A couple of weeks ago Code Poet shared a new Balsamiq template for the WordPress Post Editor. The guys at Modern Tribe created the template file and you can grab it yourself in this post. I decided to take it for a spin myself.
I have used Balsamiq before in the past, so it was easy to get things set up. I didn’t have it installed on my current machine but luckily they have a 7 day trial so I was able to download and try it out.
Once I got Balsamiq up and running, I opened up the template file for the Post Editor. It looked just like the Post Editor that I’m used to using, but only in pencil sketching 🙂
I needed something to test this puppy out, so I decided to recreate what it looks like when I write posts here at WP Daily.
It was really easy to edit the text fields. All I needed to do was double click on the text I wanted to change then type in what I wanted. There is a great HUD (heads up display) when you click on a component.
You can easily edit the styling of the text like the color, alignment, weight, etc…When it came to some of the more advanced components like tabs or radio buttons, there’s quite a few more options.
An example is setting a checkbox or radio button to selected and you can easily edit the list of items in a tabbed component like the WordPress SEO by Yoast one I created.
Not too bad!
It was really easy to create a new meta box. All I had to do was copy one of the existing ones in the template file, paste, then position it. I scrolled through the different components in Balsamiq to find what I was looking for, then just dragged it onto the canvas.
Rinse and repeat for each meta box I wanted. It was seriously that easy.
When would you use it?
I would suggest using this Balsamiq template if you do a lot of work with customizing the Post Editor. If you have a plugin that creates a meta box and you want to get a rough layout before coding it. In Standard Theme, if you choose the Link Post Format, a new meta box appears to allow you to enter in the URL to share.
Maybe you have a plugin that adds buttons to the Tiny MCE toolbar. If you do any work with custom post types or taxonomies, I would see big benefit using this. It would also be a great resource for mocking up your Theme options screens for those of you who create themes.
Have you used this template or Balsamiq itself to create layouts specific to WordPress design?
If so, we would love to hear how you have used it.
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