Pinegrow Web Editor is a desktop application for creating and editing websites.
Pinegrow is a general purpose HTML and CSS editor. Although it has extensive support for frameworks like Bootstrap and Foundation, Pinegrow is not tied to any particular framework or library.
With Pinegrow you build websites by editing HTML layout and CSS rules. Pinegrow is a collection of integrated tools: some are visual and some work with code. You’re free to mix & match these tools in a way that best fits the task at hand.
For example, when working with Bootstrap, you can use the Element properties panel to (1) visually control Bootstrap properties, live-synced with the (2) code view where you can inspect and tweak the HTML code directly. At the same time that you use the (3) Style panel to edit active CSS rules.
Your page never becomes tied to a closed Pinegrow file format. Pinegrow reads and writes HTML and CSS directly, so you can use it alongside your other tools.
New to Pinegrow? This interactive guide is the best place to start. We'll go through all Pinegrow panels and take them for a spin.
We'll need a page to play with during this introduction. CLICK on the button below to open a sample page about the oldest Pine trees in the world:
We'll need a page to play with during this introduction. To open the sample page used in this gude, open the in-app help in Pinegrow by clicking on the 271_ICON in the top toolbar. There, go to "Getting started with Pinegrow" and click on the "Open the sample page" button. Or, you can open one of your own pages and experiment with that.
NoteFeel free to mess up the sample page as much as you want during this tutorial. You can always close it and open a fresh copy by clicking on this button again.
Most editing operations in Pinegrow happen on the page view.
Play around with page views:
While you're working with your page, the Tree panel lets you keep an eye on the page structure.
Open the Tree panel.
The Tree panel displays the nested HTML structure of the selected page. The selected element is blue.
Let's take a quick look at the tree:
Open the Library panel.
The Library panel contains HTML elements and components (groups of HTML elements) that we can add to the page.
Let's add a new element to the page:
Open the Element properties panel.
Use the Element properties panel to edit an element’s attributes. For example, to change the source and alt text attributes of an image. Classes are managed there as well. The panel also contains controls for properties defined by frameworks like Bootstrap.
Let's try to edit some properties:
Open the Style panel.
Visual styling of page elements is done with CSS rules. Each rule has a selector that specifies which elements are affected by the rule and properties like color, font, etc. that define the visual style.
We'll spend a bit more time on this panel because it is a very powerful tool if you know how to use it effectively.
On the sample page, select the h2 element with the poem title and take a look at the Active tab in Style panel: The Active tab 1 displays all CSS rules that affect the selected element.
The Active tab also displays the style set directly on the HTML element with the style attribute. We'll explore it a bit later.
Rules from framework stylesheets, like bootstrap.css, are hidden by default. Click on the Show more links to display them.
The Visual editor contains visual controls for editing CSS rule properties.
Let's do some styling!
So far we've been modifying an existing CSS rule. Let's create a new CSS rule now:
Add a new CSS rule:
Every HTML element can have the style attribute for setting its visual properties. For example:
<h1 style="color:red>I'm red!</h1>
Although the style attribute is the quick and easy way of styling elements, using it is not recommended. Why? Because instead of using one CSS rule to tell the browser that all H1 elements should be red, you have to specify the color on each and every H1 element on your site. Now imagine that you have 20 pages and want to change the color to green.
But, Pinegrow knows a smart way of using the style attribute:
Let's paint a style using the Style attribute:
The "Style attribute -> Save as CSS rule" is a very convenient workflow. It lets us jump right into styling the element without first having to figure out what kind of CSS rule we need to create.
The Style panel has a lot more to offer, but for now, let's leave it and continue exploring Pinegrow.
CLICK on text_edit_ICON in the toolbar or DOUBLE_CLICK on any text on the page to activate the text editing mode.
The edited element will get a dotted yellow border and a blue text editing menu:
Let's change some text:
NoteFor best results select only the element that you want to edit. For example, if you want to change a button label, just select the button, not the parent container of the button.
NoteUse the Element code panel (described next) in situations where Text editing doesn't do exactly what you want.
Pinegrow is not only a visual website builder – you can use it to work with HTML and CSS code as well.
NoteDon't know HTML? The Element code panel is a great place to learn about code. No scary code soup - instead take a look at different elements one at a time and observe how different editing operations change the code.
The Edit Element Code panel lets you edit the code of individual elements. Instead of dealing with the whole page you focus only on the relevant parts of the code.
Open the Element code panel.
Let's get coding!
Use the Page Code Editor to edit the code of the whole page.
Open the Page code panel.
Note that simplified syntax mode is not available in the Page Code Editor.
Let's edit the code of the whole page:
NoteThe editor is also used for editing CSS code and Javascript files.
Most editing operations in Pinegrow can be done on more selected elements at the same time. This is a great time saver.
To select multiple elements:
Do editing operations on multiple elements:
Each page can have multiple page views showing the page at different sizes and in different devices.
Play around with page views:
The Repeater is a handy feature that lets you repeat a single command many times.
Let's repeat some stuff:
So far we explored features available in all editions of Pinegrow. Let's take a quick look at what we can do with Pinegrow PRO and with WordPress Theme Builder.
Open the Project panel.
NoteProjects are a part of the Pinegrow PRO edition.
Pinegrow projects are plain-old file folders. Just open a folder as a project, and you'll see a list of all files and subfolders here.
Let's create a project:
Open the Actions panel.
NoteThese features are available in Pinegrow PRO edition.
The Actions panel lets you create Smart components, Master pages, Editable areas and more. Select one or more elements on the page and assign an action (behavior) to them. These features are available in Pinegrow PRO edition.
Open the WordPress panel.
NoteWordPress theme builder is available in Pinegrow with WordPress Theme Builder edition.
Use the WordPress panel to convert the HTML project into a PHP-based standard WordPress theme. This feature is available in Pinegrow with WordPress theme builder.
Congratulations! Now you know what Pinegrow is about and how to use it.
There are many features that we didn't mention here. Almost every panel & tool has a bunch of tricks up its sleeve that can help you to be more productive. Start using Pinegrow and check the rest of the documentation to learn more.