What is a master block, and when does it save you hours?

Start from the plain version

A block is a grouping of elements and content saved so it can be reused on other pages. Save a section as a block and it becomes available to drop onto any other page.

A master block works the same way, with one difference. Any change made to it is applied automatically to every page where the block is used.

What that means in practice

systeme.io's own example: a master block sits on page A and is reused on pages B and C. Modify an element inside it, the text or a colour, and the change lands on pages A, B and C.

Nothing has to be republished page by page. The block is one thing appearing in three places rather than three copies.

When it saves hours

The saving scales with the number of pages carrying the block. A block used on ten pages turns a ten-page edit into one edit.

A plain saved block does not behave this way. Automatic propagation is the single difference systeme.io states between the two, so anything reused across a lot of pages is where the choice matters.

How one is created

A master block can be created from any element on a page. The documented example uses a page section.

Open the page first: Sites, then Sales funnels, then the funnel, then the page, then Edit page.

1. Click the section. Aim for the empty space to the left of its contents, where a green Section tag appears at the top left. Clicking the contents selects a row or the text instead.

   

2. Click the floppy disk icon to save the block. The left panel should now read Section. Two floppy disk icons do the same job: one in the panel's toolbar, and one on the green toolbar at the section's top right.

   

3. Give the block a title in the popup that appears. The title is the name the block is listed under afterwards.

   

4. Tick the box labelled "Do you want to create a master block?". Left unticked, the same button saves a plain block instead.

   

5. Click Create. It is the blue button at the bottom right of the dialog.

   

A block built from a Row element follows the same steps.

The rule that catches people out

Deleting a master block removes it from every page it was used on. systeme.io marks this as important, and it comes from the same mechanism that makes the feature useful: a change to a master block affects all the pages it sits on, and a deletion is a change.

A master block on twenty pages is twenty pages losing a section at the same moment.

What the documentation does not tell you

The tick box at creation is the only place the documentation tells the two kinds apart. Nothing in systeme.io's three block articles describes turning a saved block into a master block afterwards, or a marker in the Blocks panel that shows which is which.

Saved blocks are listed under My blocks by the names given to them at creation, and that name is the one label you control.