Update: Since WordPress 6.3, Reusable Blocks was renamed to Synced Patterns.
In addition to offering a brand-new content creation experience, Gutenberg also offers some features to streamline your workflow. One of which is the ability to create reusable blocks. The idea of reusable blocks is great if you often use the same block — which you have customized — on different blog posts or other content types. The same concept has also been adopted by some page builder plugins like Elementor and Divi Builder whereby you can create reusable customized design elements.
In Gutenberg, you can create a reusable block whether from the native blocks or from blocks of third-party plugins like Kadence Blocks and CoBlocks. Reusable blocks that have been created can be edited, exported, and deleted.
Example Use of Reusable Blocks
Say you have a blog that consists of two main article types: tutorial and listicle. You want to add a table of contents to your article, but only for listicles so that you decided to add the table of contents manually via a Gutenberg block. To make sure your table of contents have a consistent look, you can create a reusable table of contents block and insert it to any article you want to have a table of content.
In addition to making sure a certain element has a consistent look, using reusable blocks also helps save you time when you need to add the same element on your blog posts or pages.
Working with Reusable Blocks
How to Create a Reusable Block
As mentioned earlier, you can create a reusable block whether from the native Gutenberg blocks or blocks of third-party plugins. You can create a reusable block from the Gutenberg editor, whether when you are editing a page or blog post. First, add a block you want to turn it into a reusable block just like usual.
Once the block is added, you can go to the settings panel of Gutenberg to customize it. Once done customizing, click the block on the editor area. On the settings bar, click the three-dot icon and select Add to Reusable blocks. Give your reusable block a name and click the Save button.
How to Use and Manage the Existing Reusable Blocks
The reusable blocks you have created will be available on the blocks list of Gutenberg and you can use it whether on pages or blog posts. To use an existing reusable block, you can simply add a new block by clicking the plus button on the editor area of Gutenberg just like usual. Select the reusable block you want to use.
How to Manage the Existing Reusable Blocks
WordPress has a feature to manage the existing reusable blocks on your website. To access the feature, you can click the three-dot icon on the upper-right corner of the Gutenberg screen and select Manage Reusable blocks. If you can’t see this option, try to zoom out the page (by pressing the Ctrl and – keys on Windows).
You will be taken to the reusable blocks manager screen after clicking the Reusable blocks option above. From this screen, you can edit, delete, and export the existing reusable blocks on your website. Simply hover your cursor over a reusable block and select the action you want to take.