An Overview of Synced Blocks in your Notion Workspace

I. IntroductionA. Explanation of what Synced Blocks are

II. How Synced Blocks WorkA. Explanation of how to create a synced block1. Creating an instance of a synced block2. Copying and pasting a link to create another instanceB. Explanation of how changes to one instance affect all others

III. Advantages of Synced BlocksA. Time-saving benefits of being able to edit one block in multiple placesB. Consistency benefits of having identical blocks throughout your workspace

IV. ConclusionA. Recap of what Synced Blocks are and how they workB. Encouragement to try using Synced Blocks in your own workspace

‍

For quite a while, my global blocks post was among the most popular on Notion VIP. Ever since discovering that little trick, I knew it would eventually become an official Notion feature. And so it did this month with the release of synced blocks.

So, what are synced blocks? Well, blocks are the various types of content you use within your Notion pages such as text, headings, bullets, toggles, images, databases, and third-party embeds. And so, synced blocks are blocks or groups of those blocks that exist in multiple locations and when you update one instance, all other instances reflect that update. In other words, they're synced.

Why is this useful? Well, users often place identical content across numerous pages in their workspaces and previously an update to that content required manually updating every page. But with synced blocks, a single update addresses them all which saves loads of time while keeping your information accurate and consistent.

So, a few common uses of synced blocks are instructional comments for users, which is my personal favorite, but also custom navigation menus as well as page footers that appear globally across all pages in your workspace. And these latter two are particularly useful in public-facing websites that are published with tools like Super.

When editing a synced block, you're going to see a red border around all of the blocks that it contains and at the top, you'll have a few menu options. Among those menu options is going to be the number of pages that contain instances of the synced block and you can click on that as a drop-down menu to see each of those pages and the original is going to be indicated as such.

So, you can create a synced block from scratch or from existing content. To create from scratch, you can create a new block just like any other block by clicking on the plus sign and scrolling all the way down to synced block or you can use the shortcut which is the forward slash and then search for synced block. And that's going to give you your red border within which you can create blocks just like you would outside of a synced block.

We'll just do a quick demo here to create a single block from existing content. What you can do is highlight the blocks that you want to use within the synced block and remember to highlight the full blocks, not just their inner content. So, drag all the way over the blocks and then you can click on the six dotted menu and choose turn into synced block or with them selected you can use the command or control key depending on the type of computer you're using along with the forward slash and that's going to bring up the menu that you can search for synced block and then scroll down to that option hit enter and there is your synced block.

So, once your synced block is created, you can click on the copy and sync option at the top and then go to any other page in your workspace and paste. And that is going to produce another instance.

When you create a synced block, any changes made to one instance of the block will also be reflected in other instances of the block. If the synced block only contains a single block, you can create another instance of it by clicking on the block, selecting the six dotted menu, and choosing "copy link." You can then take that link to any other page in your workspace, paste the URL, and choose "paste and sync." This will create another instance of the synced block, and the original block will become the original instance of that synced block.

It's important to note that in order for a user to see a synced block, they will need access to the page that contains the original version of the synced block. For example, if the original version of a synced block is on the Laboratory page, then a user will need access to the Laboratory page in order to see the synced block on another page, such as the Inbox page. If a user does not have access to the page with the original version of the synced block, they will not be able to see the synced block and will receive an error message.

‍

‍