THE ORIGINALITY OF NOTION

4 Exclusive Notion Features That Set It Apart from Word and Docs

Quality features the biggies might be falling behind in

Icons of Notion, Docs and Word. Image by author.

I’ve been a Google Docs girl for as long as I can remember.

I use it for writing, journaling, university assignments, note-taking, lists, all such tasks. In fact, Docs was where I was initially writing this article.

Microsoft Word just never clicked with me. While it might offer a variety of tools for the purposes it serves, it doesn’t have something I think is absolutely essential in a writing software: a clean, non-buggy, butter-soft interface.

Well, even Docs has room for improvement in that area, but I think it’s way better than Word.

I paused my quest for the perfect writing, collaboration and productivity tool when I figured that a single tool (often labeled ‘all-in-one’) isn’t always the best software to meet a set of needs.

To start this blog, this is what the Docs fan of 3+ years would do:

i) Create a new Google account, ii) Go to Docs, create a document titled ‘Ideas’ for brainstorming, iii) Insert a table or checklist in the Ideas document to track the status of the articles. Or use Sheets. iv) Create new documents for each article.

Next, I knew the Docs features I would be getting.

It occurred to me that everything here was nothing more than a separate document. That’s neat and decluttered enough for journaling and assignments, but for a management system for a blog?

Not really fulfilling. I mean, Word could’ve accomplished that.

In my mind, I had scenarios where I’d want to

• organize articles into categories
• add and access research sources within documents
• switch between documents without switching tabs or going to Docs’ home page (the Word app opens new windows for new files, sigh)

Plus other small random things I couldn’t do in Docs.

So, in my search bar, I typed notion.

I knew Notion was free, I had an idea of what it looked like, I’d used it a couple of times before for trying the tool, but this time, I was going to try it for serious personal business.

And holy moly!

I found some features that not only improved my notion of Notion, but made it stand out among alternatives, and guess where I’m writing this article now?

This list might be more helpful for you if you’re an individual entrepreneur/creator or somebody who hasn’t really tried Notion yet.

4. Embeds

Let’s forget about the sexy Medium editor for a while.

Honestly, I have never found this feature in a writing software.

Embeds let you bring external content like web pages, videos, Google Maps, Drive files, PDFs and much more directly into your Notion pages.

How to use embeds:

1. Copy the link to the content you want to embed.
2. In your Notion page, type /embed and press Enter.
3. Paste the link. You can also upload files from your device by clicking on Upload.

Notion should automatically generate a preview of your content something like this:

Wikipedia page embedded in Notion.

Best part? Most of it is scrollable!

Whether you want to reference an embeddable webpage (not all websites allow direct page embedding, but you can always embed links), a shared ChatGPT chat, university notes, or watch a YouTube tutorial, you’re likely to be more productive!

I would’ve saved so much time If I’d known about this feature while doing research for assignments or studying for exams. All the long PDFs and PPTs in one place! Seriously, what’s better than not having to switch between tabs and apps?

3. Databases

Databases aren’t your regular technical databases.

In Notion, databases are:

• Tables
• Lists
• Boards
• Galleries
• Timelines
• Calendars

Technically, these are the views you can create or view databases in.

With databases, you can organize and manage your data like tasks, project plans, attendance records, anything you’d like.

How to use databases:

1. Create a new page and select a database (table, list, board, etc).

Alternatively:

1. In your page, type / followed by the database that you want. Example: /table, /board, /list and press Enter.
2. Select a data source (if you have one) or click New database.
3. Define Properties (columns) for your database, such as title, due date, or status, and add entries. You can select from the available property types like Text, Number, URL, Date, etc or add custom properties.

Table view in Notion

Pro Tip: Click the + icon to add multiple databases to a block, or view a single database in the view of your choice.

As a minimalist, my favorite is the Board view where the database is a kanban board. It’s a customizable visual board for tracking work status. By default, it has these columns:

• Not started
• In progress
• Done

Example database (kanban board) in Notion

But like most things in Notion, these columns are customizable. Play around with the + and ••• icons a bit and you’ll figure it out.

I love the flexibility of creating card entries and dragging them between columns. Makes progress tracking easier than ever!

Docs does have a similar feature called Building blocks, but the options there are quite limited. Not even basics like filter, search and sort.

2. Workspaces

A new workspace in Notion is like new Google Docs in a new Google account.

But hey, you don’t need to create a new Notion account. You can have multiple workspaces within one account.

If you’re new to Notion, I recommend starting with just one workspace.

As you start using it for more things, you can keep different kinds of content separate by using multiple workspaces.

For example, the two workspaces I use right now are:

1. Medium Tech Blog
2. Tanya’s Notion (for personal stuff)

How to use workspaces:

1. At the top left of your window, click on the first option. Usually by default, it’s Your Name’s Notion. For example, Tanya’s Notion.
2. Click the ••• icon at the right of the email account in which you want your workspace.
3. Click Join or create workspace.
4. Select your purpose (team, personal use or school).

Workspaces in Notion

You can also choose from 10,000+ Notion templates to customize your workspace. Seriously, Workspaces has to be one of my favorite Notion features.

Like no more creating new Google accounts for new things?

1. Nested Pages

Remember I mentioned wanting to organize my articles into categories?

The categories in my mind were:

• Published
• In Progress
• Archived

I was thinking about a feature where Docs could be put into folders so they were easier to find (without using Search), plus there was less mess on the home page.

Notion’s subpages do just that.

There are no folders here, but you can nest pages inside pages inside pages up to infinite levels.

How to use subpages:

1. In an existing page, type /page and press Enter.
2. You’ll see a new page pop up on the screen.
3. When you go back to the previous page, you’ll see an inline block for the subpage like this:

An inline subpage in Notion

Alternatively, you can also create a subpage directly from the sidebar. Just hover over the page inside which you want a subpage and click the + icon to add a page inside.

Nested pages in Notion

It’s pretty amazing that they’ve made rearranging pages as easy as simple drag and drop in the sidebar.

So far, these are the features I’ve discovered in a day of using Notion.

Notion’s Dark Mode (Light in screenshots for better visibility :P) has been too kind to my eyes. Docs’ lack of one makes it brutal to my eyes every single day, so I might just think about migrating more of my stuff to Notion.

Takeaway: Whatever software you decide to use for your tasks, make sure that amongst the available options, it is the one that BEST serves your specific purpose.

Now, for attachment and convenience reasons, I still think Docs is the right home for my precious journals, but let’s see for how long because dark mode?!

What is your experience with Notion as compared to Word or Docs? If you know other exclusive features or anything Notion, feel free to share and let’s have a chat in the comments!