Overview
This lecture covers text editing and formatting in Notion, focusing on markdown, keyboard shortcuts, the editing toolbar, and the slash command to create more structured and visually appealing pages.
Formatting Text in Notion
- Notion supports multiple ways to format text, including markdown, keyboard shortcuts, the editing toolbar, and slash commands.
- Markdown allows you to format text as you type, such as bold, italics, headers, and lists, using specific syntax.
- Notion is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) markdown editor: formatting appears instantly as you type.
- Pasting markdown-formatted plain text into Notion usually preserves the formatting.
Using Markdown in Notion
- Use
#, ##, and ### for Heading 1, 2, and 3 respectively.
- Use
*text* or _text_ for italics and **text** or __text__ for bold.
- Create unordered lists with
- or * at the start, and ordered lists with 1..
- Use
> for block quotes and backticks for pre-formatted/code blocks.
Other Text Formatting Tools
- Highlight text and use keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl/Cmd+B for bold, Ctrl/Cmd+I for italics, Ctrl/Cmd+U for underline.
- The editing toolbar appears when text is highlighted, allowing formatting, comments, links, and block type changes.
- Transform multiple selected blocks into another block type (e.g., turn several lines into a numbered list).
The Slash Command
- Typing
/ opens a menu to insert or transform blocks and apply formatting.
/turn enables changing a block's type quickly (e.g., turn text into a bulleted list).- Add color or background color to a block by using
/color or /red b for a red background.
Practical Example
- Apply different formatting styles to a sample Notion page: italics for book titles, block quotes for quotes, headings for section titles, and colored backgrounds for emphasis.
- Use the table of contents to navigate between headings easily.
Key Terms & Definitions
- Markdown — A lightweight syntax for formatting text using special characters.
- WYSIWYG Editor — "What You See Is What You Get"; formatting appears as you type.
- Block — A basic unit in Notion (text, list, quote, etc.) that can be transformed and formatted.
- Slash Command — Typing
/ in Notion to access commands for inserting and changing blocks.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Review the markdown reference and keyboard shortcuts in the written lesson.
- Practice formatting text using markdown, keyboard shortcuts, and the toolbar in your own Notion workspace.
- Download lesson resources and templates from thomasjfrank.com/fundamentals.
- Prepare for the next lesson on blocks in Notion.