Hi everyone, Kevin here. Today we
are going to learn how to use Notion. With Notion, you can capture thoughts, you
can manage projects, you can publish websites, you could even run an entire business. We're going
to start with the absolute basics of how you even just add a page, how you can work with blocks,
and then we'll advance to working with databases, collaborating with others. Although those may
sound complex, Notion makes them really easy. By the end of this video, you'll have a
solid understanding of how to use Notion. All right let's check this out. To get Notion,
you can click on the link up above or down below in the description. This drops us on the Notion
homepage and first let's click on the text that says pricing. This opens up a page with an
overview of all of the different plans, and check that out, one of them is completely free,
and that's the plan that I’ll be using in this video today. The free plan offers all of the core
functionality, but there are two big limitations. First off, you can only upload files up to 5
megabytes in size. So, let's say you want to add maybe an image to your workspace. You just have
to make sure that it's 5 megabytes or smaller. Also, you can only collaborate with up to five
other people. So, if you're a small business and you have more people you're working with,
you'll probably need one of the other plans. But once again, the free plan has most of what
we need, so let's click on get started. This now drops us on the sign-up screen, and you can
sign up with an e-mail address, a Google account, or an Apple account. I'll sign up with
just an e-mail address. On the next screen, you can add a photo, and especially if you want
to collaborate with others, I would recommend doing this. You can also add your name down below
and you could set a password. I'll go through and do this. I've now entered all of my information.
I'll click on continue. On the next screen, you can tell Notion a little bit about yourself, so
they understand you better, but for now I'll click on skip. Here we have a choice to make. Do you
want to use it with a team or for myself? Now for myself is the free plan and that's the one I’ll
be using today. Just because we choose this one, don't feel like you're locked in. Later on, you
can always upgrade to one of these other plans, but for now, let's go with this one and then click
on take me to Notion. This now drops us into the main Notion interface, and although it may look
simple, you'll be surprised by how powerful it is. I want to start by just giving you an
overview of the interface that we see here. Over on the left-hand side, this area is referred
to as the sidebar and this is what you'll use to navigate throughout your workspace. At the very
top of the sidebar, here you'll see your workspace name, and when I click on that, here we see the
workspace name again. I'll click out of that. You can also customize whether you see the sidebar.
Here I can click on this icon. When I hover over, you also see the shortcut key. I can click on
that and that minimizes the sidebar. So now I just focus on the content. Here I could click on
this menu again and that brings the sidebar back. I could also hover over the edge and here I could
give it more space, or I could give it less space. So, I can customize what that looks like. Here in
the sidebar, you're going to use this to navigate throughout your workspace and right here you see
all of the pages and all of the databases that make up your workspace. Here, for instance,
I'm currently in the getting started page, that's the one highlighted and over here
in the editor window. Here I could see the contents of that page all right here. Down in the
bottom left-hand corner, you'll see this upsell notification for the desktop app. So here I could
download the app or alternatively, I could also go right back up to the workspace name, click
on that and here too I could also download the app. There's an app available for both Windows and
for Mac. So why would you want to install the app? Well, first off, you get OS level notifications,
so you're less likely to miss important updates. Also, it's not in a web browser so you don't
have other tabs that are trying to distract you. Aside from those two, though, it's
pretty much an identical experience. So, if you don't care too much about those, you
might as well continue using it on the web. We've talked about the interface a little bit now,
but I also need to get work done. I want to add a new page to track locations for the Kevin Cookie
Company. To add a new page, over in the sidebar, there's an option called templates, and when I
click on this, I can look through all of these different templates that I can add and it's worth
a look to see if maybe one of these templates already does what you need. I'll exit out of that.
Down in the bottom left-hand corner, here I could just add a blank new page and I could start from
scratch. Alternatively, I could also click on add a page and that does the exact same thing,
and one thing you'll find using Notion is there are many ways to do the same thing. I'll click on
add a page. This has now inserted a new page and right here in the sidebar, you see the new page
and it's currently called untitled. To give this page a name, I can click on the three dots and
here I could rename it, or I could simply click into the page and here I could type in a name.
I'll call this Kevin Cookie Company Locations. I can also customize what this page looks like.
When I hover over the title, here you'll see these different options appear. Here I can add an icon.
I’ll click on that, and here it just throws in a default icon, but this doesn't really relate to
a cookie company. I'll click on this and here I could customize it. I could insert an emoji. I
could select from different icons. I could also upload my own image, but I think emojis should
work. Let's see if they have a cookie emoji and they do. That one looks good, and I’ll select
that. One of the benefits of adding an icon, over on the left-hand side where I see all of my
pages, here I see an icon, and this helps me more quickly identify this page. Right up here I can
also add a cover. I'll click on that and here too it also throws in just a random image, but once
again this does not match a cookie company. I'll click on change cover and here I can choose from
colors, gradients, images, I could also upload my own. Here I could also link to an image, and
they also have something called Unsplash. These are basically stock images. Here too, I'll
type in cookie and let's see what they have. This one looks pretty good. I'll select that and
click out of that. So, here I have my cover image. I could also click on reposition and here I could
drag it up or down to get it in the perfect place, but I think this looks good. I'll click on save,
and I've now customized what my page looks like. Down below, I see all these different links that I
can use to help me get started with this page. So, here you could insert a template or you could
start with a database table, and later on, we'll get into what these are, but for now I
just want to start with a very simple page, so I'll simply click here, and I'll start typing
in we're going to use this page to track our retail locations for the Kevin Cookie Company.
Now that I've entered some text, just like in any other word processing application, here I could
highlight some of that text and when I highlight it, I get this contextual menu. So here I can
make it bold or here I can click on this drop down and maybe I apply some blue to this text,
so I can format what this text looks like. Also, over on the right-hand side, I have this
three-dot menu that exposes even more options, but for now I think this looks good. When I hover
over this line of text that I added, over on the left-hand side, you'll see there's a plus icon and
there are also six dots. This line of text that I inserted, this is referred to as a block, and this
page will be made-up of many different blocks. Over on the left-hand side, I’ll click on the plus
icon, and this shows all of the different types of blocks that you can insert onto your page. This
first initial line of text that I inserted is just a simple text block and here we see some of
the basic blocks. So, I could insert a To Do list, a heading, a table, a bulleted list, and
the list goes on and on. As I go down, you can see all of the different rich types of
blocks that you can insert onto a page. You could even insert media, video, audio, you can even
embed different types of content, so you have lots of different options when it comes to blocks.
Now I want to just keep it simple, so I’ll select heading 1 and here that inserts a heading and I'll
type in current locations. Here I want to insert an image of all the current locations. So, just
like I did to insert this block, I'll go over to the left-hand side, click on this plus icon, and I
can scroll down and find image. But alternatively, and this is a little bit quicker, I can simply
type in image and that filters this list of all of the different block options. Here I’ll
select image and here I could upload an image, I could enter in a link, or I could select that
stock imagery again, but this time, I'll click on upload. Here's my image. I’ll select this and
then click on open. This has now uploaded all of our current locations to this page. As I hover
over all of these different items on the page, you'll see that I have this same plus icon with
the six dots. So, every item here is a block. Once again, you compose a page with many different
blocks. Now up to this point, to add a block, we've been clicking on this plus icon, but
an even easier way, here I'll go down and I can also type in the forward slash character. Here
I'll type in a forward slash and that also exposes the menu. It's a little bit quicker to do that.
And here I can simply type in heading 1 and then hit enter and that inserts the heading 1. So,
you can make it really quick to add new blocks. For this heading, I'll type in proposed locations
and that looks good. Under proposed locations, I want to add a bulleted list of all of the
locations that we're planning on opening. Here I could type in a forward slash, and this
shows me all of the different blocks. When I scroll down a little bit, here's the option
for a bulleted list. I could click on that, but that was quite a few clicks just for a
bulleted list. Here, I'll delete that. Instead, I can type in a hyphen and then a space, and
that also inserts a bulleted list. That was a lot quicker. Learning shortcuts can really help
you save time. Here when I move around the page, in the bottom right-hand corner, you'll see
the question mark icon. When you click on this, you can click into keyboard shortcuts. This page
shows you all of the different keyboard shortcuts available within Notion. Here at the top, you'll
see some of the most popular ones that'll save you a lot time, and as you scroll down, you'll
see that there are many different shortcuts, so it's well worth some time learning some of these
keyboard shortcuts. I've now inserted a list of all of the different cities where we're planning
on opening locations, but on second thought, I think a task list might work better than a
bulleted list, but I definitely don't want to have to retype everything in. So here, I can highlight
all of these different blocks and then I can click on this six-dot icon, and when I click on that,
there's the option to turn into. When I hover over that, I can change this block type into any
one of these other block types, and I want it to be a To Do list. I'll select this option, and that
swaps it out for that other block type. To add all of these different blocks, we've been clicking on
the plus icon, we've been using the forward slash, but you can also just drag and drop media from
your computer directly onto the page. Now with this page down at the bottom, we have all of these
different proposed retail locations, and this is highly sensitive information. We certainly
wouldn't want our competitors to get their hands on this, so I should probably include some
information to our employees not to share this. Here I'll take an image from my computer, and I'll
drag it right down here. Just letting everyone know that this is top secret and that they won't
get any cookies if they share this information. I think this image will be very effective, but it
might make more sense to show at the very top of the page, and it's good that it's pretty easy to
move blocks around. Here I can select this block and here I see the six-dot icon. I can press and
hold, and I can drag this to a new position. Now when I drag it you see this blue line appear and
that indicates where it'll place this block. Now, one thing that's nice is you can also move
it over to the right-hand side if you want to make another column and place it alongside
other blocks. Here I could also move it to the left-hand side. Now I think probably the most
effective position is right here near the top. I'll release and place it right there. That way
people see the warning and then here you see all the sensitive information. To move this block, we
used the six dots and then we dragged it around, but you can also select a block and then you
can use shortcut keys. I love those shortcut keys because once again they help you save so
much time. You can press control + shift + down arrow to move it down a block, or control + shift
+ up arrow to move it up a block. It just makes it quicker to move things around your page. This
page is coming along nicely, but I think it's almost too much information on just one page.
I have proposed locations, current locations, so I'd rather split up some of this content. Over
on the left-hand side, I can add a sub-page. Here I'll hover over this page with the Kevin Cookie
Company Locations. I can click on this plus icon, and this allows me to add another page. Here I'll
type in current locations and then I'll click over to the side, and here I see my main page and I now
see a sub-page here. I could click into that and here I see my sub-page. I'll go back to the page
that we've been working on, and here I'll delete current locations and I'll take this map. I'll
press control + X to cut it, and then I'll go back to current locations, hit enter, and here
I can paste the map of all of our locations. When I go back to the main page and I scroll
down, at the very bottom, I see there's a link to current locations. When I click on this, this
brings me to the current locations sub-page. To navigate around, here I could click here, I
could click here to jump between these different pages, or up on top, I also have breadcrumbs
that allow me to navigate back, so here I'm in that sub-page current locations, but here I could
click to the top level again and that brings me back to that main page. I think it also makes
sense to move all of the proposed locations to their own page. I could go through the same flow.
I could click on the plus icon, and I could add another page, but instead I could also click on
this block. I'll click on the six-dot icon, and here's the option to turn into page in, so I could
turn it into a page. Right here I can turn it into a page within the Kevin Cookie Company locations.
I'll click on that and here that's automatically added a new page over on the left-hand side in
the sidebar with proposed locations. There I see all of them. I'll click back into the main page.
Now I also want to move over all of the different locations. Here I'll highlight all those different
blocks and here too I’ll click on the six dots, and here I have the option to move to. I’ll select
that and I want to move it to proposed locations. I'll type in proposed locations, and here I see
the page that I just created. I’ll select that and that moves over all of those blocks into proposed
locations, and here I see them again. In Notion, there are many different ways to accomplish the
same task. Now that I have multiple pages, over on the left-hand side, I can reorder these. So,
I really want to see current locations ahead of proposed locations. Here I can press and hold, and
I could drag this on top of proposed locations. Here I could also select the entire page
group. Here I'll select this and I can move this all the way to the top on top of getting
started, and here I see the locations at the very top of the list. Now, especially as you
start getting really large numbers of pages, it might become hard to get back to the ones that
you care about the most. With this page selected, in the top right-hand corner, I can click on this
star icon, and this adds this page as a favorite. Over in the sidebar, you'll see that it
added a new category called favorites, and here I see all of my Kevin Cookie Company
location information. Also up on the top bar to the right of the favorite icon, I can click on
this three-dot menu, and when I click on that, I can adjust the style of my pages. So, here
I could adjust the font look and feel. I could also adjust the size of the text. I can make it
smaller, larger, I could also have it take the full width or not the full width. You have other
options as well. Here I could even lock the page, so this way when people come in, they can't
actually modify the contents of the page. That might be helpful. For now, I’ll click on the three
dots and let me unlock the page so I can make edits to this. Over on the left-hand side, let's
click into the proposed locations, and here again, I see all the cities where we want to open up a
location, but this doesn't really tell me that much. For example, what is the anticipated opening
date? What will the location look like? Some of those types of questions. What is the status?
And I don't get that from just a To Do list, so I want a much more detailed view and I
think a database might help me with this. I'll type in the forward slash, and here I'll
type in database, and here we have all types of databases that we can insert, and I just want a
simple full-page database. I’ll select this option and later on we'll see how you can start with the
database and then you can convert the view of the database into all these other types. So, let's
select full-page for now, and check that out, we now have a new database. That's how easy it is
to make your own database. Over on the left-hand side, let's expand proposed locations, and here
we see the new database is basically a sub-page of proposed locations, and right up here, I can
type in a name for this database. I'll type in detailed view of proposed locations. Down below,
I have my database and although database might sound somewhat intimidating, it's really just
a simple table with lots of information in it, and I want to use this database or this table
to track all of the different locations we're planning on opening at the Kevin Cookie Company.
So, to start off, I need to give these different columns names. Here I’ll click into this column
and instead of name, I'll call this city. Over here, instead of tags, let me change
this to the anticipated opening date. For the anticipated opening date, I'll click on type
and let me change this to type date. Over here, I could also add additional columns. I'll click on
this plus icon, and I also want to add the status, so how far are we along at opening this location?
I'll select status, and when I select that, here I can see these different states: not started,
in progress, or done. That'll be really helpful as we track these different projects. I'll close
out this side pane. Last, I'll add one additional column for files. This way we can share a picture
of the location. I'll click on this plus icon, and here there's the option for files and media,
so you can add all these different types of properties to your database, whether it's text,
numbers, multi-select. I already added dates, especially when you're collaborating, you could
add other people, so well worth looking through this list to see all the different types that you
can add. Here I’ll select files and media, and this looks good. I'll close this out. My database
is starting to take shape, but I need to add some of the cities where we want to open locations.
So, I'll go through and fill out some of this information. I've now added some details to this
table, and one thing you might be wondering is, well, what is the difference between just a
standard table and a database? I mean, you could store all this same information just directly
in a table. Well, let's take a look at what some of these differences are. When I hover over Los
Angeles, here you'll see that I have the option to open additional details or a side peek. Let's
click on that. This opens up a pane over on the right-hand side or the side peek with Los Angeles,
and as I hover over the title, here you'll see that I can add an icon. I can add a cover, so this
is just another page with details. Right on top, I can see the properties, or the columns related
to this location, and down below, I can build out an entire page related to this one specific store.
So, within a database, you can store all sorts of information related to each one of these records
in your database. Here I'll minimize the side peek. Along with being able to add more details
related to each record within your database, down below, you can also add calculations. Here
I'll click on this and let's say I want a count of all the new locations we're planning on opening.
Right here, I can click on count all and this adds a count to the bottom of that column. Over here,
under the anticipated opening date. Here too, I'll click on calculate and here I could add the
earliest date, so it looks like we're opening a store in two days. That's coming up really soon,
so it's a good thing that it's already done. Under this column, I could also click on
calculate and maybe I want a percent per group, so let's see what percent is already done. Here
I'll click on complete, and here I could see that we're 20% through this list. We're making
some good progress. With databases, you can also filter and sort your data. Here I’ll click on the
anticipated opening date column, and when I click on that, here I have the option to sort, and I
can also filter the data. I'll click on filter and let's say that I just want to see all the
stores that are opening up in 2023. Here, I can click on this drop down, and I'll say is after
and I’ll select December 31st, 2022, and here I see that we have one store opening up in 2023.
To remove the filter, I can click on this, click on the three dots, and then delete the filter.
I can also access filters right up here and I also can access my sorting options. To the right
of filter and sort, I can also search against my database. When I click on this, let's say I just
want to see my Toronto location. I could type that in and that filters down this database table to
just that store. It's that easy. I'll close that. To the right, I also have the three dots or the
ellipsis, and here I have some additional settings that I can configure. The beautiful thing about
using a database is that you can visualize your data in different ways. All of the underlying
data stays the same, but you just get different views on it. Over on the left-hand side, let's
click on this plus icon. This opens up a pop up over on the side where I can decide what type of
view I want to add, and you have different options here. Now I already have a table view. That's this
initial view here, but for this new view, I can add another one. So, here let's select the board
view. I think that looks interesting. Down below, I can configure various settings related to this
view. Here I'll click into group by and over here let's click into this, and I want to group by the
current status. I'll select that and then close this out. So here I can see my board view. It
shows all the locations that we're opening up and the current status. Now we've made some progress
on Manila and it's now all done. Here I can click on that card and here I can drag it over into
done. If I go back to the table view up above, here I can see that Manila has now updated,
so the underlying data is the same across all of these different views. I just have different
views of the data. Up on top, I can click on the plus icon again and I can add yet another view
to my data. So, here I’ll select the calendar view and then I'll click done. Here, I'll close
this out and here I have my standard calendar, but one of the interesting things now is I can
view when all of the different stores are opening in a calendar view. So, once again, all of the
underlying data is the same. The only difference is how I view all of this data, and if I make
any changes here, that'll tie back to those other views. Here too, I can also click into one of the
stores and that opens up all of the page details, so databases are so powerful, and you can contain
so much data and view that data in different ways. To get back to any of the other views, here I can
simply scroll all the way back up to the top, and here I can jump between the different views, but
also over on the left-hand side in the sidebar, here I can expand this section and I see all these
subpages with all of the different views. So, here I have my table, my board, my calendar, so
it's really quick and easy to navigate back to all of these different views. I hope you see by
going through this that databases are so powerful and have so much more functionality than just your
standard table. As you're working with Notion, you may have the need to bring additional data
into Notion. Luckily, Notion makes that really easy. Over on the left-hand side, let's click on
import. This opens up a dialog and here you can see all of the different types of data that
you can import directly into Notion. So, you have Evernote, Trello, Asana, and all these other
services. Now here at the Kevin Cookie Company, I want to add all of our delivery information
into this Notion workspace. Here I'll click on Word and here I have my delivery options. I’ll
select this, and here it's uploading it. Once it finishes importing, over on the left-hand side,
I now have a new page called delivery options, and here I see my Word document has been imported
entirely into Notion, so now I can do all of my work just in this one place. The one thing to
note, if I make any updates to this document here within Notion, this won't go back and affect
the original source document. Now that I have all the delivery options entered into Notion, I
just realized that with the upcoming locations, I should probably add in the address information.
I can navigate back to the database over here on the left-hand side using the sidebar, but up on
top in the control panel, I also have the option to search. When I hover over search, you'll see
that the shortcut key is control + P. I'll click on search and here I want to add details to the
Los Angeles location. I'll type that in and right here, I see the best match for Los Angeles. Here
I can click on that, and that brings me to that direct page within the database. That was a really
quick way to get back. Down below, I'll click into the page and here I'll enter the forward slash
and I want to add the address location and maybe it be nice to include a map. Here I'll type in
map and here you can see that you can also embed content directly into your page. Here I have the
option to embed a Google map. I'll select this and here it asks me to type in a URL. I'll enter the
URL of the location and then click on embed map, and here we now see a map of the location where
we're opening the store. This is exactly what I wanted. Adding the map was pretty easy, but I
don't want to have to do it for every single city. Maybe I could pull in one of my coworkers and have
them help me. So, I want to share one of my pages and all of the subpages. Here I'll select this
top-level page and in the top right-hand corner, I can click on share. When I share this out, it'll
share this page along with all of the subpages. Here I'll click on share and right here I can
type in e-mail addresses for people who I want to share with. I'll click on this and here I'll
type in Patty. She's my manager and she's always looking for some work so I’ll enter in her e-mail
address. Over on the right-hand side, I can set the permissions. Here I can give her edit access
and I want her to add maps for these different cities, so I need her to be able to edit, but
you can also set it to comment or just view, and if you upgrade the plan, you can also offer
full access, but edit for now is good enough. Down below, I could also type in a message. Over
here, I'll click on invite, and look at that, what an overachiever. Patty is already within
this workspace. Here I can see her photo right up above, and this indicates that she's currently on
this page. If Patty navigates to a different page, her photo will grey out, and once she returns to
this page, here you see that it lights up again. Over in the top left-hand corner, I can click
on settings and members, and within settings, I can click into members, and right up here
there's the option for guests. Here I can review all of the different guests who have
access to pages within my workspace. Here I see that Patty has access. I can click over
here and here I see that she has access to this specific page. If I no longer want her to be able
to access this page, here I can click on remove. With the free plan, you can only share with
up to five guests. Back here on the main page, I want to make sure that Patty knows what to do.
Over on the sidebar, I'll click into proposed locations. Then I'll highlight Manila and here I
have the option to insert a comment. I'll select this. Over here, I'll select the @ symbol, but
I could also just type in the @ symbol as well. Right here, I'll select Patty Fernandez and then
I'll type in my question. I want her to add maps to all of these different cities, and of course,
I’ll give her a cookie. It's amazing how you can incentivize people with a free cookie. Here, I'll
click on send. Over on the right-hand side, I now see this comment icon and here I can click on
that, and I can see my original question. It looks like Patty's already responded. Of course, all
done, where's my cookie? I better work on that. Right here, I can resolve this comment. I'll
click on this icon, and now that disappears from the page. To view all of the comments
on this page, in the top right-hand corner, I can click on the comment icon, and here I
see there are no open comments, but over here, I can filter to all of the resolved comments,
and here I see my conversation with Patty. Over on the left-hand side, here I can also click on
updates, and this shows me all of the different updates happening throughout this workspace, and
here I see my comments with Patty. One of the neat things is I could also reply directly from here.
Using updates is a good way to stay up to date on everything that's happening throughout this
workspace. Sharing with Patty's been great. I'm now getting all this work done, but I also want
to share out the current locations with all of our customers so they know where they could shop
for our cookies. Here I'll select this page and in the top right-hand corner I'll click on share
again. But instead of typing in a specific person, right here I have the option to share to web. This
allows me to publish this page as a website. I'll check this and right here I see the website
URL. I’ll click on copy web link. Down below, I can also set various permissions for this page.
Now I don't want customers to come in and edit this. I also don't want them to comment, so I'll
make sure I leave those as is. I've now navigated to this page, and look at that, customers can
now see all of our different locations on a map. We might have to work on providing a little more
details, because this isn't really that specific, but at least they know that there are
locations in their country. All right, well that was a quick look at how you can get
started using Notion, and I think you'll agree with me that it is an incredibly powerful tool
that also happens to be very simple to use. To watch more videos like this one, please consider
subscribing, and I'll see you in the next video.
