In today’s fast-paced world, there’s no doubt that time is of the essence.

As bloggers, we’re all looking for ways to streamline our workflows and get more done in less time. This is where reusable blocks on WordPress come into play.

What is a reusable block on WordPress?

It’s a block of content you can save and reuse in multiple places on your site. This means that you don’t need to recreate the same content over and over again.

They are easy to create and save you lots of time when you need to edit something that can be found all over your blog. Any changes you make to a reusable block occur wherever it appears on your blog.

Let’s say you are an author with a collection of books that you have added to a block on over 500 of your blog posts. You decide to cut the price of all or one of your books for a limited time.

You could advertise the price cut on a new blog post, but what about all those blog posts that now contain the incorrect price of your books?

Turning the current block advertising your books into a reusable block allows you to edit the block, and the changes occur on all the posts where you have inserted it.

If you’ve never created a reusable block, follow the guide below. For this demonstration, I’m using the social media block containing links to all my social media accounts and WordPress’s ‘default’ view in the images and instructions.

How to turn a block into a reusable block.

• Find the block you want to turn into a reusable block.
• Click anywhere in the block and click on the three dots (kebab menu) icon in the block’s toolbar.
• Click ‘Create Reusable block.’

• Give your reusable block a name to quickly locate it the next time you use it.

• That’s it – you’ve just created a reusable block!
• Don’t forget to click the ‘save‘ button to save your reusable block.

Are all the reusable blocks I create stored in one place?

Yes. They are stored under ‘Patterns.’

Go to ‘Patterns‘ – ‘My Patterns‘ to see a list of them.

• To add a reusable block to a post, select it from the list and place the block where you want it to appear in your post.

What can reusable blocks be used for?

Anything you like, but here are a few suggestions.

• Links to social media sites.
• Lists of your social media sites.
• An author bio.
• An author photo.
• An author bio and photo.
• Details of your books and where they can be purchased.
• Copyright notices.
• Mailing list subscription links.
• Links to posts on your blog or those of other bloggers.
• Links to other blogs you have or are a part of.
• Links to where customers can purchase your goods/services.
• Link to your blog’s ‘about’ page.
• Links to notices such as ‘How to apply to become a guest blogger on my blog.’
• Writing/photography prompt/challenge blog posts.
• A weekly/monthly feature post.
• A sentence or paragraph that you use a lot.

Can reusable blocks be edited?

Yes. You can edit a block’s title and contents by doing the following.

• Ensure you view your blog’s dashboard in the ‘Classic‘ view. When writing this post, it may not work when viewing in the ‘Default‘ view (WordPress are aware of the problem).
• On the draft page of a post, click the three dots (options button) in the top right-hand corner of the page.
• Click ‘Manage Patterns‘ in the new menu that opens.

• A page will open that lists all your reusable blocks. This is where you can edit them and send them to trash.

Warning – if you delete a block you’ve used on previous posts, it will disappear from those posts and display a notice stating that the block is no longer available. So, be careful when deleting reusable blocks.

• A page will open that lists all your reusable blocks. This is where you can edit them and send them to trash.

• Remember that any edits or updates you make to a reusable block are applied all over your blog where the block has been used.

How to edit a block.

I want to add a Mastodon button to my social media bar. To do this, I need to click on the ‘+‘ symbol after clicking on the block while in edit mode.

• A Mastodon button is now part of my reusable social media block.

• You can also convert a reusable block into a regular block by clicking on the kebab menu in the block’s toolbar and then on ‘Convert to Regular Block.’

Creating and using reusable blocks has saved me lots of time. They are simple to use and straightforward to make. I highly recommend giving them a try.

Do you use reusable blocks on your WordPress site? If so, what do you use them for? Do you have any questions about reusable blocks? Let us know in the comments section.

Layout, content, settings, and format might differ on self-hosted blogs.

This is an updated version of a post originally published on Hugh’s Views And News in 2020.

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