- Notion has just released
one of their biggest updates ever, a complete overhaul
to how databases look and in many cases work.
And I am just gonna skip my normal preamble here
because I'm gonna show you some
of the coolest new features with this database redesign.
So, check this out.
First and foremost,
I've got this really cool sample workspace here
where I am selling some discount capes
to some superheroes and you can see right away
there is a tabbed view where now all
of our database views are in this list of tabs
across the top of the screen.
So we can switch very easily
without having to go into that little dropdown menu
which is really, really nice.
There is also now a unified view options menu.
So you can go over here to the three dot menu
and where we used to have only some
of the options for our database,
now we have pretty much all of them.
We can rename the view from this little field right here.
We can go to the layout area where we can choose board
or table, timeline view for the specific we're working on.
We can show or hide the database title
which is really cool.
Something I've wanted for a very long time.
And we can come back here
and mess with our properties, filters, sorts, et cetera.
So, a lot of good stuff here.
And speaking of sorts and filters, there is now
a completely redesigned filter and sort experience.
So if I go over here and click the filter button,
we are going to see a new filter and sort bar
that is above our database content.
And we can do some really cool things here
including adding what are called quick filters.
So if I add a filter right here, and again
we're gonna get more into this later,
we're going to see save for everyone button right here.
So right now, this filter actually only applies
to me and anybody else who has access
to this database is not going to see
that filtered view unless I come in here and save the filter
for everyone else on the team, which is super cool.
And last but not least, linked databases
have gotten a huge overhaul as well.
And they are now immensely more useful than they used to be.
Not least of which, because you can now look
at multiple databases, multiple source databases
from a single linked database block.
So here, I have this little sales dashboard
and I've got one view called sales by customer
which is a linked database view of a customer's database.
I can click here and we can see we're looking at customers
but if I go over to this next view, sales by organization,
this is a linked view of a completely different database.
And I can come over here to our little three dot menu.
And in addition to all the same view options we had earlier
for original databases,
we now have a source menu where I can actually change
the source database for this particular view, super cool.
So in this video,
I'm gonna give you a comprehensive overview
of everything we just looked at.
And by the end, you were gonna be an expert
on how to use this brand new database experience.
And what I'm also gonna be able to do now
is finally finish out my Notion Fundamental Series
with the lesson on databases
that I've wanted to do for a very long time
but I wanted to wait for this new UI update to come out,
so my video wasn't out of date.
So if you wanna be notified
about when that lesson is gonna drop,
you can go over to thomasjfrank.com/fundamentals
which is the homepage for the entire course.
You're gonna find written versions of each lesson
and there is a email signup.
If you wanna join my Notion tips newsletter
and get notified when that databases lesson drops
and when new templates and tutorials drop in general.
So with all that being said, let's get into this new
better databases experience and dive more deeply
into each of the features that I previewed in the beginning
of this video, we were gonna start with tabbed view.
And honestly, there's not a ton to say about tab view.
We just now have a better view of our database views.
That's in a nice little horizontal row
at the top of your databases here.
If you have a lot of view,
you are still gonna see that dropdown menu,
but if you only have a few and the screen is wide like this
you're gonna easily be able to click between them
not a ton to say there.
What there is a lot more to say
about is the brand new filter experience.
Now, sorts haven't changed a whole lot.
They are now in a new place when you click sort
they're gonna be over here.
But other than that, your sorting criteria
has not really changed a whole lot.
Filters, however have gotten a big upgrade and big change.
So now, there are two different types of filters in Notion.
There are advanced filters
which are the old school filters that we are all used to
where you can have lots of different steps.
And actually don't have one right here on this view
but I'll make one as an example
but there's also what are called quick filters.
So these are quick, quick filters.
They're very basic single step filters.
They don't have or criteria.
They're just single filters.
And if I add one, let's say 2020 sales is greater than 500.
Then you're gonna notice that if this database is shared
with somebody else, which in this case it is
I'm gonna get this little save for everyone button here.
And what I have essentially done is create a filter
that only I can see.
So this is very useful if you're working with a team
because you can now have a team accessible dashboard
but you can create a filter just for you
that isn't going to affect everyone else
on your team, which is really, really nice.
Now, if I do want this to affect my team,
I can go ahead and hit save for everyone.
But there are also a couple
of other options that I will go through before I do that.
Number one, you can reset that to simply get rid
of this quick filter, or I can go
to this little dropdown menu here
and I can save this new filter combo
that I created as a brand new view
instead of altering this one, which is really nice.
I can also merge this into an advanced filter
and I'll actually show you what that does.
Once I hit that, all of my filters now go into
the filter experience that you are much more used to seeing.
So now, this is what's called an advanced filter
and I can do things like creating those filter groups
like we used to have, and that's going to apply
to our database like it always has.
So I'm gonna go ahead and remove that one.
Now that I made a change.
Once again, I see this little save for everyone button.
So once I hit this
now it says here changes have been saved for everyone.
This view is going to be visible by anybody
who has access to the database.
Now, one thing I will mention about these quick filters
is that they don't have quite the same capabilities
as an advanced filter might in all cases.
And the one example I'll give you here is with date filters.
So if I go ahead and create a filter
by our last contact date, and let's just say
I only wanna see people
that I last contacted before December 9, 2021.
That works just fine.
But what you'll notice with the date filters right now
within quick filters is I don't have access
to those dynamic date options like today, tomorrow,
last week, those kind of things.
So if you wanna get access to those,
you wanna turn this quick filter
into an advanced filter, and then we can
instead of using custom date, move over and do things
like one week ago, one month ago, that kind of thing.
So I'm gonna go ahead and do one month ago
is before one month ago
and that's gonna change our filter criteria.
One other small little quirk that I did notice
when I was testing this out for myself.
And I think this might get patched out quite quickly.
So this could make the video outta date
but I did notice when you hit the filter button up here,
that shows and hides this filter and sort combo bar
whereas with the sort button, it just goes ahead
and shows the sort criteria or hides it.
And it's not really clear
from the UI that filter is going to show and hide this,
but sort isn't.
So I found that a bit confusing
but once you get used to it, it's not that big of an issue.
So let's go ahead and clear these filters
so I can see all of my wonderful superheroes
I'm selling capes too.
I'll say that for everyone.
And now let's take a look
at the unified view options window.
Again, like I said, in the beginning of the video
you're gonna have basically all the options
for this view of this database in this new unified area.
So if I go to layout,
I can change this to any other kind of layout I want.
So maybe a board view, I can go back to table view.
I can also change certain options here.
So, this is now where you're gonna find certain options
like let's just say, if I go back to a board view,
your card preview, your card size.
So, I could change this too small.
These used to be inside of the properties menu.
Now they're inside the layout menu,
which I think makes a lot more sense personally.
So, I'll go ahead and change that back to table.
I'm gonna keep showing my database title.
I'm gonna keep wrapping my sales
and let's check out properties.
The only thing I'll mention here
it's pretty much the same as it used to be
except it now uses the same little design convention
that the grouping menu used, where you are shown
and hidden properties are separate from each other.
So I think that's actually pretty nice
and you can actually see deleted properties as well.
And you even restore them if you want to.
Don't wanna restore this 'cause it's not necessary.
But if I wanted to, I could.
We also have access to our filters and our sorts.
We've already covered that here,
we have our grouping options.
I've got a whole video
about those grouping options here on TF Explains.
You can check that out, I'll link to it below
and we have our load limit.
And then we have some lock link,
duplicate, delete options here, nothing too fancy.
So, that is our view options area.
And now, I would like to show you the part
of this update that I am personally most excited about
which is the updates to the linked database block.
The linked database block is now immensely useful again,
because we can actually choose a different source database
per view, inside linked database.
So let me actually show you,
I'm just gonna recreate this little sales dashboard here
to show you exactly how it works.
I'm gonna hit my slash command.
And one thing you'll notice
is that the name of the linked database block
has actually changed very slightly.
I think it used to be called
create a linked database now as a linked view of a database
but slash linked works just as it used to.
So I can create that.
And the first thing it's going to do is ask me
what the data source for this first view is going to be.
So, let's go ahead and choose customers.
And now, it's gonna ask me
if I want to copy an existing view from the source database.
So, if you have of already views in the source database
that already have shown hidden properties
or complex filter and sort criteria,
this is a very nice time saving option
for creating your linked databases.
Unfortunately, you cannot currently copy a view
from another linked database block.
I did try that myself, but that's not an option quite yet
but it is nice to have this ability to pull views
from the original database itself.
I don't think I actually wanna do this.
I think I wanna create a brand new empty view.
I'm just gonna call this sales by customer
and I'm gonna make it a table view.
I do wanna wrap my sales and if I wanted to,
if I wanna make this a nice clean dashboard
where I'm not seeing these database names,
I can go ahead and hide the database title
which is really, really nice.
Now what I've wanted for a very long time
in Notion is the ability to create database aliases
like basically different names for the same database
when I'm using linked databases.
This doesn't quite get us that
but what it does get us is the ability to hide
that annoying database title there.
And then if I wanted to, I could just create
say a heading and would just call this maybe sales.
And by using the heading block,
instead of showing the title of database,
I can create a much cleaner looking dashboard.
So that would be very useful,
if I wasn't going to be showing multiple source databases
in the same linked database block, but here I am.
So I do wanna get rid of that
'cause I don't wanna confuse myself.
So now, I have my sales by customer.
I could go in and I can add another view.
And now, it asks me again what I want the source to be.
So for this one, I'm going to choose organizations.
I'm going once again, create an empty view
and I will leave it as a table.
So, I'll just call it orgs
and I'll wrap my sales once again and boom, I'm good to go.
Now, one other really nice thing you can do
with the linked databases specifically
is I can come up with the three dot menu
and I can lock the views in this linked database block.
So, I'm not necessarily locking the database
which used to be our only option, instead
of locking these views in this linked database block.
And if I go back to the source database,
you can see that it is not locked.
I could lock it if I wanted to
but the locked views is something completely separate
from the databases themselves being locked.
So, that is pretty much everything you need to know
about the brand new
better databases experience inside of Notion.
Besides these changes that I've shown you in this video
pretty much everything else works
as it used to inside of Notion, you can sort,
you can move your properties just like you need to.
Well, if it wasn't locked, I could do that.
You can do your calculations
but it it's now wrapped in a better UI.
And we have some more power
especially in the realm of linked databases.
And I'm very happy with this update personally.
So, if you are not subscribed yet,
hit that subscribe button 'cause I've got lots more
Notion tutorials and templates coming outta the pipeline.
In fact, I will tease this now, I've been working
on a complete unified second brain template.
It's called ultimate brain.
It marries tasks, projects, notes, goals.
It's basically what I have wanted Notion to be
for my personal productivity
for the past four years that I've been using this tool.
It's been a big design challenge
but I'm just about ready to release it.
So if you wanna get on the wait list for that,
you can go over to Thomasjfrank.com/brain.
Otherwise, make sure you subscribe to this channel.
If you have questions,
leave down the comments section down below
or follow me on Twitter over at TomFrankly.
See you in the next one.
(upbeat music)