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Help center
  • Getting started

    • Welcome to Paper
    • Creating your first page
  • Sources

    • Importing PDFs
    • YouTube and video
    • Audio recordings
    • Web pages and articles
    • Importing from Notion
    • Importing from Outline
  • AI features

    • Chatting with your sources
    • Summaries
    • Flashcards
    • Quizzes
    • Podcasts
  • Notes & editor

    • The block editor
    • Properties and databases
    • Timeline view, dependencies, and critical path
    • Comments and history
  • Studying & review

    • Spaced repetition
    • Review sessions
  • Sharing & account

    • Publishing and sharing
    • Account and profile

About Paper

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  1. Help
  2. /Notes & editor
  3. /Properties and databases

Properties and databases

Add custom fields to pages to turn a board into a sortable, filterable database.

Properties are custom fields you attach to pages inside a Board block. They turn a list of pages into a database - so you can sort by due date, group by subject, or split your work into status columns.

Add a property

  1. Open a Board block, or insert one with /board.
  2. Click + Add property in the board header (or in any card's properties area).
  3. Pick a type:
    • Text - free-form
    • Number - for marks or counts
    • Select - pick one option from a coloured list
    • Multi-select - pick several options
    • Date - single date or range
    • Due Date - with status badges (overdue, today, soon)
    • Person - pick a workspace member
  4. Name the property. It appears on every card in the board and in each card's page header.

Add property menu open on a page header, showing Text, Number, Select, Multi-select, Date, Due Date, and Person types.Add property menu open on a page header, showing Text, Number, Select, Multi-select, Date, Due Date, and Person types.

Set values

Inside a card, click any property to edit it. From the parent board, select/date/person properties can be set with a single click. Number and text fields are inline-editable.

Group, sort, and lay out

Each board block has its own view controls:

  • Group by - split the board into columns by any select, multi-select, or due-date property. The default grouping uses the board's columns.
  • Layout - switch between board (kanban), list, table, gallery, and feed views without losing the underlying data.
  • Drag a card between columns to update its grouped property.

A Board block with cards grouped into To do / Doing / Done columns and the card-display settings popover open.A Board block with cards grouped into To do / Doing / Done columns and the card-display settings popover open.

Tips

  • For a course or essay tracker, a Select for subject and a Due Date field cover most needs.
  • A Select with options Not started / In progress / Done gives you a status board out of the box.
  • Multi-select is best when a single page belongs to more than one bucket - e.g. tagging readings with multiple topics.
  • Property definitions live on the board, so two different boards can have independent property schemas even within the same page.

On this page

  • Add a property
  • Set values
  • Group, sort, and lay out
  • Tips
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