Views, filters, sorts & groups

There are six different ways to visualize your content within a database. Here's a high level overview of each layout:

• Table: Tables allow you to see your database pages as rows, with every property represented by a column.

• Board: This view groups your items by property. For example, you could use it as a Kanban board to move tasks from one status to another as you make progress on them.

• Timeline: Use your database to plot project milestones on a timeline so you can see when they’re happening and how long they’ll take to complete.

• Calendar: Calendar view displays your items based on their Date property.

• List: Lists are a very clean, minimal layout of your database items.

• Gallery: This view is useful for highlighting images. You can edit your gallery to show images contained in the Files & media property — otherwise, the gallery will show any content that the database page contains.

• Chart: This view visualizes your database items in a bar, line, or donut chart so you can easily analyze and report on the data.

You can also create, share, and gather information using forms, which are connected to databases.

New databases are created as tables. After this, you can create a new view by selecting + next to your database name or your existing database views. Depending on your screen size, you may have to click on the name of your current view and select New view.

In the menu that appears, select a type of view. Then, give your view a name. You can click through your views to see your data in different ways.

You can reorder your views by dragging them. If you have a lot of views, you can select {#} more... next to your views to do this.

In your sidebar, views show up as nested items inside any full page database. You can tell they are views because they'll have a • to their left. Click on any view in your sidebar to jump right to it.

When you’re in a given view, click its name to rename, duplicate, delete, copy its link, or edit its components. You can also edit view components by clicking the settings menu at the top right of the database.

The settings menu has a section called View settings. This menu contains the following options:

• Layout: Choose how you want your database to be visually organized.

• Property visibility: Show or hide database properties for each view.

• Filter: Add criteria based on property values to show or hide data.

• Sort: Sort by a property to change the order that pages are displayed in.

• Group: Group your data by the values in a property.

• Sub-group: Create a second layer of grouping within your existing groups. For example, groups by status can also be sub-grouped into priority.

• Copy link to view: Get a direct link to the particular database view you’re in.

You can find more information on filters, sorts, and groups below.

Within each view, you can choose how you'd like database pages to open. There are three options:

• Side peek: Open pages on the right side of the database. The rest of the database view continues to be interactive on the left.

• Center peek: Open pages in a focused, center modal.

• Full page: Open pages as full pages directly.

To change how pages open in a particular view:

1. Open the settings menu at the top of the database.

   

2. Select Layout.

3. Open the menu next to Open pages in and select from one of the options.

Notion makes it easy to filter your database so it only displays the items that meet specific criteria. These filters can be as simple or complex as you like!

To filter the entries you see in a database view:

1. Open the settings menu at the top of the database.

   

2. In the menu that appears, select Filter under View settings.

3. Choose the property you'd like to filter by.

4. You can choose to Save for everyone if you want the filter to be applied for everyone in the database view. If you want the filter to apply only for you, don’t select this option.

You can create more specific database views and combine AND and OR logic by using filter groups. These can be nested up to three layers deep! Here's how:

1. Open the settings menu at the top of the database.

2. In the menu that appears, select Filter under View settings → Add advanced filter.

3. In the menu that appears, choose the properties that you'd like to filter by, and customize the AND and OR logic of the advanced filter.

To delete a filter:

1. Open the settings menu at the top of the database.

2. In the menu that appears, select Filter under View settings.

3. Open the filter you want to delete and in the menu that appears, select ••• → Delete filter.

You can sort your database so that items are displayed based on properties appearing in ascending or descending order. For example, you can order database pages based on priority, when they were last edited, or alphabetically.

To sort your database:

1. Open the settings menu at the top of the database.

   

2. In the menu that appears, select Sort under View settings.

3. Choose the property you'd like to sort by.

4. You can choose to Save for everyone if you want the sort to be applied for everyone in the database view. If you want the sort to apply only for you, don’t select this option.

5. Change the order that multiple sorts are applied by dragging them up or down using ⋮⋮.

To delete a sort:

1. Open the settings menu at the top of the database.

2. In the menu that appears, select Sort under View settings.

3. Select X next to the sort you want to remove.

You can group your database by different properties on your table to visualize them in different ways. To do this:

1. Open the settings menu at the top of the database.

   

2. In the menu that appears, select Group under View settings.

3. Choose the property you'd like to group by.

The database will now group by values of that property. You can go to the settings menu and select Group to:

• Hide or show groups by selecting 👁️ to them.

• Sort your groups manually or by the options provided (alphabetical, ascending, and more).

• Hide empty groups.

To turn grouping off:

1. Open the settings menu at the top of the database.

2. In the menu that appears, select Group under View settings.

3. Select Remove grouping.

Databases that contain at least three pages will also be searchable so you can easily parse through the information within them. To search a database, select 🔍 at the top of the database and enter a query. As you type, the database will only show pages that match your query. Database search looks at database page titles and properties.

If you have a large database, it's probably tedious to keep moving back and forth between properties to compare their data.

Instead you can freeze one column, which will cause it to stay visible on the left side no matter where you scroll in the database.

1. To freeze a column, click the name of the column and click Freeze up to column.

2. To unfreeze a column, click the name of the column and click Unfreeze column.