--- title: 'Shaping WordPress: Zoom Out & New Blocks' description: WordPress patterns simplify page composition by allowing a zoomed-out view for easier editing and styling of entire sections. Explore new block creations and doc_version: current last_updated: '2026-08-09T19:01:22.000Z' date: '2024-05-24T14:48:58.000Z' author: Rich Tabor summary: WordPress patterns simplify page composition by allowing a zoomed-out view for easier editing and styling of entire sections. Explore new block creations and tags: - Newsletter published: true type: blog url: /shaping-wordpress-003 canonical: https://richtabor.com/shaping-wordpress-003 id: 5414 --- Welcome to [Shaping WordPress](/shaping-wordpress/), where I share every couple weeks what’s top of my mind and what’s shaping up for WordPress. If you haven’t already, [subscribe](/shaping-wordpress/). ## **One big thing I’m working on** It’s not uncommon for website builders to offer a perspective that allows you to see more of your site by stacking sections of a page together. In WordPress, these are called “[Patterns](/patterns/).” I envision a similar experience within WordPress, especially as patterns continue to become more and more significant for the WordPress page building experience. Composing pages with patterns from a zoomed-out view reduces the granularity of editing, while further simplifying selection, rearranging, removing, and styling of entire sections of a page at a time—providing more confidence that a design is coherent and visually appealing. This is much more than a different perspective, but rather a first iteration towards a “simple mode” for editing sections of a page at a time and [composing new pages](/composing-with-patterns/). On that front, it would be interesting to explore engaging [content-only editing](/content-only/) as you select a section of a page to edit when zoomed out. ## Blocks I’m building I’ve started sharing [the blocks I built](/blocks/) for my blog because I find them interesting and believe you might learn something new by checking out the code. Your suggestions for improvement are also welcome—it’s a learning opportunity for both of us. I recently built a [dark mode toggle block](/dark-mode-toggle-block/) and a [cards block](/cards-block/), each using different techniques to showcase various methods for [building WordPress blocks](/block-plugins/). I also have a [video on YouTube](/build-blocks-with-ai/) where I cover the basics of building a dynamic block with the help of ChatGPT. There’s a few more blocks I’m working on, including the Comments Avatars block and the Link Card block, both of which you can see on my [posts](https://richtabor.com/) page. ## Other bits I’m pushing forward 1. I’m still pushing for [more consistent root padding](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/60715) so that toggling on content width adds root padding, and patterns don’t need to hard-code padding which disrupts the global styles layout padding functionality. I would appreciate it if you could take a look and see if you notice anything unusual with any existing themes or patterns. 2. There’s a good discussion happening around [reducing CSS specificity in WordPress 6.6](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/discussions/61810). The goal here is to make it easier for you to override core editor styles, which also supports the [section styles](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/57537) effort. 3. As a bit of a side-quest, I’ve been working on a few [tiny details](/tiny-details/) for the upcoming WordPress 6.6 release, like [interface skeleton shadows](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/61835) and [simpler block outlines](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/60757). I’ve been looking forward to cleaning these interface edges for some time now. ## WordCamp I’m attending next I’ll be leading the Design table for [Contributor Day](https://europe.wordcamp.org/2024/contributor-day/) and just may be participating in my friend [Jamie Marsland’s](https://www.youtube.com/c/jamiemarsland) live, in-person [WordPress Speed Build Challenge](https://europe.wordcamp.org/2024/session/gutenberg-speed-build-challenge/). It’ll be one for the books. Will I see you there? * * * That’s it for now. If you’re finding this newsletter helpful, **please share it with a friend**. I’d love to hear your thoughts—feel free to reply here or reach out to me on [X/](https://twitter.com/richtabor)[Twitter](https://x.com/richtabor). Is there anything you want to read more, or less, of? Thanks. Rich P.S. [Ask me anything about WordPress](/ama/) ## Sitemap [Full site index](/sitemap.md)