The Extra theme is a magazine-style WordPress theme from Elegant Themes.
What’s a magazine-style theme?
It’s a theme with a complex page layout. Where blogs generally use a simple layout featuring one main column for content with a sidebar, a magazine theme includes multiple content areas — and not just on the front page. Instead, the theme lets you group content by category or theme.
Newspapers, magazines, and TV stations typically use magazine-style themes. They’re not for everyone, but if your business includes multiple tracks or content areas, it might be just what your website needs.
Of all the magazine themes out there, Extra is among the most versatile and easiest to use.
That’s because it uses the Divi Visual Builder, which I’ve written about here. Without rehashing all of Divi’s assets — and they are legion — I’ll just say the Divi Builder gives you an exciting amount of control over nearly every aspect of your site’s appearance, without any coding needed.
On top of that, Extra has some features that Divi doesn’t.
I played around a bit with Extra, using content from my Future Expats site.
#1. Blocky visual style
While you can achieve the same visual affect with Divi, Extra comes with the block/grid display as the default. It’s the difference between this. . .
and this more traditional blog layout . . .
#2. Post-Based Category Layouts
Elegant Themes has extended the Divi Builder for the Extra theme so it includes post-based category layouts.
These were designed and built to handle needs specific to bloggers and publishers. So, for example, you can assign colors to different categories of posts. Then, when you group them together, the color unifies them and serves as an additional way to identify the category.
You can create sliders for specific categories of posts, and use categories to display feeds. You can even create tabbed posts.
#3. Almost Limitless Home Page Layout Possibilities
You can set up a blog-style homepage, or you can create a homepage that flows and tells a story. It’s completely up to you.
#4. Give Each Page and Post a Custom Look
Unlike the standard WordPress theme where all pages, except the homepage, share the same layout, you can customizing every aspect of each page on your site.
And you can do the same with posts as well. The Divi Builder gives you that much flexibility.
#5. Showcase Your Work
Extra offers a new custom post type for Projects, so it’s super easy to present gorgeous portfolios to showcase your work.
#6. Headers Galore
Extra doesn’t limit your header space and layout. Take a look at this assortment — header space can be short or tall, your logo can go on the left, right, or smack in the middle, and you can play around with colors and fonts to get exactly what you want.
#7. Mega Menus
These are large menus that drop down from the top menu in the navigation area, and can show images and text. Here’s an example — the mega menu is outlined in red.
#8. 7 Post Formats
Because it’s geared towards bloggers and publishers, the Extra theme features seven different post types:
- Video
- Gallery
- Map
- Quote
- Link
- Audio
- Text
This makes it easy to present information the way your readers want to find it.
#9. Easy Social Interaction is Included
Integrated social share buttons, and Extra’s Social Follow widget, make it easy for readers to follow you on social media, and share your content, without additional plugins.
#10. WooCommerce Integration and Reviews Are Built In
If you sell on your site, Extra makes it easy. You can even add reviews to regular posts.
#11. Custom Widgets
The included widgets are all designed to make your publishing job easier. Showcase Authors, Twitter Feed, Recent Posts, Recent Reviews, and Recent Videos.
Learning Curve
As you’d expect with a theme that offers so many options, there’s a learning curve. If you’re brand new to WordPress, you would do well to experiment with a simpler theme before diving into Extra. But if you’re already comfortable with WordPress, and you need to feature multiple topics on your site, Extra might just give your business the boost it needs.
How to Purchase
Elegant Themes uses a subscription model. For an annual fee, you can use any or all of their themes (there are currently 87, although a number are older and not mobile responsive so not recommended). Theme updates and support are available only with a valid, current subscription. They have three levels:
- Personal: $69/year
- Developer: $89/year gives you everything the Personal subscription offers, plus all plugins and layered Photoshop files
- Lifetime Access: $249, gives you everything above for a one-time, non-repeating fee.
As I’ve written before, Elegant Themes is one of my two go-to WordPress theme designers, and because their themes are so terrific, I’ve affiliated with them. That means, when you click a link here to purchase, I receive a commission. It’s not a lot, but it helps keep the site going and helps me to keep my prices low when you hire me to build a WordPress site for you.
