Articles in Feature Tag — Blog — Smart Slider 3 — WordPress Plugin Extending the world of WordPress and Joomla. Take your website to the next level with our plugins. Download Smart Slider 3 today and get started building beautiful sliders with confidence using our advanced editor. Wed, 03 Jan 2024 14:05:25 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 10 Best WordPress AI Plugins to Try in 2024 https://smartslider3.com/blog/best-wordpress-ai-plugins/ Wed, 03 Jan 2024 08:00:09 +0000 https://smartslider3.com/?post_type=blog&p=56298 We all know that it’s important to keep up with the constantly changing world of web development if you want to have a successful online presence. Luckily, WordPress users have a chance to take advantage of the latest technologies by incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their websites. AI has become a total game-changer in recent […]

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We all know that it’s important to keep up with the constantly changing world of web development if you want to have a successful online presence. Luckily, WordPress users have a chance to take advantage of the latest technologies by incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their websites.

AI has become a total game-changer in recent times, bringing fresh and creative solutions to make tasks easier, enhance user experiences, and boost website performance. In 2024, the integration of AI into WordPress is even more exciting than before. There are a bunch of incredible AI plugins ready to revolutionize the way we create and engage with websites. So let’s take a dive into the world of AI plugins for WordPress in 2024.

📚 Table of contents

🤖 1. AI Engine Plugin
📈 2. Rank Math SEO
🧞‍♂️ 3. GetGenie
🎨 4. Elemenentor AI
🌟 5. Divi AI
⚙️ 6. Uncanny Automator
💻 7. CodeWP AI
💬 8. Tidio Live Chat
📚 9. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP)
🔗 10. Link Whisper
💡 Conclusion

1. AI Engine Plugin

AI Engine Plugin
Download

On our journey through the world of AI-powered WordPress plugins, we can’t miss the AI Engine Plugin. This plugin is causing quite a stir in the WordPress community as it brings the power of artificial intelligence right to your website.

What is the AI Engine Plugin?

Imagine having your own virtual assistant right in your WordPress dashboard. Thanks to the AI Engine Plugin, that’s exactly what you’ll have. This plugin provides a WordPress-focused AI experience that can help you improve and manage your website in countless ways.

To get started, simply get an open AI key and add it to the plugin’s settings. This will enable you to unlock the true power of the plugin.

Key Features and Functionalities

  • Virtual Assistant: The AI Engine Plugin offers a virtual assistant that focuses on tasks specific to WordPress. It’s like having your own personal helper right on your dashboard, ready to answer any questions you may have.
  • Prompts and Templates: It provides a wide range of prompts and templates to assist you in creating AI-optimized and generated content. This means that you can say goodbye to writer’s block.
  • Image Generator: Its image-generating feature is definitely one of its most exciting features. With just a few text prompts you can create stunning images. Once you are happy with the generated image, you can personalize it by adding a catchy title, a captivating caption, a detailed description, and even some alt text. And the cherry on top is that you can instantly add it to your WordPress media gallery or simply download it for offline use.

Pricing:

  • Free version available
  • Paid plans start at $49/year for one website

Don’t worry we’re just scratching the surface with this plugin. Keep reading to discover even more amazing AI tools that will take your website to the next level.

2. Rank Math SEO

Rank Math SEO Plugin
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In our search for the top AI plugins for WordPress in 2024, we stumbled upon the famous Rank Math SEO plugin. This plugin has been a favorite among SEO enthusiasts for quite some time, but now it’s made it to our list thanks to its impressive new AI capabilities. These features are designed to give you even more control over the on-page SEO of your website.

What is the Rank Math SEO Plugin?

Rank Math SEO is well-known for being a great SEO plugin. But what sets it apart from other WordPress AI plugins is its incorporation of cutting-edge AI features that are designed to make your on-page SEO even more efficient.

Key Features and Functionalities

  • Content AI Integration: After you’ve got the Rank Math SEO up and running, it’s time to explore its powerful Content AI. With this awesome feature, you can easily boost your content‘s SEO elements, like headings, links, and overall optimize for SEO, by just asking its Content AI to generate it.
  • SEO Keywords: Its Content AI is a great tool to add SEO keywords to your pages and optimize your content for search engines. You’ll get a detailed analysis of your page’s content. This analysis will help you identify areas for improvement and boost your page’s search engine ranking.
  • Providing Insights: Rank Math SEO’s AI capabilities are not limited to analyzing your content alone. It can also help you analyze your competition by providing valuable insights like CPC and search volume data for your chosen keyword. With this information, you can make better decisions about your content strategy and stay ahead of the competition.
  • Content Optimization Recommendations: It has a bunch of SEO suggestions as well, that can help you improve your content’s visibility on search engines. It recommends extra keywords, while also improving headings, word count, and more, all to boost the overall quality of your content.
  • Link Suggestions: It makes sure that your content has reliable sources and boosts its credibility and relevance.

Pricing:

  • Free version available
  • Paid plans start at $59/year for unlimited websites

3. GetGenie

GetGenie AI Plugin
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GetGenie is an exceptional writing companion that we discovered during our exploration of WordPress AI plugins. It isn’t just any ordinary writing tool, it’s an AI assistant that’s been carefully created to take your content writing skills to the next level.

What is the GetGenie Plugin?

This AI assistant is designed to help content creators in producing high-quality, unique blog posts quickly. It’s got you covered whether you’re a beginner or an advanced writer.

Key Features and Functionalities

  • Templates: GetGenie offers a wide range of templates to choose from, with more than 30 options available. These templates are designed to fit different content frameworks, providing you with guidance. By using these templates, you can ensure that your content follows these proven structures and have maximum impact.
  • On-page SEO Scores: It gives you live on-page SEO scores, giving you immediate feedback on how well your content is optimized for search engines.
    Genie Mode: With it, you can effortlessly create content by using prompts and get detailed responses in return. It can be a game-changer for anyone looking to create content quickly and effectively.
  • GenieChat: GetGenie takes it a step further with the introduction of “GenieChat”. It’s a chatting platform that allows you to have human-like conversations with 22 unique personalities. This not only adds a personal touch to your content creation but also opens up exciting opportunities for interaction.
  • Competitor Data Analysis: GetGenie goes beyond content creation by providing competitor data analysis. Which means that it shows you valuable insight to stay ahead in your niche.
  • Generate Ideas: Looking for some inspiration as a blogger? GetGenie is the perfect tool to generate ideas and ignite your creativity. It’s designed to help you uncover new and exciting topics to write about.
  • Multilingual Content: Easily create content in various languages and broaden your audience.

Pricing:

  • Free version available
  • Paid plans start at $19/month for unlimited websites

4. Elemenentor AI

Elementor AI Plugin
Download

Going further on this journey of exploring the top WordPress AI plugins, we’ve come across the game-changing Elelementor AI. This AI solution is seamlessly integrated into the popular Elementor page and website builder plugin.

What is the Elementor AI Plugin?

Elementor is one of the best page and website builders for WordPress. And now with the addition of Elementor AI, it’s taking a huge step into the future of website creation. Its main focus is on transforming website creation, optimization, and design processes.
Let’s explore the amazing features that make Elementor AI a must-have for Elementor users.

Key Features and Functionalities

  • Custom Code Snippets: With Elementor AI, you can easily create custom HTML and CSS code snippets without any coding skills. This feature allows you to enhance and personalize your Elementor website effortlessly, even if you are not a coding expert.
  • Content Creation and Optimization: Elementor AI is the perfect writing assistant for all your content creation and optimization needs. Whether you are creating new content or rewriting existing text within the Elementor page builder, you can easily shorten, extend, or check the grammar or spelling of it. With Elementor AI you can do all this within the familiar interface of the Elementor plugin.
  • Multilingual: Elementor AI is a game-changer when it comes to language diversity. With its amazing multilingual capabilities, it effortlessly translates text into more than 20 languages in real time.
  • Module-Specific Prompts: These prompts adapt to the specific Elementor module you are using. So if you are working with a heading module, the prompts will be different compared to when you are using a text block module. This personalized help from its AI helps you create impactful content for each module, which ultimately assists you in improving your website1s overall impact.

Pricing:

  • Free trial available
  • Paid plans start at $35.88/year for unlimited websites

5. Divi AI

Divi AI Plugin
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Divi AI completely changes the game when it comes to creating websites on WordPress. It’s not just a helpful tool, it completely reinvents how websites are imagined and brought into existence.

What is the Divi AI Plugin?

Divi AI takes your web design experience to the next level by seamlessly integrating with Divi, a popular WordPress theme and page builder while adding the power of artificial intelligence to the mix.

Key Features and Functionalities

  • Content Writing Tool: It has launched an impressive content-writing tool, that allows users to create website content with ease. With just one click, you can generate text content for your website, whether you are starting from scratch or improving existing content. Divi AI offers prompts and suggestions to make our workflow smoother.
  • Image Generation: Divi AI offers image generation features, letting users create stunning visuals for their websites with ease. With built-in style prompts, the generated images are guaranteed to match the desired aesthetic.
  • Analyzes Website: It learns from your website, by analyzing the information available on your website and pages. This way it can produce highly accurate and relevant results.

Pricing:

  • Free trial available
  • Paid plans start at $24/month ($18/month if paid yearly)

6. Uncanny Automator

Uncanny Automator Plugin
Download

Let’s explore the world of automation with the remarkable Uncanny Automator, as we continue our search for the top WordPress AI plugins. This plugin is like Zapier for WordPress, allowing you to automate a wide range of tasks by connecting your WordPress site, plugins, and apps. And now with the integration of artificial intelligence, it’s even more powerful than ever before.

What is the Uncanny Automator Plugin?

Uncanny Automator is a powerful automation tool that makes it easy for your WordPress site, plugins, and third-party services to communicate seamlessly. It ensures that all the different parts of your WordPress setup work together smoothly.

Key Features and Functionalities

  • Extensive Plugin Integrations: It’s the ultimate connector for your WordPress ecosystem, with support for more than 100 plugins and third-party services. It acts as a universal translator, allowing smooth communication between various tools.
  • No-Code Visual Builder: It’s one of its most outstanding features. With its user-friendly interface, creating recipes and automating tasks has never been easier. You can integrate AI into your WordPress workflow without any complex coding, thanks to the simple drag-and-drop feature.
  • Dealy and Scheduling Automation: It brings in a touch of flexibility. With this feature, you can ensure that tasks are carried out at the perfect time, enabling you to enhance the efficiency of managing your website.
  • Dynamic Content: You can make use of dynamic content from different sources such as user-generated data and other generated content. This guarantees that your website’s automation process can easily adapt to the changing needs of your website.
  • OpenAI Integration: Uncanny Automator made a huge step in integrating with OpenAI, which allows you to bring its incredible capabilities to your WordPress site. With the help of recipes, you can effortlessly integrate AI into different parts of your website management.

Pricing:

  • Free version available
  • Paid plans start at $199/year

7. CodeWP AI

CodeWP AI Plugin
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We have arrived at a special place for WordPress developers. CodeWP AI is specifically designed for those who navigate the coding realm of WordPress.

What is the CodeWP AI Plugin?

This coding assistant is a powerful accessory that provides assistance with PHP and JS, making code creation easier and solving complex tasks that could otherwise take up hours of your time.

Key Features and Functionalities

  • Dozens of AI Modes: It goes beyond generic assistance and caters to the specific needs of WordPress developers. With dozens of finely tuned AI modes, the plugin is designed to provide accurate and high-quality code snippets. Whether you are using specific plugins, page builders, or products, CodeWP AI has got you covered with its wide range of AI modes.
  • Compatible with Page Builders: CodeWP AI is built to be compatible with all the major plugins and page builders.
  • Tutorials: Looking for guidance? CodeWp AI has a wide range of expertly crafted tutorials made just for you.
  • Example Snippets: It comes with a wide range of example snippets, which gives you tested and proven code snippets to easily integrate into your projects.
  • General Functions: It provides you with various general functions that can be applied in different scenarios. Additionally, it offers specialized AI modes that are specifically designed for specific tasks. This means that whether you’re dealing with a common challenge or a specialized task, CodeWP AI’s got your back.
  • Designed for WordPress Users: CodeWP AI is not your average coding assistant. It’s tailored to meet the needs of WordPress users, making it a smart and effective tool for those who use WordPress on a regular basis.

Pricing:

  • Free version available
  • Paid plans start at $96/year

8. Tidio Live Chat

Tidio Live Chat Plugin
Download

Tidio live chat is a game-changer in the world of WordPress communication solutions. It’s an all-in-one tool that revolutionizes customer service and boosts sales. It goes beyond being a simple chat plugin, it brings a new era to your website’s customer service.

What is the Tidio Live Chat Plugin?

It offers various communication channels and makes use of chatbots. Let’s explore its standout features that make it a force to be reckoned with.

Key Features and Functionalities

  • Everything in One Place: It makes communication a breeze by bringing all channels together in one easy-to-use dashboard. Whether it’s live chat, email, or messaging apps, Tidio guarantees seamless management of all your needs.
  • Templates: Its chatbot templates are the perfect way to boost user engagement. You can find a variety of options from cart-saving prompts to personalized interactions with returning customers. These templates are designed to take your customers’ experience to the next level.
  • Drag-and-Drop Editor: Its chatbot editor lets you customize chatbots effortlessly. It has an intuitive interface where you can easily modify the existing templates or create chatbots from scratch.
  • Natural Language Processing (NLP): Its chatbots are equipped with NLP technology that allows them to recognize commonly used words and answer basic customer questions. This feature ensures it’s delivering fast and accurate responses.

Pricing:

  • Free version available
  • Paid plans start at $29/month

9. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP)

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP)
Download

YARPP, also known as Yet Another Related Posts Plugin, is a must-have tool for WordPress website owners who want to boost their engagement and extend the reach of their content. With YARPP, you can increase page views and create a more captivating browsing experience for your visitors.

What is the YARPP?

This amazing WordPress plugin showcases visitors with related posts, pages, and custom post types. It uses advanced algorithms to connect them to content all over your website.

Key Features and Functionalities

  • Advanced Algorithms: YARPP uses advanced algorithms that guarantee that users are presented with posts, pages, and custom post types that are relevant to your initial entries. This watching enhances the users’ experience by making it more personalized and captivating.
  • Built-In Caching: It boosts performance by including its own catching system. This optimization guarantees that relevant posts are quickly delivered, resulting in a smooth browsing experience for your readers.
  • Placement Options: With YARPP, you have the freedom to choose from a variety of placement options for displaying your related content.
  • Templates: It makes it easy to showcase related content with its pre-built templates. These can effortlessly display your posts in a visually appealing way, adding a touch of style to your website.
  • Language Compatibility: YARPP is built to be language-friendly, allowing it to work seamlessly with websites in different languages. This way everyone around the world can enjoy the advantages of these related posts.
  • Customizable: YARPP provides customization options, which makes it easy for website owners to personalize the look and positions of their related posts. This allows them to match it to their site’s design and enhance the overall user experience.
  • Free Access to Essential Features: It offers free access to all essential features, making it an affordable and effective solution for anyone looking to make use of related content without extra expenses.

Pricing:

  • Free

Link Whisper Plugin
Download

Link Whisperer is truly a game-changer in the world of website optimization. It offers a simple and user-friendly solution to the problem of creating impactful internal links in your content.

What is the Internal Linking Plugin?

The proper positioning of internal links is not just to keep users engaged, but it also has a huge impact on improving SEO rankings. Link Whisper’s AI-driven plugin competently transforms this procedure by effortlessly going through your content and suggesting relevant links.

Key Features and Functionalities

  • Link Suggestions: Link Whisper’s advanced AI features simplify internal linking by analyzing website content and providing relevant posts and link suggestions. This gets rid of the need for manual link creation, saving us valuable time and improving our internal linking strategy.
  • Link Reporting: Besides suggestions, it lets you know about broken links and 404 errors, contributing to overall site health.
  • Customize Recommendations: Users can customize link recommendations by selecting the keywords they find relevant. This gives full control over how internal links match with each content piece.
  • User-Friendly Interface: Their platform is created with the goal of catering to website owners of all technical backgrounds, so everyone can benefit from their services.

Pricing:

  • Free version available
  • Paid plans start at $77/year for one site

Conclusion

As we come to the end of our exploration of AI plugins for WordPress it’s clear that the future of web development is here, and it’s smarter, more efficient, and more exciting than ever.

We’ve explored a wide range of plugins, each with its own special touch. From plugins that use AI to create content and generate images, to those that combat spam and provide helpful suggestions for internal links, these plugins are overlooked champions of the WordPress world.

If you’re an experienced developer exploring coding with CodeWP or just a casual user looking for a friendly chatbot companion with Tidio live Chat, there’s an AI plugin designed for everyone. These plugins go beyond mere functionality, they enhance your WordPress experience and make it truly remarkable.

These plugins are more than just extras, they are the secret ingredient that can elevate your website from average to exceptional.

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Everything You Need to Know about the Parallax Effect https://smartslider3.com/blog/parallax-effect/ Fri, 19 Aug 2022 06:10:11 +0000 https://smartslider3.com/?post_type=blog&p=17662 Browsers and web development techniques are improving. This makes it possible to show amazing effects on your website. One of these happens to have been the biggest trend of web design in the past years: the parallax effect. Many popular websites choose this spectacular effect to wow their visitors. But what’s all the hype about […]

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Browsers and web development techniques are improving. This makes it possible to show amazing effects on your website. One of these happens to have been the biggest trend of web design in the past years: the parallax effect. Many popular websites choose this spectacular effect to wow their visitors. But what’s all the hype about parallax effect?

Well, people like it because it’s based on a very simple idea and it works on any page. The parallax effect activates when you start scrolling the page content. It makes the background move at a different speed than the foreground content. Typically, people use it on images, which they place between sections that have a solid background color. The parallax is on the background image, which stays still or moves barely. Meanwhile, he section above uncovers, and the one below covers it.

How does the parallax effect work?

The parallax effect creates the illusion of depth when the page moves. So the visitor needs to scroll to see the action. It creates a great user experience, because there are no sudden movements. The visitor of the page is in control of the whole effect. But what makes the illusion? The part of the site which is farthest from the user moves at the slowest speed. It’s almost like when you’re in a car and look out of the window. The guard rail seems to move fast next to you, but the trees in the distance move much slower.

Although the parallax effect is a background scrolling effect, it doesn’t need to move the image at all. In fact, it looks as spectacular whether the background image moves or not. Additionally, you can take advantage of this modern effect in several use cases. For instance, you can add parallax scrolling effect to your landing, sales or homepage, or any page.

Parallax slider effects in Smart Slider 3

Smart Slider 3 offers many ways to use a parallax effect on your website. The most common usage is the background parallax. This way, there’s an image in the background that creates the illusion of depth. Smart Slider 3 offers much more possibilities than the “standard” parallax. You can use the effect on layers, where the visitor can trigger them by scrolling or moving the mouse. There are other parallax effects which Smart Slider 3 offers, so let’s check them out!

1. Background parallax

The background parallax is the most popular usage of the effect. This usage respects the original idea, so when the visitor scrolls down on the page, they can see the effect. Usually there is a background image on the website with parallax. Web designers like to put a single colored section around the parallax, one above and one below. As a result, the illusion makes it look as if the static section revealed then covered the image. The best part is that this effect works on mobile phones and tablets as well.

2. Slide switching parallax

The scroll parallax slider looks great, but it can’t work in cases when the page has nothing but a slider. Luckily, the slide switching parallax only needs at least two images in your slider. You can then enable the parallax switching animation at the Background animation. The Background animation contains a bunch of cool slide switching effects, and being able to create a parallax-like movement adds a nice touch to it.

You can also give this effect a try, if you’re tired of the common slide animation. After all, plain sliding slides are everywhere and getting kind of boring. Why not spice things up a little bit?

3. Layer parallax

In the era of modern web technologies, it’s not enough to show a couple of static images to the visitor. You need to amaze them and make them want to explore your site, otherwise, they can leave fast. You need them to want to see what kind of visual surprises it has as fast as possible. Showing a simple image slider might not create a memorable encounter. But a parallax effect where the layers move as the visitor scrolls will achieve this goal.

You can add any kind of content to your slider using Smart Slider 3’s layers. You can add nice captions, social icons, call to action buttons and images. It’s better to let the most important content catch the visitor’s attention, and not its background. To help you stand out of the crowd, we made the parallax effect available for every layer. This makes your website (and parallax slider) unique. And your visitors will love the results!

4. Mouse parallax

In most cases, you’ll see the scrolling parallax effect on websites. But that’s not the only way to use it. In fact, you can have a parallax effect based on the cursor movement. It’s called the mouse parallax effect, and it uses the mouse cursor position on the slider area. It creates the illusion of depth for the layers visible on the current slide. For example, your cursor enters the slider and the layers start to move away or approach to the cursor. It depends on your choice, so you can create something nice.

All in all, this is a remarkable visual effect yet few sites use it. The interaction makes it fun to play with how the objects change their positions. This is an effect which all visitors are going to love.

5. 3D layer parallax

The parallax effect lets you create outstanding effects on your site. Layer parallax is a spectacular animation you can enhance your slider with. While it’s already enough to give an outstanding effect, you can take it to the next level. Smart Slider 3 allows you to add a 3D parallax effect to your layers. The 3D parallax slider effect adds the true feeling of depth to your layers. The layers move not just vertically and horizontally, but in their 3rd dimension as well.

How to add the parallax effect on your website?

Unless you have coding knowledge, the easiest way to use the parallax effect is through a plugin. There are many WordPress plugins offering the functionality to use the parallax effect. They offer some features which help you create a beautiful parallax effect on your site. One of the most notable plugins is Smart Slider 3, which is a favored slider plugin.

I know what you’re thinking: I want to create a parallax effect, not a slider! No problem. Smart Slider 3 is a plugin, which you can use not only to create sliders, but animated blocks as well. Using blocks, you can take advantage of many great Smart Slider 3 effects. This way you don’t have to create a slider, but rather a page section. Sounds great, right?

Available slider types in Smart Slider 3: Simple, Block, Carousel and Showcase
Available slider types in Smart Slider 3: Simple, Block, Carousel and Showcase

Using Smart Slider 3 Pro to create parallax websites

The parallax effect is the best way to enhance a section of a website. This usually meant adding it to a single background image. As the effect got more popular, web designers started using it more widely. They created video parallax sections to please their visitors. Then as the idea of parallax spread more, people started adding it to sliders as well. Smart Slider 3’s parallax is rock solid and it works well in all browsers, whether you use it as a block or as a slider.

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]]> How to Add an Instagram Slider for your WordPress Site? https://smartslider3.com/blog/instagram-slider-wordpress/ Thu, 03 Mar 2022 07:20:43 +0000 https://smartslider3.com/?post_type=blog&p=44835 Instagram is one of today’s most popular social media platforms. It went down a very similar path to WordPress. WordPress started as a blogging platform, but it soon became the most popular CMS. In fact, at the moment of writing WordPress powers more than 40% of the web. Instagram started as a personal photo journal […]

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Instagram is one of today’s most popular social media platforms. It went down a very similar path to WordPress. WordPress started as a blogging platform, but it soon became the most popular CMS. In fact, at the moment of writing WordPress powers more than 40% of the web. Instagram started as a personal photo journal but it has become more and more popular. Actually, it has turned into a platform that helps anyone grow visibility at a rapid rate. Thus, it makes sense that you want to create an Instagram slider to display your Instagram posts on your site.

Why do you need an Instagram slider?

Instagram is the best social platform to grow brand awareness. So, the more you post on Instagram the more chances you have to reach new people. Since you post many awesome things to Instagram, you might want to bring these posts to your website as well. As you can post images and videos to Instagram, it makes a lot of sense to display its post in the form of a slider. In fact, a slider is the best tool to display many photos or videos in a captivating manner on a website.

The new way to build a Slider
Next generation visual editor, customizable animations & effects, and access to hundreads of premade templates.
Get Started
Smart Slider 3 - The new way to build a Slider

Social media presence can help you build trust in your visitors. Being active in social media tells people you’re a real person and they should do business with you. In other words, when a visitor sees your Instagram posts on your website, they’ll look at your profile. They’ll see your posts and know you take your business seriously. So, a slider from your Instagram images and videos can get you more sales!

How to create an Instagram slider in WordPress?

The simplest way of creating an Instagram slider in WordPress is to install a plugin to help you. But there are many plugins available to help you create a nice slider from your Instagram posts. Unfortunately, lots of these plugins limit you in some way. For example, they let you create sliders with a limited number of layouts. If you don’t want any limitations, give Smart Slider Pro a try!

So, how do you get an Instagram slider up and running on your site? Follow these simple steps:

  1. Install Smart Slider Pro
  2. Create a new slider project
  3. Click on Add new, choose Dynamic Slide and find Instagram
  4. Set up your Instagram app and request a new token
  5. Choose the content your slider should display
  6. Create your beautiful slides based on your Instagram content

Need more detailed instructions? Check the dedicated documentation on how to set up the Instagram generator.

Why should you use Smart Slider to create an Instagram slider?

Smart Slider is the most popular responsive slider for WordPress. The Instagram slider generator has finally arrived at Smart Slider! From now on you can create beautiful sliders from your Instagram posts. In fact, Smart Slider does not limit you to predefined layouts to create your slider. So, you can create simple image or video slides. But you can also add the date, time and caption of the post in the layout you want. Actually, all sliders you create from your Instagram posts can look completely different. How cool is that?

To learn more about creating an Instagram slider in Smart Slider, be sure you watch our detailed tutorial video below.

Inspiring Instagram Slider templates

Every time we release a new feature to Smart Slider, we add inspiring new templates. These templates help us to showcase the new feature. Additionally, they’re very helpful to inspire you to create something awesome. To show the power of the Instagram generator, we created not one, but two new slider templates.

Instagram Slider

The Instagram Slider template helps your visitors focus on one single post at a time. So, they can view the image you posted to Instagram in a large size. Next to the image you can find the post’s description, partly covering the image.

Instagram Slider template

Instagram Carousel

The Instagram Carousel displays your posts in a more traditional manner. Instead of displaying one slide at a time, the visitors can see more slides next to each other. A carousel like this allows the visitors to quickly browse the slides to check your images.

Instagram Carousel template

How to use a template slider in your generator?

Smart Slider comes with a great number of gorgeous slider templates. These templates don’t use any dynamic slides, so all users can import and use them on their site. This might raise the question: how to make the template slider use dynamic slides? It’s pretty simple, you just need to follow the steps below:

  1. Import the template you want to use
  2. Go to one of the slides and copy it
  3. Create a slide using the Instagram generator
  4. Paste the slide you copied before
  5. Replace the copied content with the Instagram generator’s variables
  6. Remove the slides from the template

Be sure to check out the documentation article for detailed instructions.

Conclusion

The Instagram generator is an awesome addition to Smart Slider. Instagram is one of the biggest social media platforms. As a result, it’s one of the best tools to raise brand awareness. Now that you can bring your photos and videos from Instagram to your website, you can use the power of Instagram to build trust. And building trust is one of the most important factors of creating a successful website.

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]]> New Dashboard Has Arrived https://smartslider3.com/blog/new-dashboard/ Tue, 08 Feb 2022 07:00:04 +0000 https://smartslider3.com/?post_type=blog&p=44841 Smart Slider helps you create beautiful and responsive sliders, carousels, blocks and pages for your website. Because of this, we’re sure you’ve created lots of projects, and will create many in the future. However, after a while it can become difficult to find the particular project you need. Additionally, due to the number of sliders, […]

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Smart Slider helps you create beautiful and responsive sliders, carousels, blocks and pages for your website. Because of this, we’re sure you’ve created lots of projects, and will create many in the future. However, after a while it can become difficult to find the particular project you need. Additionally, due to the number of sliders, the dashboard might take a while to load. The latest Smart Slider update is here to solve this problem. Say hello to the amazing dashboard pagination and search features!

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Smart Slider 3 - The new way to build a Slider

Comparing the changes

We have made many adjustments to the dashboard, some smaller and some bigger ones. Here’s a screenshot that shows the previous dashboard (left) and the new one (right). It’ll make it easier for you to visualize what has changed.

New dasbhoard with the search and pagination (left) and old dashboard (right)
New dasbhoard with the search and pagination (left) and old dashboard (right)

There are many things to see here, so let me help you highlight the most important things you should be looking for. First, we have moved every button, the Order by, Create Group and View Trash, to the top left side of the dashboard. Additionally, they all got a cool new icon to visualize their purpose. Staying at the top part, there’s a search field on the right-hand side. This is where you could find the View Trash button before.

If you look under the list of sliders, you can see a new row. They’re related to the pagination and help you navigate better in the dashboard. First, you can see a status indicator on the left side. It shows which sliders and groups you see and how many sliders you have in total. In the middle you can find the actual pagination. This is where you can see which page you are on or navigate to some other pages. Finally, the last new thing is the filter option. This is where you can select how many sliders you want to see on a single page.

What do you need to know about the new pagination?

We have created the paginator with two things in mind. First, to improve the user experience by making the dashboard easier to see through. Second, to make the dashboard load faster, as it will only load a limited number of slides. After all, if you have a hundred slides, it’s a lot faster to load only the first 10 or 25 of them. Not only does the paginator make the dashboard load faster, but it will also make it more organized.

Changes in Manual ordering

If you select the Manual order option, you can drag’n’drop any slider to a new place. For example, you can move the sliders you edit the most frequently to the first couple of places. However, if you use pagination you can only order your sliders on the current view.

To be able to move a slider to a different view you’ll need to select the Show all filter first. Then you can drag’n’drop your slider anywhere while all sliders are visible. Finally, change the filter back to the value you prefer. The slider you moved will be in the correct place now.

What do you need to know about the Search feature?

Being able to search for a specific slider was a frequently requested feature. In fact, it was one of the features we wanted to use the most on our website as well. Since we have more than 180 sliders and groups on the dashboard, it’s tough to find a specific slider. The high number of sliders can make it difficult to find any slider. So, we wanted to create a search feature for a long time now.

Search feature in action
Search feature in action

Using the new search feature you can quickly find any slider you have created. It doesn’t matter whether the slider is somewhere in your dashboard or hidden in a group. To search for a slider, simply type its name into the search field. Additionally, you can search for slider IDs as well.

New Shape Dividers are available

Apart from the amazing new dashboard features, we have also added a couple of new effects. Shape Dividers are modern design elements that help create a cool transition between sections. We felt it’s time to add a couple of more modern looking shapes, so we have added 6 totally new shapes. You can add all shapes to both the top and bottom of your slides.

New Shape Divider shapes
New Shape Divider shapes

Conclusion

The new search and pagination features seem like small changes. But they are super useful and will significantly improve the user experience. The search option will make it easier to find sliders wherever they’re hiding from you. The pagination will make the dashboard load faster and look a lot more organized. Additionally, the new Shape Dividers help you give your sliders a modern touch.

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]]> Introducing Countdown Layer https://smartslider3.com/blog/introducing-countdown-layer/ Tue, 07 Dec 2021 08:31:15 +0000 https://smartslider3.com/?post_type=blog&p=43581 Smart Slider is a plugin you can use to create beautiful and responsive sliders. Additionally, it’s full of stunning features to enrich your site with. Furthermore, features help you create a memorable experience for your visitors. Today we’re proud to announce that a new layer has arrived in Smart Slider Pro. This effect opens up […]

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Smart Slider is a plugin you can use to create beautiful and responsive sliders. Additionally, it’s full of stunning features to enrich your site with. Furthermore, features help you create a memorable experience for your visitors. Today we’re proud to announce that a new layer has arrived in Smart Slider Pro. This effect opens up more possibilities for you to use Smart Slider on your site. From now on you can create cool countdown timers using the brand-new Countdown Layer.

What’s a countdown timer?

A countdown timer is a visual timer that counts down to a specific date. It’s a popular way to count down to something you’re looking for. For example, you can use it on your maintenance page to tell the early visitors when your site opens. Another favored way to use countdowns is to get ready for an upcoming sale. Similarly, you can use a countdown even if you are already running a sale. Using a countdown you can let your buyers know how much time they’ve got until the sale is over. As a result, you can urge them to buy your products or services.

The Countdown layer has arrived!

The Countdown layer has arrived at Smart Slider Pro in version 3.5.1.2. After updating, you can add a countdown to any slide. This layer is a great way to create a visual timer that you can add to your slider. To create a new countdown layer, simply open up the layer list and find the countdown layer under Special.

New template sliders

Every new Smart Slider feature comes with gorgeous example sliders. There’s no difference with the Countdown layer either. To show the strength of the new layer and to inspire you, we’ve created not one, but 3 slider templates. Let’s take a quick look at them.

Bonsai template
Bonsai template

Bonsai

The Bonsai template is a slider that counts down to new product arrival. It features a CTA button to learn more about the products until they’re available.

Dance festival template
Dance festival template

Dance Festival

The Dance Festival template is a spectacular way to count down to the start of the festival. The background video fills the template with life, the layer animations amaze the visitors and the countdown gives the final touch.

Coming soon template
Coming soon template

Coming Soon

The Coming Soon template helps you create an announcement that you’re working on your site and it will be ready soon. It helps raise excitement and create a memorable experience.

Looking to jump into slider design but don’t know where to start? The How to Build video series is a great first step. These videos cover the basics of slider building: slider settings, controls, layers, layout, and responsive settings.

Conclusion

Smart Slider is full of amazing effects you can use on your site. Recently we have added the Morph and Distortion animations and the Before After layer. In the 3.5.1.2 version we added the Countdown layer for our Pro users. This layer is a great addition to the tons of cool things you can do with Smart Slider. In fact, it opens up many doors to create things that were not possible before. What’s the first countdown you’ll create?

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New Template Page https://smartslider3.com/blog/new-slider-templates-page/ Mon, 08 Nov 2021 05:00:09 +0000 https://smartslider3.com/?post_type=blog&p=43091 Smart Slider has always been known for its huge library of ready-to-use slider templates. Not only do these templates look great, but they also give you a head start when you create new sliders. Additionally, they help to show the powerful features of Smart Slider. or this reason, we have a special page on our […]

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Smart Slider has always been known for its huge library of ready-to-use slider templates. Not only do these templates look great, but they also give you a head start when you create new sliders. Additionally, they help to show the powerful features of Smart Slider. or this reason, we have a special page on our site where you can see all these sliders. A few days ago we made huge improvements to this template page. In this article I want to show you the most important changes.

New, more modern template page

Most important changes

The template page got a new and fresh design, which looks clean and more modern. Just looking at the new page it’s obvious what a huge improvement it is. Additionally, it’s a lot lighter and fits into the design of our website more.

Old template page (left) and new template page (right)

There are some aspects of the new template page that are worth looking into. So, let’s take a look at the most important changes!

New Design

Looking at the new template page the first new thing you’ll see is the design. The thumbnails are a lot bigger, which makes it easier to get a glimpse of the slider behind them. Also, the slider titles are immediately visible now. Before this, they only showed up when you hovered over the thumbnail image. Additionally, the slider thumbnails look a lot closer to Smart Slider’s own Dashboard.

Better category list

Another crucial improvement was to re-imagine the category list. Every slider template has their own categories that describe their most important aspects. For example, the Fullwidth Slider is in the following categories: Full Width, Layer Parallax or Highlighted heading.

New Category List

From now on we display the most important categories on the left side of the template list. These categories let you browse sliders by their type, layout or price. For example, the type category lets you browse sliders by their overall look. You can browse between simple sliders, blocks, showcases, carousels or pages. At the layout you can choose whether you want to see full width, full page or boxed sliders. Additionally, each category displays how many sliders you can find in them. Very cool new feature, right?

Search

Smart Slider has tons of templates. At the time of writing, a total of 133 sliders are available and it can be hard to find the perfect slider for your needs. We know this feeling and were keen to make the process of choosing the slider easier for you. As a result, we created a smart search to make your lives easier.

Search for the slider you'd like to use

Need to find a slider? Simply type in what you’re looking for and flip through the results. Didn’t get the result you were looking for? Feel free to let us know so we can improve the search system.

New import page

Another change worth noting is a UX improvement. If you used the old UI, you probably remember how the import process worked. You had to hover on the thumbnail of the slide you wanted to import and click on the button. Clicking anywhere else on the thumbnail did open the slider in a new browser tab. But this action was not obvious at all, and many people could miss it.

We decided to make this a bit more user friendly as well. From now on if you hover on the slide thumbnail for import, it will display two buttons. First you’ll see an eye icon to view the template. Second, you’ll see the actual import button. It’s a lot more user friendly and we hope it will help you choose the perfect slider for your site.

Conclusion

Smart Slider has always had an incredible amount of slider templates to choose from. They help you create good looking sliders fast, as they let you change anything on the templates, including texts and images. We’ve always kept the list of the slider templates curated and added many new sliders over the time. For example, when we added a new feature, such as the recent Before After layer.

In the future we’ll keep adding new and new sliders for you to use. So it was a good time to improve the template page to help you find all the amazing templates. Got a new template idea for us to add? Drop us a line!

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]]> Introducing Before After Layer https://smartslider3.com/blog/before-after-slider/ Tue, 26 Oct 2021 06:24:51 +0000 https://smartslider3.com/?post_type=blog&p=42837 We know how tough it is to stand out from the crowd. For this reason, it’s our goal to always add new, stunning features to Smart Slider. These new additions can help you create amazing sliders with spectacular effects. Recently we have brought you the Morph and Distortion animations. Today we’re excited to announce another […]

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We know how tough it is to stand out from the crowd. For this reason, it’s our goal to always add new, stunning features to Smart Slider. These new additions can help you create amazing sliders with spectacular effects. Recently we have brought you the Morph and Distortion animations. Today we’re excited to announce another new feature. Starting from 3.5.1.1 you can create a Before After slider with Smart Slider Pro.

What is the Before After layer?

The Before After layer is a simple and effective way to show two images in the sample place. Think of it like having the two images below one another. You can select which one you want to see by dragging a line shaped separator tool on top of the pictures. The first image displays completely when the separator is at the right side. Similarly, the second image displays when the separator is at the left side.

What’s the purpose of the Before After slider?

The before after slider is the perfect tool to create a visual comparison. For this reason, there are many cases when you can use this effect. A photographer can use a before and after slider to display their skills. For example, they can show how well they have colored a black and white photo.

Another typical use case is to show off two stages of a transformation. For instance, when someone changes their hairstyle they can use a before and after photo to show it. Another use case is to demonstrate the results of a new diet or workout routine.

The Before after layer has arrived at Smart Slider!

We’re excited to announce the release of the stunning Before After layer! With the 3.5.1.1 update, the new Before After layer is available for the Pro users. This layer allows you to create gorgeous before and after image sliders. Simply add a new Before After layer, select your images and your effect is ready. It’s important to note that you can create a Before After slider using a layer. The Before After images were meant to be part of the content, so they can’t be the backgrounds of a slide. As a result, the Before After layer works with all slider types.

Why should you use a Before After slider? Well, it’s super versatile, so you can use it to achieve many things. You can, obviously, display two images to compare them. You can also add labels to each image and a caption to describe what the layer is about. Additionally, you can choose whether you want a horizontal or vertical comparison.

Before After slider examples

Every new Smart Slider feature comes with inspiring example sliders. There’s no difference with the Before after layer either. To show the strength of the new effects and to inspire you, we’ve created not one, but 4 slider templates. Let’s see a quick overview about them.

Product Compare

Product Compare template
Product Compare template

Although it’s called Before after slider, you can use it for much more than just to show before and after images. In fact, you can use it for product comparison as well. For example, if you sell clothing you can use a Before After layer to show two color variations of the same product.

Diet Block

Diet Block template
Diet Block template

A Before After slider is perfect to display transformation. One of the most typical cases of such transformation is to show the results of a new diet or workout routine. Using the Before After layer you can easily show such transformations on your site.

Photo Compare

Photo Cpmpare template
Photo Cpmpare template

The Photo Compare template is a great way for a photographer to allow visitors to compare the pictures they took. At this template we used monochrome and colored images, but you can use anything else you’d like. For example, compare shots you took at different times of a day, like a sunset or sundown photo.

Renovation

Renovation template
Renovation template

The Renovation slider is a bit closer to the traditional way people think of the Before After slider. It displays two stages of the renovation. The starting stage, before the renovation happened, and the finished result.

Conclusion

Not a long time has passed since we brought you the Morph and Distortion animations. Now we have brought you another amazing feature, the Before After layer. It’s another great addition to Smart Slider Pro. You can use it to create stunning sliders you could never create before. When will you start creating Before After sliders?

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Introducing Morph and Distortion Animations https://smartslider3.com/blog/introducing-morph-and-distortion-animations/ Thu, 07 Oct 2021 06:00:41 +0000 https://smartslider3.com/?post_type=blog&p=42353 It’s never easy to create an amazing website that stands out from the crowd. You need eye-catching, user friendly design and some modern effects. The latest update of Smart Slider Pro is here to bring you some cool stuff. This time we’ve brought you two new groups of Background Animations. They’re called Morph and Distortion, […]

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It’s never easy to create an amazing website that stands out from the crowd. You need eye-catching, user friendly design and some modern effects. The latest update of Smart Slider Pro is here to bring you some cool stuff. This time we’ve brought you two new groups of Background Animations. They’re called Morph and Distortion, and they give you a total of 12 new effects to use on your sliders. Let’s explore these new features together!

What’s a background animation?

Before we check the new effects, first let’s learn what a background animation is. The background animation is the kind of effect that you see when one image changes to another. This happens when you switch slides either by a control (such as an arrow) or using autoplay.

It’s worth noting that some background animations are not noticeable on background colors. It’s due to the way the animations work: they manipulate the background in a way that it’s hard to spot it on a solid color. The new Morph and Distortion animations are great examples of this. So, make sure you use them on images only.

What are Morph animations?

Morph animations magically transit one background image into another in an unconventional way. The transition is mind-blowing but very smooth, so it’s perfectly suitable for any modern websites.

What are Distortion animations?

Distortion animations are liquid-like transitions between images. You can create stunning glitch transitions made with WebGL to catch your visitors’ attention. Unlike the Morph animations, they affect the whole image simultaneously. Although they still look super modern, they’re a bit more fun looking.

Where to find the new animations?

The new animations are available in 3.5.1 of Smart Slider Pro. To take advantage of them make sure you update first! Once updated, select a slider and go to its Animations tab. Please note that background animations are only available in the Simple slider type.

Real Life Morph and Distortion animation examples

Movie slider template

Every new Smart Slider feature comes with inspiring example sliders. There’s no difference with the Morph and Distortion animations either. To show the strength of the new effects and to inspire you, we’ve created a slider template. This time we’ve chosen a movie theme and we’re using the Distortion – Flow effect on the background images. What’s the result? Check the demo and find out!

Oh, and by the way, we revamped some old templates to use the new effect. Do you need more inspiration to use these new animations? Be sure to check these revamped Morph and Distortion templates, too!

Cosmetics template

One of the sliders we chose was the Cosmetics slider, which uses the Morph – Wave animation when you switch slides.

Organic Food template

The Organic Food template takes advantage of the new Morph – Brush animation to create a stunning slide changing effect.

Photo Story template

The Photo Story template’s most important part is its large and gorgeous images. We choose the Distortion – Storm animation to make the slider more stunning.

Top 5 Products template

We wanted a more subtle animation for the Top 5 Products template, so we chose the Distortion – Mosaic effect. This effect looks absolutely ravishing on this modern full page slider!

Conclusion

The Morph and Distortion animations are amazing additions to Smart Slider. They’re cool and modern effects which will help you create more beautiful sliders than ever. The 4 Morph and 8 Distortion effects let you experiment and find the animation that suits your site the most. Start using the new effects today!

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]]> 10+1 Smart Slider Features You Probably Didn’t Know About https://smartslider3.com/blog/smart-slider-features-you-didnt-know-about/ Wed, 08 Sep 2021 12:39:36 +0000 https://smartslider3.com/?post_type=blog&p=42036 When you choose a slider for your projects, you need to consider its features. After all, you need the plugin to create gorgeous sliders which match your criteria. Plugin developers add many features to their product to ensure it meets the needs of most users. As a result, the plugins end up having many options […]

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When you choose a slider for your projects, you need to consider its features. After all, you need the plugin to create gorgeous sliders which match your criteria. Plugin developers add many features to their product to ensure it meets the needs of most users. As a result, the plugins end up having many options which makes it challenging to become expert users. In this article I’ve collected 10+1 cool Smart Slider features which are super useful for you.

Beware: some of these options are available in Smart Slider Pro.

Popular features in Smart Slider

Smart Slider is one of the best WordPress slider plugins. As a result, it offers the most popular features people are looking for. The effects like Parallax, Particle and Ken Burns are all available. Additionally, you can add cool looking Shape Divider to your sliders. Furthermore, you can select beautiful background animations to make image galleries look stunning. You can display your images or videos in a lightbox. Also, you can introduce your layers to the slide using nice layer animations.

Additionally, any slider you create using Smart Slider is responsive. In other words, they look fantastic on any device and screen size. Of course, there are many options you can use to fine-tune the result for tablet and mobile devices.

The new way to build a Slider
Next generation visual editor, customizable animations & effects, and access to hundreads of premade templates.
Get Started
Smart Slider 3 - The new way to build a Slider

10+1 Smart Slider features you probably didn’t know about

Smart Slider offers many awesome options apart from the most popular features. Some of these are not as obvious, but if you know them, they help you work faster and more efficiently. So, it’s worth knowing these options and using them in your projects. With the help of these options, you can easily become a Smart Slider expert.

1. Custom Post generator

Smart Slider has a huge list of dynamic slide generators. What can you do with a dynamic slide generator? You can use it to create slides automatically based on your WordPress post or WooCommerce products. There are also generators which work based on the content of other WordPress plugins. For example, if you use The Events Calendar plugin, you can create slides based on its events.

Smart Slider feature: Custom post generators
Custom post generators in Smart Slider

The Custom post generator lets you create slides from posts in your custom post types (CPT for short). What are custom post types? They’re content types like the posts or pages. There are many cases where you can use a CPT, for example, to store and display customer stories or testimonials. If you sell homes you can create a CPT where you upload each house as an individual post.

The custom post generator is also useful if you create a site for your clients. For example, you can let your client add, edit or delete slides without having to access Smart Slider.

2. Layer defaults

Set default styles for your layers at the Layer Defaults
Set default styles for your layers at the Layer Defaults

Do you work based on a style guide when you create sites for your clients? Having to set the same font family, color and size when you add a new layer must be tiring. Using the Layer defaults you can change the default look of the layers when you add a new one. For example, when you add a heading layer it has “Roboto,Arial” font family, white color and 36px size. If your site uses a different font family, you can change the default value, so you won’t have to change it at every layer.

3. Presets

Presets at the Heading Layer
Presets at the Heading Layer

Another cool feature to speed up your workflow is the preset. Most websites generally have different font sizes for the different heading levels. E.g. a h2 heading might have 36px size, but a h3 heading might have only 30px size. You can save each style as a new preset and apply it to your layers with one click.

4. Custom font list

Preset font families
Preset font families

When you create a layer with text, you’ll likely want to use a font family that’s different from our default font. You can either select the new font family from the predefined font list or manually type it in. Having the predefined font list is cool, but it contains lots of fonts you’ll probably never use. So why not change it to contain your most used or favorite fonts?

5. Slide Library

Smart Slider feature: Slide library
Slide Library at the Slide Editor

Smart Slider offers more than 100 ready to use slider templates for Pro users. If you don’t need a whole slider, just a single slide, you can browse the Slide Library for ideas. The Slide Library contains two themes, and each offers 90+ slides in 8 categories. The most popular categories are Header, Product and Content. So, if you create a header slider, you can check the slides in the Header category to get a headstart.

6. Static Overlay

You can add a Static Overlay from the Add Slide
You can add a Static Overlay from the Add Slide

A Static Overlay is a special kind of slide, which displays above all other slides in the slider and won’t move away. For this reason it’s recommended that you only have one Static Overlay per slider.

Static Overlays are a great way to create “global” layers, which will appear on top of other slide’s content. For example, you can create a cool slider where you put the actual content to the Static Overlay. Then you can add image slides that move under it.

7. Slider Background

Smart Slider feature: Slider Background
Slider Background options

Slider backgrounds are quite the opposite of the Static Overlay. While a Static Overlay is above all slides in the slider, the Slider Background is under them. So, to take advantage of the Slider Background, you need to create slides without a background. Although using semi-transparent background color on the slides help creating interesting layouts.

8. Control variables

You can use Control variables in Advanced Positioning
You can use Control variables in Advanced Positioning

Controls in Smart Slider are generally used for navigation. For example, we consider the arrows, thumbnails and bullets as controls. By default when you select a control you can choose from 12 positions, such as top left, bottom middle and so on. These are fix positions, and actually are fine for most people.

However, using Control variables you get more positioning freedom. Additionally, you can position controls more precisely. Let’s say you create a Showcase slider and you want arrows. Using the default positions the arrows will display on the sides of the slider. Using Control variables the arrows can display next to the active slide.

9. Variable functions

Variables are like placeholders. They tell Smart Slider what kind of content you want the layer to display. For example, you can select the title variable to display the title of the post. There’s also a variable that contains the content of your post.

Variable functions, such as Split text or Find image
Variable functions, such as Split text or Find image

That’s the basic usage of variables. When you create a dynamic slide, you might want a more advanced usage. For example, you want to display a short introduction of the post in your post slider. You can split the content and display, for example, the first 300 characters only. If you don’t use the featured image of the post (or don’t want to use that in the slider), you can look for an image in any variable.

10. Hiding layers in dynamic slides based on another variable

You can hide a layer when the selected variable is empty
You can hide a layer when the selected variable is empty

Smart Slider makes it easy for you to enrich your site with a WooCommerce product slider. Have you ever wished your product slider would include an “on sale” badge for the products that are on sale? The “Hide when variable empty” option helps you achieve that. You can select any variable there and if it’s empty at the product that the slide displays, the layer will not show up. How cool is that?

Here’s a video that shows how the Hide when variable is empty feature works in a WooCommerce generator. There’s a Sale badge, that displays only at those products, which are on sale.

10+1. Slider export

Smart Slider feature: Slider export
You can export your slider to have a backup

Having a backup of your site is always crucial. There are many reasons why you might need to restore your site’s state. Also, there are many reasons when you want to restore a specific slider as well. You can create a backup of your sliders by exporting them and saving the .ss3 export file on your computer. Then you can restore this backup by importing the slider anytime later.

Conclusion

Nowadays it’s not easy to master any WordPress plugin, because they’re so feature rich. Plugin authors want more and more people to be able to use their product for their site. As a result, it can take time to get to know all features the plugins offer. In this article I’ve collected 10+1 Smart Slider features you probably didn’t know about. They can help you create better sliders and work faster. So, if you want to be a Smart Slider expert, it’s worth knowing them.

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]]> Smart Slider 3.5 – Blazar https://smartslider3.com/blog/smart-slider-35/ Tue, 08 Jun 2021 06:00:16 +0000 https://smartslider3.com/?post_type=blog&p=38067 After making the slider creation process smoother in the last big update, it was time to improve the frontend performance as well. We worked hard behind the scenes to make undoubtedly the fastest slider plugin. So we are extremely excited to announce our new major version, the Smart Slider 3.5 ‐ Blazar. A blazar is […]

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After making the slider creation process smoother in the last big update, it was time to improve the frontend performance as well. We worked hard behind the scenes to make undoubtedly the fastest slider plugin. So we are extremely excited to announce our new major version, the Smart Slider 3.5 ‐ Blazar.

A blazar is a supermassive black-hole in the heart of a galaxy that produces a high-energy jet. (A jet composed of ionized matter traveling at nearly the speed of light.)

Before upgrading, check the 3.5 changelog and the documentation about the possible problems and their solution that might come up after the upgrade.

What to expect in Smart Slider 3.5

The content you create with Smart Slider makes an amazing and memorable experience for your visitors. For this reason, we’ve spent the last few months working hard on measuring and improving performance. As a result, our slider templates consistently load faster by 30-40%. Our homepage, which we created using sliders and blocks got a 100/100 score. (Field data on desktop shows higher CLS which caused by a bug in Google Chrome. It will be fixed in Chrome 90.)

We’re really proud of the mind-blowing numbers so from now we will demonstrate the result on all slider template page. But what’s new? It would be impossible to mention everything here, but we want to highlight the most important features. Let’s dive in!

☝️ Notice: Don’t forget to check how the new options help to speed up your slider!

Staggering amount of speed improvements

Most of the changes in Smart Slider 3.5 are under the hood, but some hidden changes are worth mentioning. One of our main goals was to reduce JavaScript footprint, which was mostly caused by jQuery. So we have removed the dependency of the jQuery on the frontend and made everything in native JS.

We were able to get huge gains by removing legacy browser support. Although officially we didn’t support Internet Explorer anymore, we left some compatibility codes. Now we’ve removed these codes. Also, we have completely dropped the support of old Android and Safari browsers.

To get great scores in Cumulative Layout Shift we needed one last thing. In Smart Slider we have changed the responsive behavior into a breakpoint-based system. As a result, we were able to solve all the device-specific changes in native CSS with media queries. Additionally, this helped to improve the Total Blocking Time.

WebP

WebP is a modern image format that provides superior compression for images on the web. In the last few years, more and more browsers have started to support it. We got several requests to add WebP support to Smart Slider, but we were waiting until every popular browser started to support it. As Safari got the support with version 14, we were able to implement our optimizations. From now on you can convert your slide background and layer images into WebP format. Additionally, you can also generate optimized images for 3 different screen widths.

New optimize options

Loading type

When you have a huge Total Blocking Time, it usually means that you have too many HTML elements on your page. Loading them slows down the browser’s layouting process. In fact, it can even get worse when a theme or plugin forces the browser to render the layout multiple times. This can happen if they are injecting/removing elements to the DOM with JavaScript. If your slider is not above the fold, simply set the slider’s “Loading type” to “After page loaded”. As a result, that slider will not be a part of the layouting process during the initial page load.

Header preload

You should preload everything which counts as a render-blocking resource. If sliders play an important part in your website, this feature is made for you. It informs the browser to preload the render-blocking resources of Smart Slider. You can enable it in Smart Slider admin → Settings → Framework → Header Preload.

Dropped features

It’s important to realize that lighthouse audits are very strict. But if you follow their suggestions, your website will be fast and load instantly. Unfortunately, there were several features that we had to sacrifice on the altar of speed. In fact, we tried to minimize the count of the dropped features. We made all efforts to keep a feature if it was possible, and worked on optimizing it as much as possible. Unfortunately, we still had to drop some features, because they ruined the CLS score.

We have removed the following features:

  • Simple slider type parallax main animation: It caused animation lag
  • Thumbnail control
    • Option – Invert group direction: Not possible without JavaScript
    • Option – Minimum thumbnail count: Not possible without JavaScript
  • Fade on load: Not needed anymore as sliders are loading very fast
  • Dynamic slide height based on the slide background image
  • Non-adaptive font resizing. (This will affect layouts where Absolute positioned layers created the content.)
  • Px+ values

Frequently asked questions

Do I get this update for free?
Of course. Smart Slider 3.5 is a free update for everyone with an active license. Because we have only one-time payment plans, you will always get the latest updates automatically.

What will I get from this feature as a free user?
The code optimizations are related to the core plugin, so free users can enjoy the same benefits. Added features like WebP support, Header preload and loading type are only available in the pro version.

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