Submitting Block Patterns to the Directory


Every WordPress user benefits when you share your patterns and help democratize design. This lesson aims to equip users to help expand the Pattern Directory and share their designs with the rest of the WordPress community.

Learning outcomes

  • Define what patterns are and how they can benefit users.
  • Access patterns and add them to a post or page.
  • Use the Pattern Creator to create and submit a pattern to the Directory.
  • Follow tips and guidelines provided to design patterns.

Comprehension questions

  1. What are the advantages of using patterns?
  2. How do I access and use the Pattern Creator?

Resources

  1. Block Patterns
  2. Using Block Patterns
  3. A Quick Guide for Building WordPress Patterns
  4. Create a Pattern

Transcript

Welcome to Learn WordPress. We really hope that you will be part of expanding the Pattern Directory. Every WordPress user benefits when you share your patterns and help democratise design, and today we will quickly show you how easy it is to share your designs with the rest of the WordPress community.

As a reminder, the WordPress Pattern Directory includes beautiful and functional patterns that can make your experience building an appealing site much easier. Patterns can save you a significant amount of time, and also give you greater freedom when you’re building your site. With patterns you can make or replicate complex layouts with just a few clicks, and using them is as simple as copy and paste.

If you visit the Patterns page, you can search through all the available patterns by category, and once you find the pattern you are looking for, you can merely copy, go to your website and paste it into your post or page. Then you can modify the pattern as you please. If you are in a post or page, you can click on the Inserter, Browse all and make your way to Patterns next to Blocks. Select one of the categories and find a suitable pattern, and then select. Now you can modify this pattern to meet your requirements. You can replace the images, change the colour, change the text, etc.

So how can you add your designs to the Directory? Well, you can use the Pattern Creator and just press Submit when you’re done. If you go to the Patterns page, click on Create a new pattern and once you do this it will take you directly to the Pattern Creator. Now you can go ahead and give your pattern an appropriate title, description and choose the correct category. Now you can use the Inserter to start creating your pattern. If you want to add media, patterns are required to use our collection of licence-free images provided by Openverse. You won’t be able to upload or link to any other media in your patterns.

As the name implies, the Pattern Creator allows anyone from designers to content creators to make custom patterns. And like most things in WordPress, these are available for public use once it’s submitted to the WordPress Pattern Directory. Follow this link as it will provide you with a quick guide for building WordPress patterns.

In a nutshell, to submit a pattern you must have the copyright or legal right for anything you submit and all patterns will be moderated. So something to also take note of, patterns should be submitted in English as they will be translated through translate.wordpress.org. Also, remember to use a descriptive name for your pattern, names like Test or My Pattern will be declined.

Lastly, let’s look at a few quick tips. Use the Group block to control spacing and colour for more than one block at a time. Use the Cover block to control your pattern’s height. And if your pattern contains numerous root-level blocks, it can be helpful to Group them all together. It is also important to remember good patterns combine multiple blocks together. It has a well-defined purpose and it keeps placeholder text to a minimum.

Check out all the patterns already available, or better yet, make your own. Visit Learn WordPress for more workshops and training material.

Workshop Details


Presenters

Wes Theron
@west7

I am an Instructional Designer for the WordPress open-source project sponsored by Automattic. I am a strong supporter of the open-source movement. I have a background in education and content development. I am a husband, father, dreamer and lifelong learner.