you’ve duplicated your template and it’s sitting in your notion, looking lovely. now you want to make it feel like yours. 🎨
the good news is that customising a notion template is a lot less scary than it looks. most of it is a few clicks, and i’ll flag the one or two places where it’s worth being careful.
before you start: make a backup copy
if you’re about to change a lot, duplicate the page first so you’ve got a clean original to go back to. in the sidebar, click the three dots next to the page and choose duplicate. now you can experiment freely. ✨
1. change the icon and cover
✔ click the page icon at the top and pick an emoji, upload your own image, or choose from notion’s icon library
✔ hover over the cover image and click change cover to pick a new one, upload your own, or paste an image link
2. change the colours
✔ text and background colours: highlight some text, click the colour option in the pop-up menu, and choose a text or background colour
✔ tag and status colours: click into a property, open its options, and change the colour of each tag. this is how you recolour things like categories and statuses across a whole database
3. edit the dropdown options
most trackers use select or multi-select properties, like genres, categories or statuses. click the property, open its options, and you can rename, reorder, add or delete them. so if my reading tracker has a genre you’ll never read, delete it, and if it’s missing one you love, add it. 📚
4. add, hide or rename properties
✔ add: click the + at the end of a table’s header row
✔ hide: open the view’s settings and toggle off any property you don’t need
✔ rename: click the property name and type
hiding is better than deleting when you’re not sure. the info is still there if you change your mind. 💛
5. change how your data looks with views
databases can be shown as a table, board, calendar, gallery or list. click + add a view next to the existing views to try a new layout. the same data shows up in each, so it’s a risk-free way to find what suits you.
6. change fonts and page layout
click the three dots at the top right of a page then appearance & layout. you can switch the font, make the text smaller, or turn on full width. 🌿
the one thing to be careful with
some properties power formulas, rollups or relations, which is how things like progress bars and automatic totals work. if you delete or rename a property and something stops calculating, that’s usually why. hide it instead of deleting it, or undo straight away with ctrl + z (cmd + z on mac).
if you can’t fix it, the backup copy is there for you. 💛
stuck?
send me a message here with a screenshot and i’ll point you in the right direction.
if you haven’t yet, here’s how to duplicate a notion template, and if you’re still deciding on a template, have a look at all of them. ✨