Notion Databases: Workshop

Take control of your Notion databases. Learn how to optimise boards, tables, gallery, tables and lists inside of Notion and how to use all the database functions in Notion interactive elements. Notion has plenty of brilliant databases to take advantage of and begin applying to your account, so fingers crossed this video helps you dominate them.

This week has been sponsored by Sanebox, I reached out to them to discuss the sponsorship as a happy user and they were more than happy to support the Keep Productive channel.



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Edited by Francesco D’Alessio

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[keepproductive]

A little thanks to our sponsor, Sanebox

[ChrisKibuku]

Thank you. I have picked much from this to add to my new skills on Notion as a newbee.

[gautreaux]

Great, Francesco! Databases were the reason I got hooked by Notion. So happy you are starting to cover it now. Very good video. The potential of the multiple views is insane. Allowing you to shift perspective and mindset on the flight, but still focused on the job at hand. Great!

[cerebralaudio]

Something that hasn't been mentioned in any of your videos that is *really* important in Notion: filters, property toggles and sorting are attached to the view and persist. For a simple example... A shopping list with three columns: purchased toggle, item and department (or section). I set up three views: All, Done, and Shopping. The "All" view has no filters or sorting. The "Shopping" view uses a filter for "purchased" is no selected, and sorts by department. The "Done" view uses a filter for "purchased" *is* selected, and sorted by department.

This is really useful for quick workflow... For example, each week I update my shopping list by going into the "Done" view and toggling off the "purchased" property for the things I need each week. Then I go into the "shopping" view and add any special items. While I'm shopping I just tick off the things in my cart as I add them.

I use the "All" view when I need to go through and cleanup the list to keep it from becoming too cluttered.

[dmitryadov]

Thank you Francesco. I think you are almost the only person who produce videos about Notion using. Without detailed manual yours' videos are the one source I could learn something new.
Could you please say more about building personal finance system using Notion. And, my be you could provide us more detailed videos on different aspects/topics of using Notion? I highly interested in building CRM system for my small educational center for children by Notion.

[marwanahmed]

Thank you sir for taking time to post this great how to video. I love the fact that you elaborate and demonstrate databases in notion. I really loved the workout page. This is my first video of yours and I surely will go through all your videos. Is there any videos on using notion in the aspect of monthly expenses, finance, paying off debt logs or such? Glad I found you on YouTube and can't wait to learn more about Notion and be productive.

[Shelsight]

Thanks Francesco - I've discovered loads re Notion's flexibility thanks to all your videos..!
Two ways Notion could help Database newbies:

1. More colour/tone contrast between the screen background & database/board cards. Unless images are embedded, the blocks merge together, even when they have text and labels in.

2. Emphasize the importance of choosing what info goes in Column #1 of a Database/List if you plan to view/use it later as a Board, Gallery, or Calendar.

Because whatever is typed in the #1 (Name) Column in the Database, becomes the 'Card Title' - and that Title CAN'T be changed afterwards (even by moving another Column to position #1.)

There is a 'tool tip/hint' to that effect, but it's hidden unless you click TWICE and 'hover'. (This issue could particularly frustrate users from Trello or EverNote, used to tweaking Card or Note Titles any time.)

A quick mundane example (but it applies to any info or process): A Shopping List of 30+ rows:
- In Column #1 - I added the item 'type' or 'aisle' (ie 'Produce', 'Deli', 'Household' etc. )
- In Column #2 - I listed each specific 'item' I needed to buy (ie the main 'Task')
- In Columns #3-7 were Brand, Qty, UseByDate, How to Store, Checkboxetc...

The order felt logical and looked OK in the database, but in Board/Gallery View:
- I ended up with 10x cards called Produce, 6x cards called Deli, 8x Household, etc - because they were my Column #1 'Names'.
- I couldn't remove or amend those card titles, or use them across the top of the Board for sorting (unless I missed something in settings?)
- And the individual grocery items (from Column #2) were listed in a smaller font inside each card - whereas they probably should have been the more prominent card 'titles'. But even though I dragged Column #2 to the #1 slot in the database, the original 'Names' couldn't be replaced.

So it's a simple matter of thinking ahead a bit - but Notion could def make it clearer before it frustrates too many new users.

Sorry - much longer comment than I intended! But I really think those two tweaks would help Notion gain (and keep) new users much more quickly. Thanks again. I'm playing with the relational database aspect next after watching your video today. Cheers!

[abhineetkapil]

Do notion tables allow aggregate functions like sum, avg etc on grouping by a column?

Let's say you have expenses data in a table. Can I get the totals by categories?

[stevewebster]

Hi. Just started to look at using Notion as a one point for all type of application. One thing I’m struggling with is getting existing and new files into Notion from say OneDrive which is my current storage medium. I have lots of projects with even more docs associated with them most of which are PDF’s. I’ve built a database to import the files into where I can add tags etc once in the table. But first obstacle is getting them across and into Notion. Can you perhaps point me in the direct of help with this please? PS, great productivity videos, thanks for all you supporting info thus far.

[XaviArmen]

Hi Thank you for your complete information. I would like to know if I can share/print a selection/filtering of a database. For example> Expenses database, filter it by a month of the year and share it (so that only the selected month is shown). I have tried it in several ways and it doesn't work. It always shares the Whole Base. thanks in advance.

[property]

Thanks for the great video. Is it possible to import table into Notion like Excel or csv file ?

[cstrosetta]

I had to stop watching your vid 9 minutes into it. I’ve been trying configure and personalize Notion for a week now, and things just clicked in my brain. I was able to go back to pages I created and organise better. I of course watched the rest of vid 🤗

[BikashKumar-pzhc]

Hi What do you use to your screen recording to create these videos?
Thanks in advance.

[realteslashow]

How you do on 10:47 to center the talbes which are inline? (sorry for stupid question)

[hammockmonk]

I'm trying to put multiple views of a database on the same page. Possible? If so, how? Thanks!

[ivvie]

Hello! I was watching some of your previous videos on Notion and I especially loved your workspace setup and how it links to various places in Notion.. would such a thing be possible in Coda? I'm a blogger and something like that would be perfect for my work.

[FigureCashflowSecrets]

You mentioned someone (Rebecca something) for learning more about the database stuff but you didn't give a link to her. Could you please supply that?

[talkingtooloud]

I am probably thinking about this wrong way in Notion terms but I have searched high and low in the community for a solution and can't find one yet. For context, I run a website that provides online courses on popular technology tools. On one hand I am constantly tracking updates to these courses with data points in my tables like Course Name, Creator Name, Creation Date, Amounts Paid to course creators, Course Status etc. So far, all has been well there. My question comes from my goal to be able to share/publish certain (but not all) of these data points from my master database with my customers who want to know where my courses are in the update process but are not privy to details like how much I am paying to update courses, who is updating them, etc.... So, is there a way to either 1) have my main database populate specific data points to another database automatically so that I only have to update the master but can still publish a shared link to the other on the web. Or 2) is there a way to only publish a certain "View" of my master database that would not allow a customer see data points that I want to keep private? I have played with relations and rollups a ton but neither seem to be giving me the result I am after. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

[MrWanted]

I wish notion add a group feature to the database tables like airtable

[hhauffe]

You mentioned checking out Rebecca Ford. Can you point to a video or two of hers that respond to what you were talking about??