- Yes, you did indeed
read that title correctly. Notion has, at long last,
released a simple table feature. In the past, you probably
know just as well as I do, that if you've ever wanted to embed a simple table of data into Notion, you had to use a database block. And while that works well enough, in many cases the database
block is completely overkill for really simple data and
the new simple table feature completely fixes that problem. Now you can embed a
completely no frills, basic, non-database table inside of Notion. So how and where in your workspace should you use this feature? Well, that is exactly
what we're going through in this short video. I'm gonna show you exactly how to use the new simple table feature, show you how it differs from databases, go through a couple of
the different limitations there currently are with this feature, and finally show you a
couple of tips and tricks that I've discovered that I
think you should know about. If you're new here, my
name is Thomas Frank, and I am a full-time YouTuber and writer. And on the side, I like
to create Notion templates for things like task
management, for note taking, and even a template that fully replicates my team's exact system for managing my 2.4 million subscriber main channel, this channel, and all my
different social media platforms. So if you're interested, you can check out those resources in the description down below
after you watch this video and make sure you're
subscribed to this channel for new detailed
tutorials and build guides for taking Notion to the next level and improving the way you work. With all that being said, let's get into this new
simple table feature. (upbeat music) Okay, so let's kick this off with showing you how to
create a simple table here in Notion. I've got a blank page and
to create my simple table, I just need to type that slash command like I would do it with
anything else and type table. You will notice that databases now have a kind of a new
name for the table view. It's now a table database,
inline, or full page, and you will find table,
which is the simple table, and you get something that
looks a little bit like this. And I have several different
options for what I can do here. I can add columns by
clicking this plus icon here, I can add rows by clicking this icon here, or I can actually come down
here to the bottom right corner and I can click and drag to easily add as many of these columns
and rows as I want. So I'm gonna go ahead
and go with four columns and several rows here, and then I can start adding in some data. So let's create a list
of my favorite games. And as you can see, I can enter my text data like I just did and I can also use tab
to go between the columns and enter to go between the rows. What I can also do is drag
my rows and columns around so I can take a column like
this and I can drag it like so. Or if I want to reorder my rows,
I can do it just like that. I can also create table headers if I want. Most usefully, I can come
to this little six dot icon and I can create a header row like that. And if I wanted to, I could do the exact
same thing with a column and I can have a table looking like this. I don't want a header column, so I'm gonna go ahead and get rid of that. What I can also do is use this little fit
table to page width button to make this table fit the page width. And what I'm actually gonna
do is go ahead and delete this and add in a fully filled out
table that I made beforehand to show you the last main feature of this simple table block, which is that it accepts
rich text formatting. So over here in this notes
column, if I wanted to, I could say bold this text right here, or maybe make this text
actually have a background by giving it a green background right now. I'm gonna go ahead and actually
put a comment on this one. And you can also add links, so right here, I might add
a link to a YouTube video just by pasting it right there, just like you would with a text block and you can also add links
to other Notion pages. So I've got another Notion
page on my other screen here, and I'm gonna go here and
actually just paste it in and make it a mention to another page. Perhaps the most
interesting thing you can do with a simple table feature is actually turn it into a database. So if you go to the block
menu here and click it, we can click this turn
into database button and we're gonna get a
nice little database. So if you need more features,
you can go ahead and do that. And you're gonna notice
that the first column becomes your typical name column, which is essentially
the page for each row, and then all the other columns
turn into text properties. You can also turn your database back into a simple table if you want. And I do want to show
you one cool trick here. If I go ahead and move this
notes column to be first, and then I go and turn
this into a database, you'll notice that all
of my text formatting with the exception of the link right here has basically been deleted. But if I go ahead and turn
this back into a simple table, it actually retains that
rich text formatting, which is really cool. Now, there are some limitations to the simple table feature right now. I'm guessing some of these
will change in the future. But as of right now, the most significant limitation
is that you cannot create other blocks inside of these table cells. If I go ahead and type slash like this, nothing is gonna happen. The slash menu doesn't come up and I also can't drag
and drop existing blocks into these cells either. They really only accept text right now. Another couple of
limitations are, number one, you cannot copy across multiple cells and you can also not paste
multiple cells worth of data into a table from say a Google sheet or another table or a database, and you can't sort with
a simple table feature in any other way except
for dragging and dropping these cells manually. However, for sorting and for pasting and copying across multiple cells, there is indeed a workaround,
a cool little trick, and that is going to bring us into the tips and tricks section of this video. Say you want to copy all
the data across this table and paste it somewhere else, or you have data in another table and you want to paste it into this table, or you want to sort the data not by having to drag and drop manually. Well, to accomplish literally
all of these things, all we need to do is first
turn this into a database. Once we've done that, we can accomplish all
three of those things. I can come and I can
create a sort like so. So I'm gonna go ahead and sort by, let's go and sort by type for this one. I can also copy and paste
across multiple cells if I use a database. So I can come here and I can
select all of these cells and then I can come down here and make myself yet
another table database. It has to be a database at first. And we also need to
replicate the properties that are in our original tables, so I'm gonna make that game, I'm going to turn this one into text and I'm going to call it type. And once I have those in place, I can click here and then make sure I'm not inside this cell. I want to just have it selected in blue and I can paste all of my data across and then finally come up here and turn this into a simple table. One last cool trick
here is that you can add your simple tables into synced blocks, into template blocks, and
into even database templates. So just like any other block, you can come and create a
synced block if you want, and then you could drag
your table into it. And by doing so you could go
ahead and copy and sync this to other pages in your workspace. I've got a whole video on synced blocks, so check that out if you don't know what this feature is all about. And you can also add your
tables into database templates. So I want to give you a quick example of how and why you might want to use that. And I'm gonna show you a little template I've made for recurring tasks. So I've got this task database right here, and let's just say I want
to make a recurring task, but I want to have a log
of what I've done each time I've done that task in there. Well, I could go ahead
and create a template called Task with Log, and it's just gonna have a
simple table inside there. So what that gets us
is something like this, where I could mark off my task as done each time I want it to recur, and I've got a whole video
on recurring tasks in Notion if you're curious about how to do that. But I could write exactly
what I did each time I did the task in a simple table. Now, in addition to this video, I've also created a full written guide for the simple tables feature, so you can find that in
the description down below if you are curious, and if you are completely new to Notion or you want to learn the basics, I've got a free course
called Notion Fundamentals. You can find that over at
ThomasJFrank.com/fundamentals. It is completely open, completely free, and it will take you from
a completely blank page inside of Notion to learning and mastering all of Notion's most basic features. So go through that if you want to learn how to use this tool. You can also check out my free templates over at ThomasJFrank.com/templates, including my task manager template, which I use every single
day, it is very robust, along with my note taking template, habit tracker, and lots more. Finally, if you're a YouTuber
or creator like myself, you may also want to check
out the Creator's Companion. Is the most robust template
that I have ever created and it is literally the exact
system that my team and I use to manage all of my
channels, my main channel, this channel, my blogs, literally
everything that we publish anywhere on the internet starts
in the idea generation area of Creator's Companion and
goes through the process inside one single Notion template. No more juggling Todoist and
Evernote and Google Sheets and all these different tools. It is literally in one system. We absolutely love using it. It makes us more productive, and I think you will love it as well. Check that out over at ThomasJFrank.com/CC if you're curious. And last but not least, you can follow me on Twitter @TomFrankly especially if you have Notion questions. The comment section down below
is a good place to put them, but I answer faster on Twitter, so follow me over there and let me know what is on your mind. Thanks as always for watching and I'll see you in the next one. (upbeat music)
