Introducing Magic Loops, Blog Blocks, Byline Editor, 404 Page, and More!

In one of the boldest releases yet, Marketers Delight 5.1 is now available and introduces the powerful new Magic Loops feature to your website. Want to see how it all works?

To create a content-rich website the performs well in the long run you need a smart system behind it to run things. MD’s new Magic Loops add a higher level of loop management with simple design settings to best match your content style.

By taking some of the most highly requested features from around the community like the Blog Blocks template, byline editor, and easy CTA placement, Magic Loops has been designed to be the fastest way to beautifully personalize your blog listings.

Now that you have Magic Loops in your site’s arsenal you can choose between 3 built-in loop templates that share the same customization controls across your blog and category pages.

Magic Loops is not just a front-facing beauty but a new foundation of the MD Site Design tools that make just about every page in WordPress customizable with simple, straightforward settings.

But that’s enough talk about magic, are you ready to see some? A good magician never reveals his full tricks, so I will show you the most exciting features now available to you with MD5.1 + Magic Loops.

Edit Blog and Category Loops with Precise Layout Controls

First you should know there is a new Loop settings screen in WP Admin > MD > Site Design > Content where you can quickly cycle through loop templates and make any needed tweaks with the powerful settings below.

Magic Loops give you the full control to change up your loop’s post byline and add new items like the author avatar, last updated date, and the popup of your choice (set in MD > Optins > Popups > Hotspots).

Based on your style of blogging you can adjust your loop’s post content with excerpts or full posts, adjust the excerpt length, and change the “read more” text label.

If you use the Teasers loop you can even create staggered layouts by “featuring” the first X amount of posts and display the rest in the number of columns you want.

But one of the best parts? You can even insert one of your custom made Call to Actions (MD > Optins > CTA) in between posts! After you create your CTA you can plug it in to show after any X post – talk about good timing!

Remember that MD is an entire website design system in one, so these settings are very far reaching throughout your website which also allows you to use the same Loop settings on your category and taxonomy pages!

Use the Loop category settings to design highly impactful cornerstone pages that deep links your posts into easily searchable archives.

This is a lot of power, are you ready to see what else it does?

Introducing Blog Blocks and Updated Teasers Template

The Blog Blocks loop template has been one of the most highly requested features in the community and I am happy to release it as a new template ready for instant action on your website!

I have enabled the Blog Blocks loop on the MD news page if you want to see a live example (but come back here because I have more to show you!)

You can also see the current MD blog to see how I am using the newly updated teasers template with featured columns, 2 column width, and a simple call to action embed.

Both ready on your site and have been built to be very adaptable to your site’s content and images.

Create your own 404 page from the post editor

Now that MD has given you far more control over your blogs loops, it is also flexing a little bit by including a new way to create your own custom 404 pages!

From the beginning MD has supplied a default 404 page that is helpful, but not right for everybody. Now you can create your own 404 page template from the WordPress post editor.

First go to Pages > Add New to public a new page to use for your custom 404 template. Grab the post ID from the URL, or the post listing:

Publish it, then jump over to MD > Settings > Site Tools and paste the Page ID into the text field and press the Save Settings button.

Now you can return to the Edit Page screen and design the content box of your 404 page with any text, images, and blocks you want!

Other Enhancements in MD5.1

This new release of Marketers Delight also contains some bug fixes and enhancements as suggested from the MD community. It is best to view the changelog to see the full list of changes, but here are the most notable:

Call to Action admin UI improvements

The CTA builder now shows Image settings in its own tab with the new left, right, and center image alignment options. You can also see a small list of recommended MD helper classes to further style your image.

Better Shortcode Support in MD Optins

When designing custom popups, call to actions, or floating bars you can now use shortcodes and other WordPress formatting by enabling the “Enable WordPress formatting” checkbox beneath each HTML box.

New Byline Template Files and Filters

Each byline item now has a new template folder in the MD template library and added new hooks and filters that allow you to plug your own byline items into the new loop settings.

Single Post Byline Editor

You can also customize the byline of single posts from the same MD > Site Design > Content settings panel. Not all bylines are the same!

New Sidebar Display Settings

You can now enable your sidebar on all posts or all categories, and also remove the sidebar from your blog by default.

MD5.1 and Magic Loops are waiting for you right now in your WordPress admin panel! This update is available for all active MD license key holders and is a safe, one-click update away from unleashing on your site.

Not an MD customer yet? Marketers Delight is one of the most affordable, well-built, and flexible themes on the market and it is growing better every day. Get your site started today: