In 2017 we decided to completely rebuild Beacon from the ground up.
This isn’t a decision that we took lightly as many of our customers loved Beacon just as it was.
Honestly, we had pushed the old version of Beacon as far as it could go and we needed to start fresh in order to achieve two main objectives for our customers:
1. Improved Performance
The old version of Beacon was built in 2013 and the internet has changed quite a bit since then. The code that was cutting edge then was now somewhat dated and this resulted in an increasing number of bugs that slowed the old editor down and made for an inconsistent user experience.
The new version of Beacon is not only faster but provides a much more stable platform for our customers to work on.
2. Extended Functionality
The internet isn’t the only thing that has changed since 2013. Beacon is a different company now and we have a much clearer idea of who our customers are and what functionality they need. As much as we tried, we just couldn’t make the old version of Beacon do what our customers needed.
In the new version of Beacon, we are able to offer much more control over the little things like text size and alignment. But we can also offer control over the bigger things too. We have introduced drag and drop functionality so you can create your own page templates quickly.
Using The New Editor
We understand that many of our customers will have started projects in the old editor that they need to finish. For this reason, you will still be able to continue editing projects that were started with the old version. However, it is no longer possible to create new projects with the old editor.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it possible to convert old publications into the new version?
Unfortunately not. The new editor is built on a completely different technology stack and as such the two editors are not compatible. The best option here is to manually recreate the old publication in the new editor.
How long will the old editor be available for?
For publications that were made on the old editor you will always be able to view them using the original version of Beacon.