Hi all, we’ve done a lot of exploration in #32464 around the saving flow for Reusable blocks and I'm opening this issue to discuss expanding on those ideas and potentially applying them to other blocks. This proposal is also based on the latest design for the multi-entity saving flow proposed by @javierarce in #31456, and could make a good follow up to that issue.

Here’s the save flow step-by-step as it exists in #32464:

• There’s a Save button in the Reusable block toolbar that defaults to an inactive state if all changes are saved
• If a change is made within the inner blocks, a dot indicator appears in both the Reusable block parent selector and the Update/Publish button in the top bar
• When the user clicks the parent selector to access the Reusable block toolbar, the dot indicator remains visible in that view and the Save button is now active
• If the user clicks Save from the toolbar, the button will return to an inactive state and the dot indicators will disappear from both the toolbar and (possibly) top toolbar

Expanding “unsaved” dot indicators beyond the toolbar

The below video shows how the unsaved dot indicators could potentially be expanded to other contexts as a way of helping explain what the dots signify. The dot could appear next to the block name in the block description, as well as within the multi-entity saving panel with a number to indicate the amount of unsaved changes:

Expanding indicators to more blocks

Template parts and Reusable blocks are container blocks and post types, so it makes sense to treat these entities in a similar way. There are also Site blocks — like Site title, Site Tagline, and Site Logo — that get captured in the multi-entity saving flow.

I would propose that the container blocks get both a Save button and dot indicator in their toolbar, while the Site blocks get just the dot indicator. This should help bring visibility to the global elements within a document without adding a lot more visual clutter:

Would love to hear what others think, especially re: whether expanding the dot indicators to the sidebar and multi-entity saving panel is helping with user understanding around this fairly complex saving flow!