OK, technically, it’s not a “first” first look. I’ve had to install it, and start running it to be able to make this video, but it’s more of a highlight of new features that I’ve noticed that matters more to me.
My whole thing on this channel is
- making websites efficiently while,
- making websites match the design proof
- operating as a small to mid-sized digital agency
- delivering client-safe websites, and
- UI/UX design
That means, time savers, clever methods, good UI, good workflows, reliable software, and CSS are what I’m most interested in.
I also run a digital design agency, so I’m totally living the life that I’m “preaching,” and all this comes from experience.
OK. So what does that all have to do with the new Breakdance? Well, I think whenever anyone reviews a product, it’s important to understand the context of where they’re coming from, because all reviews are biased. If someone is telling you their review is unbiased, they’re straight up lying or wrong about themselves. Something that’s important to them might not be important to me, hence, bias.
Now that you know where I’m coming from, let’s get into it.
The Video
Timestamps
- 0:05 Preface
- 1:40 Intro to Breakdance v2
- 2:03 Keyboard shortcuts
- 7:50 New UI features
- 10:36 New elements
- 13:10 New controls
- 18:27 Element presets
- 21:35 Migration mode
- 23:30 Conclusion
Quick Summary
I’ll go over the main features of the release, and then focus on a few of them in this video. There will be more videos, and I’ll be focusing on different features in them with different context. Note, these are not the full list of features. I’m picking the ones I especially like.
Keyboard shortcuts
- This is my FAVORITE new set of features
- Good UI is basically making things as smooth and easy to use as possible. Especially with apps that have so many points of input and features, it’s important to prioritize it, and Breakdance does that very well.
- I know that a lot of page builder users enjoy clicking things, but consider how much you go back and forth between the keyboard and mouse. Breakdance used to be good at reducing useless back and forth movement, and it kept getting better with every update, but this one is the largest jump yet.
- You can go directly to the style options, you can go directly to the more comprehensive style options, you can move the selection to the parent, you can write CSS directly, you can add classes directly.
- Just remember : cmd+? (= cmd+shift+/ )
Additional UI features
- They’ve made some changes to the main layout engine, and it’s more powerful than ever.
- You can now copy just a selected part of a certain element’s design and paste it on any other element.
- Conditions now autocomplete which can be very helpful when going through the list.
New elements
- Pulse dot, content reveal, badge
- I especially like the content reveal element because it helps with making pages like bio or services while allowing the client to add things in via ACF.
New controls
- Header builder got a great update. You can now set the offest from the top of the viewport so you can add extra sections on the top easily.
- Also, page top margin control can make it much easier to get the header to sit nicely on top of the page without extra code.
Things that help agencies
- Element presets. This is super helpful to keep elements on-brand and build out quickly. This also covers a lot of things that simply editing classes without actually writing them cannot do. Things like child elements inside that you’d need to write css for can now be controlled easily with presets.
- Migration mode. I was impressed when Breakdance 1.0 had maintenance mode, and now they’ve come out with migration mode. You can install Breakdance, add the maintenance plugin, and you and only you will be able to access and view the same content through Breakdance. That means you can build on a live site without worrying about losing orders or users.
Get Breakdance
Get Breakdance here (affiliate link): https://breakdance.com/ref/19/
Notice: People who have signed up to the Breakdance for agencies course will be getting a v2.0 update along with some other updates.
