Visual Portfolio Setup

1. What is a Gallery View?

A Gallery view displays items from your database as a collection of visual cards. Instead of rows in a table or cards in workflow columns, you get a grid of images, perfect for anything that benefits from a visual-first presentation.

Common uses include:

• Mood boards for design projects
• Recipe collections with food photos
• Team directories with headshots
• And, most relevant for us, a portfolio of published blog posts, videos, or design work.

2. Creating and Customizing Your Gallery

The power of a Gallery view lies in its customization. You have precise control over what image is displayed, the size of the cards, and what information accompanies the visual.

The following video provides a quick but comprehensive overview of all the aesthetic controls available for a Gallery view. It will show you how to get started and introduce you to the key settings we'll be using.

3. Key Settings for Your Visual Portfolio

As you saw in the video, creating an effective gallery involves more than just selecting the view type. Let's break down the three most important steps to turn your database into a polished portfolio.

A. Choosing Your Image Source (Card Preview)

This is the most important setting. It tells Notion which image to display on each card. You can find it under the ••• menu → Layout → Card preview.

You have three main options:

1. Page Content: Notion will grab the first image it finds inside the page's body. This is quick but can be unpredictable.
2. Page Cover: This uses the cover image you set at the top of each page. This offers more control and is a great option for a portfolio.
3. Files & Media Property: This is the most robust method for template design. By creating a dedicated Files & Media property (e.g., named "Thumbnail"), you can specify the exact image for the gallery card without affecting the page's main cover image. This separates the thumbnail from the page's internal aesthetic.

For a deeper dive into these options, you can consult this written guide.

B. Filtering for "Published" Content

A portfolio should showcase completed work. To achieve this, you need to filter your database to show only the content that has been published.

1. Click the Filter button at the top of your database.
2. Select your Status property.
3. Set the condition so that Status is Published.

Now, your gallery will automatically display any content piece as soon as you drag it to the "Published" column on your Kanban board.

C. Adjusting Card Size and Properties

Fine-tune the look and feel of your gallery:

• Card Size (Layout → Card size): Choose between Small, Medium, or Large to find the right density for your grid.
• Visible Properties (••• menu → Properties): Decide what information to show on each card. For a portfolio, showing the Platform and Publish Date adds valuable context. You can also hide the Name property for a minimalist, image-only grid.

✍️ Exercise: Build Your Published Portfolio

Let's apply these concepts and build the final view for your Content Creation Hub.

Your Tasks:

• 1. Prepare Your Data:

  • Go to your Master Content Database.
  • For this exercise, let's use the Page Cover method. Open 2-3 of your content items that are marked as Published.
  • For each one, click Add cover and choose an image (from Unsplash, or upload your own). This will be your portfolio's visual.

• 2. Create the Gallery View:

  • Add a new view to your database and name it "Published Portfolio".
  • Select Gallery as the layout type.

• 3. Configure the View:

  • Go to the ••• menu and select Layout.
  • Set the Card preview to Page Cover. You should see your cover images appear.
  • Experiment with the Card size (Small, Medium, Large) to see what you prefer.

• 4. Apply the Filter:

  • Click Filter at the top of the database.
  • Create a filter where Status is Published. The gallery should now only show your published items.

• 5. Customize Card Properties:

  • Go to the ••• menu and select Properties.
  • Make the Platform and Publish Date properties visible.
  • Hide any properties you don't need to see in this view.

You should now have a clean, visual grid showcasing your completed work!

Conclusion

Excellent work! You have now completed the Content Creation Hub. By building Table, Calendar, Board, and now Gallery views, you've created a comprehensive and highly functional system for managing a content workflow from start to finish. You've mastered the core Notion skill of creating different views from a single data source to serve unique purposes.

Key Takeaways:

• Gallery view is for creating visual, card-based displays of your database items.
• The Card preview setting in the Layout menu is the key to controlling which images are displayed.
• Combining a Gallery view with a Filter (e.g., for "Published" status) creates a dynamic, self-updating portfolio.
• Customizing card size and visible properties is essential for designing a clean and user-friendly template.

Preview of the Next Lesson:
With your project and content management systems built, we will shift focus from managing external output to organizing internal knowledge. In the next module, we'll begin Project 3: The Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) System. We'll start by building a flexible 'Notes' database to capture and connect your ideas.