This lesson was originally intended to create a Books Database to track your library of physical and digital books. However, by simply adding a "Category" field to the database, we can expand it to other types of media as well, such as Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, etc.
We can also easily expand this database further, by adding additional categories, to capture Recipes (have the ingredients added to your shopping list), Quotes, or any other non-Media collections.
Depending on your needs, you may want to add fields specific to the Category created or you can duplicate this database and create a new, custom database for the specific collection.
Let's dive in...
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Step 1: Under the "Shortcuts" section of the dashboard, add a new sub-page under "Contacts" named "Media Database".
Step 2: Add an icon to the page and select "Table". Rename "Name" to "Title" and delete the "Tags" field. Add the following fields:
Step 3: Add the following selections to the appropriate fields:
Category
Status
Priority
Rating
Step 4: Add any other media you would like to track to the "Category" selection. Delete the empty rows and change the field length as needed.
Step 1: Click "Add a view", select Table and name it "Books Table - All". Add a Filter to show where the "Category" is "Books".
Step 2: Create a new view as a Table and name it "Books Table - Read". Add a filter to show all books where the Status is "Completed".
Step 3: Create a new view as a Gallery and name it "Books Gallery - All". Add a filter to show all books where the Status is "Completed". Go into the Properties and change the "Card preview" to the "Image" field we created.
Step 4: Select "Fit image" and toggle on the "Sub Title" and "Creator" fields.
Repeat this for each of your Categories and the different Status you would like to view.
Step 1: Click "New" and rearrange the fields so they flow smoother.
Step 2: Fill out the applicable information. To get an image to use in the database, find the image online, right click on it and select "Copy image address". Now paste that link in the Image field. You can also upload an image from your computer.
Step 3: If you pasted the correct link (usually a JPG file), you should see an icon of the image.
Step 4: As you add media to the database, select the appropriate view based on what you would like to see.
This is a simple database, but one that can be quite powerful. As always, customize it to your specific needs. As you are taking notes for a book you are reading, you can link the note to the book. You can add a Recipe Category and expand it beyond just media. The limits re only constrained by your imagination.
Next week we will review how to use the Notion Web Clipper with this database to easily capture data on the web.
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Here is the link to the template we just created. To add this template to your workspace, click the "Duplicate" link in the upper right of the screen.