Databases

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When teams rely on different apps for

to-do lists, project planning, and docs,

it's hard to keep a reliable source of

truth. Countless Vfinals, and where's

the latest messages often feel

disorganized and inefficient. That's

where databases come in. Databases in

Notion are collections of pages with

flexible ways to filter and visualize

the information inside. When used

effectively, databases change how teams

work by connecting things in ways that

separate apps never could. Let's start

with the basics.

While rows may appear to be simple line

items, you can open them to find a blank

page to work with using Notion's wide

range of blocks. In the case of this

content calendar, you'll see that this

page contains a content overview and a

draft of the blog post itself.

On the outside, your database is clean

and structured, but dig into any page,

and you'll find it full of detailed

content and information. All Notion

databases have properties that add more

information to the database and each of

its pages in the form of text, people,

dates, statuses, and so much more.

Properties can be added and customized

to reflect the information you want to

show in your database. Let's walk

through our example. First is the name

property, which is the only page

required in a database. Given that every

row is also a page, this name is also

the page title. Next, we have a few

other types of properties. We have a

person property called writer, a date

property called publish date, and a

status property. Let's say we want to

add a property that shows the type of

content we're creating. We can choose

the multi select property to create our

own relevant tags.

Properties apply to every row and page

in the database. When we open a page

within the database, we'll see the

complete list of properties.

Properties are important because they

allow us to create different views of

the same database information. And

that's where the power of databases

comes in. With views, you can visualize

the same database information in

different ways with filters, sorts, and

grouping options. Database views include

calendars, boards, timelines, charts,

feeds, and more. In this case, let's see

how this table looks when viewed as a

calendar by deadline. This calendar view

contains all the same pages that we have

in the table, but now visualized by

their deadline. By clicking a page, we

access the same page information just

like we did from the table. When a

database property is changed, it will

automatically update across all views.

For example, by moving a deadline on the

calendar, this new deadline will be

reflected in the table as well.

Now, let's visualize our database as a

board to more clearly see the work in

progress. This is just one example of

the many ways views let us visualize the

same information. But what if we only

want to view database items that have a

specific property? That's where filters

come in. In this database, we might want

to filter only by published content so

that we can return to it easily. Here,

let's create a new filter, select the

status property, and filter by content

published. Now we can save this as a new

database view for the team to return to.

While this is only just one example, it

shows how filters are used to make

databases more customized and

actionable. Now for creating new

database pages, the simplest way to add

a page is with the new button, but

databases are often filled with similar

types of pages and content. To make this

easy, database templates lets you

replicate page content in new pages. Not

only does this save time, but it ensures

consistency across the team's work. For

our content calendar, let's create a

simple template for a new blog post with

a content overview and the blog post

itself.

When we create our next post, we can get

started faster from the template.

Now that we know how databases work,

there's a few more considerations to

keep in mind when building one. When you

create a new database, you'll start by

typing / database on any Notion page,

and you'll see two options, inline and

full page. These both do the same thing

behind the scenes, but how they show up

in your workspace, that's what makes all

the difference. An inline database is a

database inside of a regular page, right

alongside your text, checklists, images,

and whatever else you've got going on.

This works well when your database is

just one part of a larger doc. You can

also open inline databases as full page

databases if you need to. A full page

database is exactly what it sounds like.

It is the page just like our content

calendar example. If you're working with

lots of entries or switching between

multiple views of the same information,

this is usually the way to go. Databases

also don't need to be built from

scratch. Notion AI is another tool to

quickly create new databases. First,

describe what you need in simple and

specific terms, and notion AI will

suggest the properties, views, and

example pages. Everything is fully built

for you and ready to use. Imports lets

teams bring existing content into a

notion database by uploading files or

importing directly from tools like

Confluence, ASA, and many others. This

lets you continue your work right where

you left off. Lastly, use the templates

marketplace to find inspiration and

duplicate databases created by the

community right into your own workspace.

Make any adjustments you need and then

you're ready to go. To recap, databases

are collections of pages and properties.

You can create them from scratch, add

filters, and make database templates for

consistency. They are an essential part

of any Notion workspace, a flexible tool

to create tailored solutions for

whatever the task may be.

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