Reusable Galleries
Build a gallery once, get a permanent shortcode, and place it anywhere — pages, posts, widgets, templates, page builders.
A reusable gallery is a gallery stored on its own, separately from any page. It gets a shortcode that never changes, and any page that uses that shortcode shows a live reference to the gallery — not a copy.
That's the whole feature, and it's the answer to two questions people ask constantly: how do I use the same gallery on three pages? and how do I put a gallery in Elementor?
Creating one
- Go to Shaped Gallery → Add New Gallery.
- You land in the ordinary WordPress editor with a Shaped Gallery block already on the canvas — nothing to insert.
- Build it exactly as you would on a page: pick a layout, add media, set the inspector panels.
- Give it a title. This is how you'll find it later in Saved Galleries and in your page builder's dropdown, so make it descriptive.
- Publish.
It's the real editor, not a clone of it
A reusable gallery is an ordinary WordPress post of a hidden type, edited in WordPress's own block editor. That means undo/redo, autosave, revisions and the block toolbar all work exactly as they do anywhere else — and the block you're editing is the same block, with the same inspector, that you'd insert on a page.
The inserter is narrowed to the Shaped Gallery block on this screen, because a gallery post models a gallery. Other blocks would be stored but never rendered.
Finding the shortcode
It appears in two places in the editor, so it's never more than a glance away:
- Gallery Info, at the top of the inspector, under the block card.
- The Post tab of the editor sidebar, visible the moment the editor opens.
Both show the gallery's id and its shortcode with a copy button:
[shaped_gallery id="42"]You'll also find it in the Shortcode column of Shaped Gallery → Saved Galleries, with a one-click copy.
Placing it
Paste the shortcode wherever WordPress runs shortcodes:
| Where | How |
|---|---|
| A page or post | A Shortcode block, or a Classic block. |
| A widget area | A Shortcode widget. |
| A theme template | <?php echo do_shortcode( '[shaped_gallery id="42"]' ); ?> |
| A page builder | Use the builder's Shaped Gallery element, which lets you pick the gallery from a dropdown. See Integrations. |
In a page builder, use the element, not the shortcode
Every supported builder gets a real Shaped Gallery element with a gallery picker. It renders through the same code path as the shortcode — you just don't have to remember an id.
One edit updates everything
Because a page stores a reference rather than a copy:
- Editing the gallery updates every page that uses it, immediately. There's no re-sync step and nothing to remember.
- Deleting a gallery breaks every placement — the shortcode stops rendering. Saved Galleries says so before you confirm.
- Duplicating a gallery gives you an independent copy with its own id and its own shortcode. Edits to one don't affect the other.
Guards you get for free
The shortcode isn't a bare "render post 42" — it carries the same protections the block has:
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| The gallery is in the trash | Nothing renders. |
| The gallery is a draft | Only users who can edit it see it. Visitors get nothing. |
| A gallery embeds itself | The recursion is caught and nothing renders. |
| The gallery is private or password-protected | Those rules apply here exactly as they do to the block. |
| The license isn't active | Administrators see a notice; visitors see nothing. |
Block on a page, or reusable gallery?
| Block on a page | Reusable gallery | |
|---|---|---|
| Used in one place | ✅ Simplest | Works, but more moving parts |
| Used in several places | Copy-paste, then maintain each one | ✅ One gallery, one edit |
| Page builders | Not directly | ✅ Via the builder's element |
| Widgets, templates | ❌ | ✅ |
| Lives with the page it belongs to | ✅ | Stored separately |
A useful rule: if the gallery is about the page, make it a block. If the gallery is a thing in its own right that pages refer to, make it reusable.
Managing them
Shaped Gallery → Saved Galleries lists every reusable gallery with its title, shortcode, date and actions — edit, duplicate, delete, plus bulk delete and duplicate, search and paging.