Ollie Menu Designer vs PDF Embedder – PDF Viewer & Embed PDF Files for WordPress

Create stunning, content-rich dropdown, mobile, and mega menus using the WordPress block editor and full site editing. Ollie Menu Designer lets you build beautiful dropdown menus and mobile navigation with images, buttons, call-to-actions, and any other blocks – giving you the same creative freedom you have when designing your pages. Menu Designer puts you in complete control of how your menus look and function. Best of all, if you’re using the free Ollie theme, you’ll get access to a collection of beautifully pre-designed menu templates to help you get started quickly. Design Freedom Create dropdown menus and mobile menus that match your vision using any WordPress block you can imagine. Whether you need multi-column layouts, featured images and galleries, rich text with custom typography, or buttons and call-to-action elements, Menu Designer gives you complete creative control. You can even include recent posts, product grids, search bars, forms, custom HTML, and literally any other block to build exactly the navigation experience your site needs. Multi-column layouts with images, text, and buttons Rich content like galleries, forms, and product grids Complete creative control with any WordPress block Mobile-First Options Your menus look great on every device with Ollie Menu Designer’s mobile-optimized approach. Design custom mobile menu experiences that replace default navigation with beautiful, touch-friendly interfaces. You have complete control over responsive behavior, including the ability to disable dropdowns on mobile with fallback URLs, set custom breakpoints, and ensure optimized performance across all devices. Fast, beautiful mobile menu designs with touch-friendly interactions Choose from several pre-designed menu patterns Optimized performance across all devices Build faster with Ollie Get started instantly with the free Ollie block theme, which comes packed with beautiful pre-designed menu templates and patterns built specifically for Ollie Menu Designer. Instead of starting from scratch, you’ll have access to professionally-crafted mobile menus, dropdown designs, and mega menu layouts that seamlessly integrate with Ollie’s design system. Simply install the theme, browse the menu pattern library, and customize the designs to match your brand – no design experience required. Pre-designed menu templates and patterns included Seamless integration with Ollie’s design system Professional designs ready to customize for your brand Adding Mobile Menus with Ollie Menu Designer We’ve created a full video tutorial on creating mobile menus. Navigate to Appearance → Editor → Patterns and edit your Header template part Click the Navigation block In the Navigation block Settings tab, find the Mobile Menu panel Click “Create a new one” or select from existing mobile menu templates Choose from pre-designed Ollie patterns or build custom with blocks Save your menu and select it in the Mobile Menu panel Customize background colors and menu icon in the mobile menu settings Adding Dropdowns and Mega Menus with Ollie Menu Designer We’ve created a full video tutorial on creating drop down and mega menus. Navigate to Appearance → Editor → Patterns and edit your Header template part Click Add Block and search for “Dropdown Menu” Name your dropdown and position it in your navigation In the Dropdown Menu block Settings tab, find the dropdown menu panel Click “Create a new one” or select from existing dropdown menu templates Choose from pre-designed Ollie patterns or build custom with blocks Save your menu and select it in the dropdown menu panel Configure additional customization settings Adding Starter Patterns You can create custom starter patterns for menu templates to give users quick starting points for their menus. This is especially useful for theme developers who want to provide pre-designed menu layouts. How to Add Starter Patterns Create a /patterns folder in your theme or plugin directory Add your pattern files (PHP format) to this folder In each pattern file, ensure you include the following in your pattern header: Block Types: core/template-part/menu This ensures your pattern appears as an option when creating new menu template parts. Requirements WordPress 6.5 or higher A WordPress block theme like Ollie that supports the WordPress navigation block

Upload PDF files and embed them directly into your site’s posts and pages, as simply as adding images. Each document displays right where you place it, at its natural size or a width you choose, and the responsive viewer adapts automatically whenever the browser dimensions change. Out of the box, WordPress turns an uploaded PDF into a bare download link: visitors click it and leave your page, or the file opens in a viewer you don’t control. PDF Embedder keeps them reading on the page and keeps you in control of how your document looks. PDF Embedder displays PDF documents on more than 300,000 websites. It differs from other PDF plugins in how the document becomes part of the page: rendered inline, sized to your layout, served entirely from your own site, and previewed live while you edit. There is no Google Docs Viewer or other third-party service involved, and the viewer loads its files only on pages that contain a PDF, so the rest of your site stays fast. In the Block Editor, the PDF Embedder block shows a live preview of your document while you edit. Pick a PDF file from the block sidebar, change a setting, and the preview updates to match what visitors will see on the front end. What can you embed? Any PDF file, whether it lives in your Media Library or in another folder on your site. Embed unlimited PDFs across posts, pages, and custom post types. Site owners use PDF Embedder to display: Restaurant menus and price lists Ebooks, guides, whitepapers, and research reports Product catalogs, brochures, and lookbooks Newsletters, magazines, and annual reports User manuals and technical documentation Worksheets, lesson plans, and other course materials Sheet music, church bulletins, and event programs Real estate flyers, floor plans, and legal documents Resumes and portfolios Visitors read the document right on the page: no new tab, no forced download, and no Adobe Acrobat or third-party account required. How it works Upload a PDF to your Media Library, or copy the URL of a PDF hosted anywhere else. Add the PDF Embedder block and pick the file from the block sidebar. In the Classic Editor or a page builder, use the shortcode instead. Publish. Visitors turn pages with the Next and Previous buttons and zoom in when part of a page is too small for their screen. The shortcode works anywhere shortcodes do: [pdf-embedder url="https://example.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Plan-Summary.pdf"] Site-wide defaults, such as width and toolbar position, live under Settings -> PDF Embedder, and any single embed can override them with its own block settings or shortcode attributes. See the Plugin Instructions for sizing options and other ways to customize. Works with membership, e-commerce, and course plugins PDF Embedder renders through a regular shortcode and block, so the viewer works anywhere your post content does, including pages that other plugins restrict or sell access to. Sell access to premium PDF content, such as ebooks, reports, or research papers, by embedding it on pages protected with MemberPress, Paid Memberships Pro, Restrict Content Pro, or WooCommerce Memberships. Deliver handouts and workbooks inside courses built with LearnDash, LifterLMS, or Tutor LMS. Show a free sample chapter on a WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads product page, and deliver the full ebook after purchase. Embed several PDFs on one page to build a simple PDF document library for your team, school, or members. On the Pro plan of PDF Embedder Premium, you can pair restricted pages with the secure viewer and watermarks, so members read documents online while the original file stays hard to download. What users say Site owners tend to stay with PDF Embedder for years. Here is what they say: “One client wanted to display PDF newsletters in a way that was clean, user-friendly, and easy to scroll through. That’s when I discovered WP PDF Embedder. It does the job beautifully, making PDFs look professional and effortless to navigate. Since then, it has become my go-to recommendation for any client who needs to showcase PDF content on their website.” — Vera Schafer “I have been using PDF Embedder for well over ten years. It’s just a great app. Can’t recommend it enough.” — Rich Calo “I have been using this plugin (both the free version and the pro version) for a number of years on various clients’ websites. It is easy to set up, does what it needs to and just works the way a plugin should. I highly recommend it.” — DebsWebs “I’ve been using PDF Embedder Secure for 3 years now, and it helped me sharing my paid content securely, preventing malicious people from buying my PDF files and then sharing them illegally everywhere. PDF files are chopped, digested, watermarked, unaccessible even if someone finds the direct link.” — Daniele Benedettelli Go further with PDF Embedder Premium In the free plugin, there is no download button and links inside the PDF are not clickable – the viewer is intentionally simple to fulfill the “read online” goal. PDF Embedder Premium adds those and more: Download button in the toolbar, so visitors can save your document for later. Working hyperlinks, both within the document and out to any other page. Continuous scroll – readers scroll through pages naturally instead of clicking through them. Mobile-friendly full screen mode – when the document renders narrower than a width you set, as it does on most phones, it displays as a thumbnail with a large “View in Full Screen” button. The document opens with the full focus of the mobile browser, and readers swipe between pages instead of clicking buttons. Jump to page – type a page number in the toolbar to go straight there. Full-text search – visitors search the text of your PDF documents from the toolbar and jump straight to matching pages. View and download tracking – see which documents people actually read. Elementor widget with the same options as the block and a live PDF preview in the Elementor editor. Secure viewing (Pro plan) – the PDF is encrypted during transmission, so it is difficult for a casual user to save or print the original file, and your document is far less likely to end up outside your site. Watermarks (Pro plan) – overlay any text, including the logged-in user’s name or email address, to discourage sharing of screenshots. Automatic PDF thumbnails (Elite plan) – every PDF in your Media Library gets an image thumbnail to use as a featured image, a clickable download link, or the file’s icon in the Media Library. Every plan comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee: if Premium is not a fit, you get a refund, no questions asked. Compare Premium plans on wp-pdf.com Better than Google Drive embeds, Scribd, Issuu, and other PDF tools The usual ways to embed a PDF without a plugin – an iframe snippet, the Google Drive or Google Docs viewer, or a service like Scribd, Issuu, FlippingBook, FlipHTML5, or DocDroid – hand your document to servers you don’t control. It loads at their speed, carries their branding, and can disappear or change terms at any time. You may have also tried other WordPress PDF plugins, such as EmbedPress, Embed Any Document, PDF Poster, Wonder PDF Embed, PDF.js Viewer, or flipbook plugins like DearFlip and 3D FlipBook. Most rely on iframes or third-party viewers to display the document. PDF Embedder keeps everything on your own site: your files, your server, your data. That is better for page speed, better for privacy, and more reliable for your visitors. With thanks to the Mozilla team for developing the underlying pdf.js technology used by this PDF viewer plugin. Branding guidelines PDF Embedder is a product of wp-pdf.com. When writing about this WordPress PDF plugin, please use the correct branding: PDF Embedder (correct) PDFEmbedder (incorrect) PDF Embeder (incorrect) PDF Imbedder (incorrect)