The WordPress Editor is a powerful tool that can help bring your design ideas to life but one of the best parts is, you don’t have to start from scratch. Building sophisticated designs can be as easy as picking Patterns from our growing library, and snapping them together to create beautiful-looking posts and pages. As of today, we’re now offering over 100 individual Patterns — with more being added all the time!
If you’ve never used Patterns before we’ve got an introduction to help you get started and also highlight some new features.
The best way to introduce Patterns is to use them. Here’s how you can add them to a post or a page on WordPress.com.
- Head to the WordPress Editor and click the + icon to add a new block.
- Click on the Patterns tab.
- Click on the Pattern you’d like to see in your document and it’ll be inserted at the location of your cursor.
Here’s a quick demo that shows how to add an image gallery.
If you’re familiar with the Block Editor, the process will look similar. Once you’ve inserted a Pattern into a post or a page, you’ll be able to see how you can customize and edit the Pattern by clicking on different areas. The image below reveals the editing options that appear with our example.
Each Pattern is a collection of different blocks carefully put together to help you produce great looking blog posts and pages in the Editor. In the example above, it’s a collection of Image, Paragraph, Spacer, and Column Blocks. All pre-arranged into a simple but elegant Pattern for displaying images. Using Patterns in the Editor is kind of like having a WordPress web designer right there with you building up a design element by element.
The idea is that, once you’ve inserted a Pattern, you can start customizing it to make it yours.
For even more customization options with Patterns, try combining them with the updated fonts on WordPress.com.
Over 100 Patterns to Choose From
This is where the number of Patterns gets exciting. Think of it like having over 100 templates you can add to your posts and pages. You can browse by category to see all the available Pattern options.
Taking a look at a few all together might be helpful. Here are some of my recent favorites.
They’re not favorites because they look great, but instead because these Patterns use so many different Blocks to produce a unique and useful design. Take the center Registration Form Pattern, for example. It combines a Heading Block, Paragraph Blocks, the Form Block, and the Columns Block into one Pattern that together, can make up an entire page.
More Patterns are on the Way
We’re just getting started creating new Patterns for you. What type of Pattern would make it easier to create Posts and Pages on your site? More are on the way and we’d love to hear your ideas and feedback so we can make your publishing and site-building experience even better.
And if you have anything to share that you’ve made with a Pattern or with the Editor let us know! We’d love to see and hear how you’re using Patterns on WordPress.com.