Basic Note Templates

[satchelfrench]

Please search our GitHub and Discord to see if your feature has already been requested!

Why?

• Templates are a small but super powerful feature in note taking apps, especially daily notes.
• The feature is easy enough to implement, and would make being effective in Athens easier.
• Should other features like SmartBlocks be implemented, templates can always be merged with it.

How?

• The approach that roam takes is my personal favourite, but I think even simpler solutions would work also. For example a hot key 'Command + T' / button to bring up a templates list and select from -> then copy/pasting into current page (similar to Alfred)

[juniusfree]

Just to add on the why. Having a template reduces the effort of the users in capturing their thoughts (e.g. "fear of blank the page").

What other ways can Athens do to help the users capture their thoughts other than templates?

• Daily Notes
• Browser Extension | Knowledge discovery/creation #888

Benefits for Athens:

• The more the users capture their thoughts in Athens, the higher the switching cost and the more Athens can help in the latter part of the process (e.g. more data to analyze in making a conclusion)

Other related links:

• https://subconscious.substack.com/p/unconscious-r-and-d
• https://twitter.com/Conaw/status/1263885258618834945
• https://www.cortexfutura.com/getting-started-algorithms-of-thought/

More examples of templates:

• https://www.intelligentchange.com/products/the-five-minute-journal
• https://woopmylife.org/en/home

[solarkraft]

The approach that roam takes is my personal favourite, but I think even simpler solutions would work also. For example a hot key 'Command + T' / button to bring up a templates list and select from -> then copy/pasting into current page (similar to Alfred)

The Athens approach could be /template <template name>, perhaps with special template names that are automatically applied (daily notes are also my primary use case).

I currently keep my daily template in a page called template: daily that is bookmarked in the side bar. Another use case would be one for meetings. It'd be cool if one could directly choose the template while creating the page (but I'm not sure how this would best be realized UX-wise yet).

[juniusfree]

@tangjeff0 nope. I'm just looking for some examples when found that.

[lukaskawerau]

(<- CortexFutura)

Some considerations from using templates daily, extensively, in Roam:

I prefer the ;; shortcut to using / because it doesn't mix "domains" if that makes sense. If I type the shortcut, I'm immediately in a search interface for all my templates, without any further keystrokes to get to a sub-menu and the menu isn't filled with lots of options any time I'm typing / to use something other than a template.

I'm strongly in favor of parameterizing things and capabilities á la SmartBlocks, it's one of my main annoyances in Roam that I have to install an extension to get this because it's not native. I understand that Roam42 has basically developed a new language for the logic, but having its functionality native in the app would be incredible.

With regards to how templates are implemented, I can only say that I find Roam's namespacing approach to be fine – I have no experience with Logseq's approach. That said, I'm hugely in favor of any approach that allows me to skip using the mouse at all. It seems Logseq might require that, but that's only judging by their intro video.

[satchelfrench]

I always wanted templates to be directly within the / menu. Typing /template is kind a lot! What do you think?

Actually after using this in logseq, it's become my personal favourite way to access templates!

[tangjeff0]

@lukaskawerau I'm not a huge fan of ;; to access SmartBlocks. This is another shortcut that users have to learn.

[mikejones3]

I honestly like how templates are broken out from the / commands in Roam. I like how its ;;templateName

I think its quicker to find a template that way so you are not competing with the / commands.

[shanberg]

Another example: https://community.coda.io/t/launched-custom-templates-drag-drop-and-slash-your-way/22718

[Ejipuh]

What if templates were interactive--something like forms or a command line interface?

[tangjeff0]

Can you provide a demo or illustration or what this would look like?