Visualizing Database Entries with Gallery View

1. Understanding the Gallery View

A Gallery view displays your database pages as a grid of cards. Unlike a table or list that prioritizes text, a gallery prioritizes an image. This image can come from one of three places:

1. The Page Cover: The cover image you set at the top of a page.
2. The Page Content: The first image that appears inside the page's body.
3. A Files & Media Property: An image you upload to a dedicated property within the database entry.

This flexibility allows you to create everything from project portfolios and team directories to recipe books and mood boards. To see how to create and customize a gallery, let's watch a focused tutorial.

2. Customizing Your Gallery for a Professional Look

As you saw in the video, the power of the Gallery view lies in its customization options. Mastering these settings is crucial for designing templates that are not only functional but also visually appealing. Your background in design will be a great asset here as you think about hierarchy, spacing, and visual impact.

Let's break down the key settings, which you can find under the ... menu in the top-right of your database.

Layout Options (... → Layout)

• Card Preview: This is the most important setting. It determines the source of the image on your gallery card.
  • Page Cover: The most common and direct way to create a visual portfolio.
  • Page Content: Useful if the main content of your pages is an image or document.
  • Files & Media Property: A fantastic "pro" option. It allows you to have a separate cover image for the page itself and a dedicated image for the gallery card, giving you more control.

• Card Size: You can choose Small, Medium, or Large. This allows you to control the density of your gallery. Larger cards make a bigger impact but show fewer items at once.
• Fit Image: This toggle controls how the image fits in the card frame.
  • On: The entire image will be visible, potentially leaving empty space (letterboxing).
  • Off: The image will fill the entire card frame by cropping into it. You can then Reposition the image to get the perfect crop.

Property Visibility (... → Properties)

Just like with other views, you can control which properties are displayed on the cards. For a portfolio, you might show Tags or Client Name. For a minimalist mood board, you might hide everything—including the page title—for a pure, image-only grid.

For a comprehensive written guide on these options, the official Notion documentation is an excellent resource to bookmark.

✍️ Exercise: Build a Visual Mood Board

Let's put this into practice by creating a component you could use in a future template for designers or content creators: a Mood Board.

• 1. Create the Database

  • On a new page, type /gallery and select Gallery view.
  • Click + New database and name it Mood Board.

• 2. Add Sample Entries and Images

  • You'll see a few empty cards. Click on the first one, name it Vibrant Color Palette, and click Add cover. Search for an image (e.g., "vibrant colors") and select one.
  • Create two more cards: Minimalist UI and Bold Typography. Add a relevant cover image to each.

• 3. Add a Tags Property

  • Open one of your cards. Click + Add a property.
  • Select Multi-select as the type and name it Category.
  • Add some relevant tags to your entries, like Color, UI/UX, and Typography.

• 4. Configure the Gallery View

  • Go back to your Mood Board database. Click the ... menu in the top-right corner.
  • Go to Layout.
    • Ensure Card preview is set to Page Cover.
    • Set Card size to Medium.
  • Go to Properties.
    • Click the eye icon next to Category to make it visible.

• 5. Final Polish

  • Experiment with hiding the Name property (... → Properties → toggle off Name) to see how it creates a clean, image-only look.
  • Try changing the card size between Small, Medium, and Large to see the effect.

You now have a functional and visually appealing mood board, a perfect reusable component for many types of templates!

Conclusion

You have now mastered all six of the core database views in Notion! The Gallery view completes your toolkit, giving you the power to present information in a visually compelling way. This is not just a nice-to-have feature; for creating sellable templates, aesthetics and user experience are paramount, and the Gallery view is your primary tool for achieving that.

Key Takeaways:

• Gallery View is for Visuals: It displays database entries as a grid of cards, ideal for portfolios, mood boards, or any image-heavy collection.
• The Image Source is Key: The card image is controlled by the Card Preview setting, which can pull from the Page Cover, Page Content, or a Files & Media property.
• Customize for Aesthetics: Use card size, image fit, and property visibility to fine-tune the look and feel, balancing beauty with information.

Preview of the Next Lesson:
So far, we've learned how to display data in different formats. But what if you only want to see some of that data? In our next lesson, we will cover three of the most powerful tools in your Notion arsenal: Filter, Sort, and Group. These functions work across all the views you've learned and are the secret to turning a massive database into a focused, context-aware dashboard (e.g., showing only "High Priority" tasks or grouping a content calendar by "Status").