WordPress Block Patterns Explained

WordPress block patterns are mini-templates. They are pre-configured groups of blocks that give you shortcuts to creating certain features on your site, like a call to action, a nice-looking hero image with text, or even a whole page layout.

They are available to insert on any page, and then the content can be edited.

Below is the Testimonial Card pattern from the Ollie theme. Once added to your page you can see it is composed of a group of blocks, designed and configured for you. You can edit them just like normal blocks.

The confusing part is that there are 3 kinds of Patterns:

Unsynced
Synced
Partially synced

I’ll explain the differences and how to utilize them in your content.

Unsynced patterns

Once an unsynced pattern has been added to a page, it functions like any other block and is independent of other instances of the same pattern.

So if you have added the same pattern on several pages, making a change to one of those changes only the once you edited. The same pattern on other pages will remain unchanged.

You can either add an existing pattern from the pattern library, or create one from scratch.

To add an existing pattern:

In your post or page click the Block Inserter button and then click Patterns.
Choose your pattern

Once it’s in your page, you can make changes to it, and it only changes it on that specific page.

If you want to customize it and save your own version of it, make your changes, then

Select the pattern in the List View, then click the 3 dots and choose Create Pattern
Give it a name and choose the category
At the bottom you have the toggle to choose whether it’s synced or not. The default is set to synced. Click it to toggle off.

You can also get to that from the toolbar:

Now you have a custom pattern you can add to any post/page. It’s specific to each place you insert it and if you make changes to it, it is only changed on that specific place.

Make your own pattern from scratch

After creating an element or layout you like in your page, select the block or blocks that you want to make into a pattern.
Click the 3 buttons, then choose create pattern.

Then it will be available to add to any page easily from the Pattern library.

Synced patterns

In previous versions of WordPress, synced patterns were known as reusable blocks.

When a pattern is synced it means that you can make a change to it in one place and that change will update all instances of the pattern across your site.

So this is good for more dynamic content that you may want to update periodically. It allows you to make one update that affects each place you’ve added the pattern across your whole site.

To create a synced pattern:

Make a new pattern as described above, but toggle on the synced option when saving it.

To differentiate unsynced patterns from synced (or partially synced) patterns, synced have a purple icon when viewing them in the pattern library or in the list view:

Edit a Synced Pattern

If you are in a post or page where the synced pattern has been added, you will see the Edit Original option.

When you click this, you are taken into a pattern editing screen:

After making and saving your edits, the pattern will be updated in every place you used it on your site.

When to use Synced vs Unsynced patterns

Is it content that you’re going to have in multiple places on your site?

And will it be the same in all those places and may need to be updated at some point?

Then it should be synced.

Examples:

Business hours
Your business hours may be displayed in multiple places across your site, and the information will be the same in all those cases.

But you might want to update it for holidays, for example. So in that case a synced pattern will be perfect – you make the update once and you’re done.

Team directory

Imagine you show a list of company members in multiple places.

But what if you hire someone new or a team member leaves? You’ll need to update the list and a synced pattern will let you update that once, and have it be updated across your site.

Partially synced patterns / overrides

Partially synced patterns are a hybrid, where only some specific elements within the pattern are synced.

These are also known as Overrides.

This gives you a potentially very flexible pattern.

How to create a partially synced pattern

When editing your pattern, select a specific block. In the example below, of a Call to Action pattern, I’ve selected the button.
Make sure you’re in the Block settings in the right panel, and expand the Advanced panel.
There you will see the Enable overrides button. Clicking that allows syncing for that specific element.
You will then see a popup where you name that specific synced element

Now when this pattern is added to your content you will notice a couple of things:

In List view, the partially synced element/block is visible, because it’s editable
I can change the text of the button for this specific instance
So now I can have multiple versions of this pattern, where I can have some custom elements specific to each instance and some elements that will be updated in all cases.

The only drawback here is that at the time of writing, only certain blocks are eligible for partial syncing. I expect more and more blocks will be supported over time. But if you don’t see the Enable overrides button on your synced pattern, this is likely why.

The Reset button will remove any edits you made to the partially synced block and reset it to its original state.