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We are creating a form editor with many different layouts. Many layouts will have the same content repeated on them. We want to make it easy to define a section or group of fields on one layout, and have it placed across many layouts. Editing one will update all the instances of them saving the user from repeating edits many times. However I'm worried this kind of mental model is hard to convey.

I'm not sure what kind of UI pattern this is called but the best analogy I can think of is repeated calendar entries in osx calendar. They appear multiple times. When you edit any instance of that event it will change that instance and when saving it will ask

You’re changing a repeating event.
Do you want to change only this occurrence of the event, or this and all future occurrences?
[Cancel] [All Future Events] [Only this Event]

I'm considering a UI very similar.

  • A insert that lets you insert from a list of existing sections
  • Some visual cue to show an section instance is repeated X times in other places
  • any change to something in a section results in the popup to ask if you want to change this only this section or all other instances of this section. If "all instances" then it won't ask again until you edit something else. If "only this" then its no longer linked and any changes there are no questions.

Thoughts? Examples of other ways to solve this?

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  • Made me think of design systems and reusable components. Are you able to provide examples of some layouts that users will want to repeat? That might help get better suggestions, really depends on how it will be used in practice. Commented Jun 22, 2020 at 20:56
  • For example they are designing a 1-2 page form with 4-5 sections for example customer details, products ordered, free text comments, delivery address etc. There might be 5 different steps this form goes through where different parts of the the information has to be displayed differently, like an invoice that repeats some sections exactly the same, leaves out other sections (internal things like assessment) and maybe in a different arrangement. Most layouts could be just repeats of the initial form though. Commented Jun 23, 2020 at 2:13
  • I wanted to avoid the idea of a reusable components used in design systems as I think its not an easy concept to grasp. While they might repeat the same sections on different layouts they aren't likely to want to reuse them in other places. I wanted something lighter and easier to grasp without training. Commented Jul 16, 2020 at 7:21

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Microsoft Office has a couple of different names for this, including Quick Parts and Building Blocks (including AutoText), while Visual Studio has Code Snippets.

They essentially function like a template with stored content that you can reuse, so you might be able to reference their design patterns.

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And if you edit this block of content and save it, then any instances of its usage will also be updated. However, if you want to maintain different versions of it then you'll just have to save a different copy, which might become confusing to try and manage without good naming conventions and process involved.

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