Elementor 3.18, the latest update for the widely-used WordPress page builder, brings several key improvements and features aimed at enhancing the user and developer experience. Here’s an overview of what the update offers:
- Performance Improvements: A significant focus of this update is on speeding up website loading times. By optimizing the server-side rendering process of controls, Elementor 3.18 improves the efficiency of page generation, positively impacting the Time To First Byte (TTFB) metrics and Core Web Vitals scores.
- Editor Performance: Elementor 3.18 introduces the Elements Manager, allowing users to streamline their workspace by removing unused widgets. This cleanup process improves the Editor’s performance, creating a more efficient and focused working environment.
- Accessibility Enhancements: The update includes several accessibility improvements, like new controls for the Video Playlist widget, ensuring progress bars have accessible names, and wrapping the Search Form and Taxonomy Filter widgets with the
<search> element for better semantic structure.
- Mobile Design Options: With the rise of mobile browsing, Elementor 3.18 adds features like carousel pagination mobile sizes and more flexible breakpoints for the Menu widget, enhancing mobile user experience.
- Context Menu Redesign: The context menu has been redesigned; it is now wider and has more vertical space. Icons have been removed from all actions, affecting external developers who extend Elementor and register custom actions.
- Experiments and Stable Features: Elementor has upgraded the “Global Style Guide” and “Inline Font Icons” features to stable status, with the latter being active by default on new websites. Other features like “Optimize Image Loading” and “Optimized Gutenberg Loading” are now active by default for all websites.
- Stabilized Addons Ecosystem: The update marks a significant decrease in Elementor addons using deprecated code, reflecting efforts to stabilize the addons ecosystem.
- Improved PHP 8.2 Compatibility: Elementor 3.18 enhances compatibility with PHP 8.2, fixing PHP warnings and ensuring smoother server performance using this version.
In summary, Elementor 3.18 is a substantial update that enhances performance, accessibility, and mobile responsiveness. It offers a more streamlined and efficient experience for users and developers, reflecting Elementor’s commitment to continuous improvement and innovation in web development.
