We’ve discussed quite a bit lately related to the block editor and did a brief overview on block patterns in a previous post. WordPress defines block patterns as follows:

Block Patterns are predefined block layouts, available from the patterns tab of the block inserter.

https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/block-api/block-patterns/

So let’s talk about that. The first part of the statement is “predefined block layouts”, what is that? A predefined block layouts is a combination of one to many blocks that are put together in a predefined, “ready to use” way. This can be a massive time saving help with putting together a web page.

The next part of the quote says that block patterns are available from the block inserter, which usually is the case. I say usually because depending on your theme and or plugins those block patterns can actually be removed. Usually if that happens it’s because your theme is replacing them with it’s own predefined patterns. The block inserter is not the only place you will find block patterns, but you can also find them in places like the Block Pattern Directory where you can browse and copy block patterns that you can then paste into your site. No longer are you limited to tools installed on your site!

Over the next few posts I want to look a bit deeper at this. We’re going to look more in depth at adding the block patterns and also creating your own. It’s a very useful tool to have in your toolkit.