |
| Column Text | Newsletter | Progress Bar |
| Exchange | Revolution Slider | Social Icons |
| Homepage Post | Social Counter | Team Member |
| Image Box | Posts Loop | Testimonial |
| Posts Loop 2 | Text with Image | |
| List Menu | Button | Title over Image |
Other Features
- Templates
There are two ways to create a new page with tagDiv Composer. While you can create a new page from scratch, there are also pre-made templates you can choose to save you time in creating a page. To load the templates, you can click the Load Templates button on the left panel of the tagDiv Composer. The template library popup will appear once you click the button.
The templates are very well-organized in the template library. If you have no idea about the homepage layout, you can go to the Homepages tab to import one of the available homepage templates. On the Pages tab, you will find templates of contact pages, about pages, landing pages, and so on.
- Header Manager
Both Newspaper Theme and Newsmag Theme allow you to change the header via the Theme Panel. If none of the headers suit you, you can also create a new one from the Header Manager which you can access via tagDiv Composer (Header Manager is only available on Newspaper).
This feature allows you to create and design the header as your liking. tagDiv Composer itself offers 40 different headers you can choose from. Before applying a header, you can also customize it until it meets your needs and taste.
Technical Support
tagDiv, the team that develops tagDiv Composer, Newspaper Theme and Newsmag Theme uses a forum to help users fix their problems. tagDiv itself created two different forums for the Newspaper Theme users and Newsmag Theme users. You can register to a forum according to the theme you use to get some help from fellow users.
No worries, the support team is also present on the forum and actively answering the topics. If you need direct help, you can find the email address of the tagDiv team on this page.
Overall, tagDiv has great technical support.
Pricing
Both Newspaper Theme and Newsmag Theme are exclusively available on Themeforest. You need to spend $59 for Newspaper and $49 for Newsmag. Those prices are lifetime prices. You don’t need to spend a monthly or yearly budget to extend the license. A single theme license can only be used for a single website. In Themeforest, you can upgrade the item you bought freely if a newer version is available.
If the tagDiv team releases a new version of either Newspaper Theme or Newsmag (which typically also brings new features to tagDiv Composer), you can update your theme to a newer version fo free.
The Verdict
Want to build a dynamic website with WordPress? If yes, tagDiv Composer is a great page builder to assist you. It’s available exclusively on Newspaper Theme and Newsmag Theme, which are developed by tagDiv. You can use tagDiv Composer to design the layout of the homepage of your dynamic website.
Also, you can use it to create supporting pages on your websites such as about page, contact page, team page, landing page and so on. tagDiv Composer comes with a visual interface. Everything and drag and drop.
UPDATE
The current version of tagDiv Composer comes with WooCommerce shortcodes that you can use to build an e-commerce website.
