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How to build a tagging system

Notion may be the king of database-based apps, but it still lacks the ability of referencing data inside a page (something that Roam & Obsidian do well better). But if you keep everything stored in databases, there’s something you can do to better retrieve information (other than the @MentionPage / backlink feature).

Notion tags system
Tags Database

The solution I have for you consists in building a “Tags” database.


It’s super easy to set up:

1. Create a new database & call it “Tags”

2. Add 2-way relations between this Tags database & any other database you want to retrieve information from (e.g. your Library, Research, Cooking databases, etc.)

3. [optional] add a multi-select property & call it “Topics” (this will allow better filtering of your tags)

4. Show all your related databases as “Sections”

Notion show as page setcion
Show as "page section"

5. For each related databases, you can also show which properties to appear

Notion show / hide properties on page section
Show/Hide properties

Now that everything is set up, all you have to do is create a new tag or select an existing one whenever you want to save some bit of information that’s present inside a related database 🚀

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