All the WordPress UI Development Community is buzzing about FSE-Full Site Editing plus a whole crop of excellent PageBuilders evolving into Theme Builders lead by Beaver Themer, Divi, Elementor Theme Builder, Thrive Theme Builder which are delivering right now capabilities that Gutenberg promises hopefully some time in the Fall. Add to this array of FSE Theme Building tools, consider two new and promising entrants from Bricks Builder and Oxygen Theme. So why the hullabaloo about Headway.
Two reasons – Headway was the pioneer in full site editing 10 years ago. But in 2015, Headway floundered when a very ambitious update plan went awry. Fast forward to 2019 and Padma Unlimited took over the open section of Headway code and has proceeded to produce a block oriented WordPress Design and Styling tool that echoes the best features of Headway, Bricks Builder and Oxygen Theme. Here is a screenshot of the Padma Designer in action:
Headway pioneered the idea in 2011 of allowing developers to position and size WordPress blocks like Headers, Footers, Content, Navigation, Widgets anywhere on their emerging WordPress page or post. What Padma has done is smooth the block placement interaction and add 25 more blocks to the Design palette so it matches the components or blocks of any of the current leading Theme Builders.
The second Headway innovation was to create a Styling tool that resembles the best current WordPress CSS Styling tools like CSSHero or Microthemer. The Headway Styler allowed users to point and right mouse click on any block/component and then apply from the sidebar eligible styling options. This is the approach adopted by all the popular PageBuilders now become Theme Builders [and a feature desperately needed by the Gutenberg editor]. Again Padma took the Styling Tool and has added many more stylings:
New stylings include animations, filters, nudgings, outlines, transitions, transformations, plus a select set of advanced style options depending on the block selected.
Here is an example of what Padma can do in page design and styling:
As an early Headway user, I have been waiting for the PageBuilders and Gutenberg editor to catch up with the features that Headway delivered 8-10 years ago. So it was a delight to come upon Padma | Unlimited a British firm taking an enhanced free version of Headway fully into the world of WordPress Theme Building. Also consider joining in the free webinar , WordPress Trends: Gutenberg vs PageBuilders, where current Theme Builders are explored in more detail.