Notion Basics: How to Use Template Blocks and Database Templates

Notion's template block and database template feature both make it easy to create copies of things you need on a repeat basis, like checklists for complex tasks. Today, I'll show you the fundamentals of each, plus a few advanced tricks.

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Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro and Overview
00:57 - How Templates Work
02:35 - Using the Template Block
04:56 - Database Templates
10:30 - Pages in Templates (2 Cool Tricks)
15:27 - Public Shared Templates

[ThomasFrankExplains]

IMPORTANT NOTE: Notion's introduction of Synced Blocks unfortunately broke the "Page in Template" duplication trick I showed around 11:00. However, Synced Blocks add in a whole host of new features, and allow you to do roughly the same thing using different steps.

[jaimetan]

I was into this... and then I went cross-eyed halfway. This is like next-level Asana... so powerful but the learning curve... dayum...!

[alanwallace]

I’m loving the potential of this, being new I’m looking for some basics to explain use, with a transitions to more advanced tutorials.

[ramgraphite]

omg, you really get into the nitty gritty, it's all very interesting, but I literally got the answer for what I wanted to do in like the first 30 seconds, afterwards I was just amused seeing how far you can take it and really geek out with this

[elisa]

You can work around the multi-column issue within the template button: create a page and put the columns inside the page, then drag the page into the template, right click on the page block and “turn into text” and here you go. Hope this helps

[neilsouza]

This is so helpful.
It has changed the way I use Notion.

[AnneloesF]

This was exactly what I was hoping to learn! Great tips, and I appreciate all the llama content also hahaha I subscribed!

[nourmahmoud]

many amazing information in one Video is usual, mind blowing
thanks a lot! Thomas

[manchineel]

Excellent video. I didn't know about the question mark trick.

[koenquicken]

Very good and interesting video. Thank you Thomas

[bonjbonc]

Another prestige knowledge sharing from Frank. Terima kasih banyak-banyak.

[carlottatacota]

Thank you so much for your templates and everything. I have notion since yesterday and before your videos i was just lost... I would really like a template or tutorial for budgeting bc the one from notion is really too basic for me.

[wjcurious]

Most people don't even need notion. It takes time to set up properly for your needs. I use clickup. It's also versatile but has built-in features you can customize in minutes.

[Infosecfactory]

Thanks for the video, it made so much clear! I was really struggling with databases, relationships and rollups. After watching your databases video this was not a problem anymore.

I hope to achieve creating a service tickets database and a knowledge base database where I can create a template in the service ticket database. Then use synced blocks to pull information from a knowledge article and fill the template.

The idea here is to create a service ticket for an incident and have a sync block to pull the information from a knowledge article so it gives a description of the incident and a predefined response plan.

[AaronCCorbin]

Thanks for the amazing video!

With regards to what you did with the Master Filming checklist, where you created a "link to page" inside of a template button inside of the template, I know you can do something similar with Synced blocks. When would you use one rather than the other?

[chiragjain]

For creating a dynamic checklist every time, would you rather use a sync block that link to a master? Your thoughts? With sync block asking your team to unsync and then makes changes can be inconsistent.

[Ojuolape]

Been trying to figure the out for so long! Notion can be a bit intimidating at first.

[jamesfoxca]

Cutting all the content to get back the option to apply a template...thank you, Thomas!

[michaelj]

Love the tutorials and templates. What is the best method to assign tasks to team members? Then I can see tasks by team member, track individually, by project, etc.

[STalvacchia]

Awesome video!

It looks like you have tasks that are set to reoccur, with a visual status if it is completed which resets with the new occurrence. That's some next levelskills! Please make a tutorial on that.

I also see the note for creating a new team member, saying to change the filter for the assignee on Buckaroo's task table. Can new team members alter that and see everything in these team databases, or can you set permissions so that not only pages, but certain content in a database is not accessible by certain members?

What's a good copy manager?