How to use properties and templates in Logseq

[@kenfhill84083]

This is a masterpiece tutorial. And without mindless, distracting background "music" so prevalent in videos. Thanks.

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Glad you liked it :) Thanks for the feedback

[@AthanassiosHatzis]

Hi Dario, thank you for this awesome explanation on logseq properties, especially the highlight on the distinction between page properties and block properties.

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Glad it was helpful Athanassios :)

[@1983elzorro]

Thank you Dario for such a terrific tutorial! You're my main reference in my journey to mastering Logseq. I started using it for building my Zettelkasten workflow and your help has been invaluable. Warmest regards from Nicaragua.

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Glad I could help! 🙂

[@chipmonkey7100]

Thank you Dario for this update on properties and templates. This was a very well done update on your earlier content.

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Thank you :)

[@donaldmickunas8552]

I can see the utility of both properties and templates. As I refine my database and think things through, I'm sure that I will find applications for both properties and templates. Thanks for a great introduction.

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Thanks!

[@orange-vlcybpd2]

aliases are also great to provide translations for terms if you are speaking multiple languages

[@Bartek2242]

I enjoy your lessons more and more.

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Thanks so much Krzysztof :)

[@anydroid]

Thank you, Dario, that’s a useful update. I also use daily journal pages to ingest new content (the alternative of consciously filing everything in pages just recreates the analogue folder problem) but I was too lazy to perfect the advanced queries needed to retrieve and filter stuff. However, I can see from your demo that a couple of block properties provide enough structure to retrieve anything via simple table queries and {filter} 🚀

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Glad to hear :) Hopefully the advanced query builder comes soon!

[@MrHugomesquita]

This as an awesome refresh on properties. Thanks a million Dario!

[@juschenten]

Dear Dario, you are such a great explainer. It would be so helpful if you extend your expertise to tana as well. Thank you also for your great logseq course. It is worth every cent.

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Thanks for the kind words Judith. I am looking at potentially doing some content on Tana, although at the moment I'm thinking it might be on a different channel

[@KingJahfy1]

Great video!!

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Thanks!

[@zachmorgan2880]

Thanks for this video - I definitely learned some new things. One area where I am still not entirely clear: you mentioned not wanting to create new pages and "polluting" your graph. But, I believe you still made [[links]] out of the properties. Also, I thought Logseq made properties into pages by default (unless one turns this off in their .EDN config file). Or am I conflating block properties and page properties. If Dario or anyone else could shed some light on what advantages one gains by using block properties over tags, I would be very grateful!

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Hi Zach - It's a case of rather creating pages for concepts as aggregating points, rather than creating unnecessary pages to hold content. Logseq used to auto-create the pages (it still does for the 'tags::' property), but this behaviour has changed

[@RookiesRookie]

love the explanation. Well done.

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Thank you :)

[@RodrigoKormann]

Awesome content!! I'm doing a book reading list using the same concept with blocks. If I want to add a property called review, in this example. Can I have logseq to retorn a shorter sentence where I define the maximum length of the paragraph? But I'd like that not messing around the config and CSS file. Is there a property or something else to be defined inside the table? Thank you!

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Hmm, don't think so 😑

[@GeniusUnleashed]

Good stuff 👍

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Thanks 👍

[@nabbopersempre7004]

thanks for this great tutorial. I wanted to ask: there is a way to hide block properties when I visualize a block? It would be great to see only the block without the properties and be able to see properties only if I need to see them

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Thanks 🙏🏻 Unfortunately none that I know of or use (I'm sure some people use CSS to do this though...)

[@joeyyyyang]

Thank you Dario. This introduction is useful. But I am wondering what is the use case to apply property in the page or in the block? For example, we have inputs like paper, article, blog, video and book. Or, it doesn't matter if we can change query for these two types.

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

I'm not sure I understand your question. Page properties theoretically give you more querying abilities if you can use advanced queries. This isn't really my forte though.

[@kevinmullan2602]

Thank you Dario, this concept is so intuitive. One thing that I have used is a comma separated list in a property in the past, so if John lived half the year in Australia and half the year in Ireland I would be inclined to put the property lives-in as [[Australia]],[[Ireland]] so rather than 'subject, predicate, object' it would be 'subject, predicate, objects' - this is actually very useful when defining the areas / groups / expertise within which you interact with a person (whose record this would be). Is this still possible and is there any special syntax that needs to be adopted - I must admit to being bewildered by { and ( and [[ and just a plain , Thank you for your selfless journey since I first encountered LogSeq which has been an insightful help as I have bumbled my way to a (mostly) useable Graph!

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Thanks for the kind words Kevin. I'm glad that your Logseq graph is mostly useable :) Your 'subject, predicate, objects' does indeed work. And plain commas are fine, I just like having backlinks there to make sure I can retrieve the information down the line.

[@eoghanbrsnkn6559]

what is plugin with green / yellow dot? it show syncing files in graph?

[@eugeniogonzato]

Very nice

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Thanks :)

[@hofjen66]

Hi! Very good explantiono, But I have one question. If I define a template with some page properties in it and the properties in the template are empty, so, if I use the template there is no pull down menu with all already defined property values to choose them. Instead I have to use ::, then choose the property and at least one of the existing values. But this counteract the sense of templates if I have to new define each property and choose the value. 😞

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Yep, that's one of the unfortunate things about Logseq.

[@robbiep742]

New user, quick question - I have been placing block properties as the first child to the block they are intended to reference, which felt natural (given how page properties work)... can you explain why this approach is incorrect? (Also, thanks for your content, really helping me get started with logseq)

[@robbiep742]

AFAICT the issue is that the child properties is the only thing that displays on linked references by default... why is this bad? It seems to create a more compact view in linked references than if I make the props part of the the parent block. That said, I'm still wrapping my head around the idea of using linked references, and as a new user it seems like an overwhelming amount of information... but this might just be my smooth brain coming from Notion talking...

[@robbiep742]

Example: * block 2 ** prop2:: val2

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

I think I did answer it in the video (or somewhere else, maybe the course) but if block properties are indented underneath a parent block, they no longer belong to the parent block. They then belong to the child block. Took me a while to get my head around this, admittedly.

[@ask_questions]

How do you enable the cool icon pack that you seem to have ?

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

It's just the Windows 10 icons :)

[@ask_questions]

@@CombiningMindsPKM Aaha...problems of mac user :)

[@DrPuneetGupta]

I maintain a contacts database on airtable Can I sync columns of airtable as properties in logseq. Is there a way to do it via api

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

I haven't looked into this unfortunately. It might very well be possible given the robustness of Airtable's API, but beyond my abilities as a coder for now.

[@noahm2259]

How to edit a template? Thanks

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Just edit the blocks underneath the parent block that has the template property

[@phillewis3108]

It's covered in what?

[@phillewis3108]

Oh wow, got to the end. That looks interesting!

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Glad you found what you were looking for :)

[@achim709]

The disadvantage is that Logseq becomes slower and slower the more properties you add. Why one means in the face of these speed losses, nevertheless not to implement everything into a database (and to hold on to the incomprehensible Datalog), Logseq can cost now nevertheless the one and the other user, because Tana fetches at present the users to itself. Also, if you look at how fast Obsidian starts with exactly the same files, it's demoralizing. I have always appreciated Logseq and stayed with it until today, but it really costs me effort to still stay there and I really want to leave, because it also can't be that this becomes a permanent beta for years. I've been paying Opencollective long enough now and the iOS app either can't parse the URL or can't find the Vault and stories like that. It's getting really embarrassing.

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

I haven't experienced a slow-down due to properties, but maybe I'm just used to the slowness now 🤷🏼‍♂