For quite a while, my Global Blocks post was among the most popular on Notion VIP. Since discovering that little trick, I knew it would eventually become an official feature, and so it did in June 2021 with the debut of "Synced Blocks."
Blocks are the various types of content you use within Notion pages, such as text, headings, bullets, toggles, images, databases and third-party embeds.
Synced Blocks are blocks, or groups of blocks, that exist in multiple locations. When you update one instance, all other instances reflect that update. They're "synced."
Users often place identical content across numerous pages. Previously, an update to that content required manually updating every page. With Synced Blocks, a single update addresses them all, thus saving loads of time while keeping information accurate and consistent.
Here are three common examples:
The latter two are particularly useful for public-facing websites published with Super.
When editing a Synced Block, you'll see a red border around its contained blocks. At the top, a dropdown menu lists all pages containing the Synced Block. The "Original" page is labeled as such.
You can create a Synced Block from scratch or from existing content.
You can create a Synced Block just like any other block: When editing a page, click + next to an existing block, or with a blinking cursor, type /. You can then choose the Synced Block type. You can then use the same methods to add blocks within the synced block.
To convert a block, or a group of adjacent blocks, to a Synced Block, highlight it. Be sure to highlight the full block(s), not the internal content. You can then hover over any of the blocks, click ⫶⫶, and choose Turn into → Synced block. You can also prompt this menu with cmd/ctrl + /.
Once you've created the original instance of a a Synced Block, you can click Copy and sync in its upper menu, then paste wherever you want a synced instance.
For Synced Blocks that will contain just a single block, you can simply copy the block's link from its ⫶⫶ menu, paste it into another location, and choose Paste and sync. This converts the original to a Synced Block and creates a synced instance where you pasted.
If you'd like to edit an instance without affecting the others, you can choose Unsync from its ••• menu. Within the original, you can Unsync all.
Keep in mind that in order to see a synced block, a user needs access to the page containing the original instance.
If you hit any roadblocks while tinkering with Synced Blocks, tweet @WilliamNutt.