A type says what a node is

Give a document a type

A type is part of your Tana workspace: Project, Decision Record, Meeting notes, whatever your team made. Documents and meetings can each carry one.

Set type

With the caret in a document (or on its row), press ⌘K and choose Set type; its hint shows the current type or "No type". The page lists every type:

• the current one ticked, and No type first when there is a type to take off;
• a type that cannot go on this document greyed, with the space it lives in ("Lives in Studio LT"). A space's type only fits documents in that space; a Library type fits anything.

The choices are ⌘K rows too: type set type to project and press ↩. Remove type takes the type off in one step.

Auto-pick type

⌘K Auto-pick type lets the model read the document and weigh the same list. When it is at least 80% sure it sets the type and says so ("Type set to Decision Record (91%)"); otherwise it shows every option with its odds and you pick. It never takes a type off on its own. Chapter 11 explains the model and how to sign in.

Discuss with … is a shortcut to one type: it makes the document a Discussion Task and fills its "Discuss with" field.

The Types view

⌘K Types lists your workspace's types, each drawn in its glyph and colour, with the space it lives in (or Library). Every type is also a ⌘K row of its own, under Types. Click a type or press ↩ on it to open its page.

Archive a type

To retire a type, put the caret on its row and choose ⌘K Archive type. Tana archives rather than deletes: the type leaves every list and picker, and documents that have it keep it. ⌘K Archived types lists them, with when; ↩ brings one back and opens it.

A type's page

A type's page lists every document of that type. It works like a saved search (Chapter 7): the same Sort, Group, Display, table and ⌘F. Its pills start folded; open them with the settings button beside Back and Forward. Each row's grey line shows its field values.

Filter by a field

Every options, link, member and date field gets a pill. Options filter by label (tick several), links and members by what they point at (with a search line, since there can be hundreds), dates by Today, Upcoming or Past. Changes apply at once and are kept per type; nothing is written to Tana.

Past four field pills, the ones you are not using fold behind Add filter. Its menu lists them under "Type fields"; pick one and its pill comes back, open. A field that filters something always keeps its pill.

The same pills appear wherever one type is picked in the Type pill, and on mixed lists for the types on the page.

As a table

⌘K Switch to table gives each field a column. On a type's page, an options column can be changed in place: click the cell, or ⌘K Set Level … with the row focused.

In a saved search picking one type, ↩ at the end of a row makes a new document of that type, with every field the filter fixes already filled in.

Icon and colour

A type's glyph and colour belong to the type, so every document of it follows: its bullet, its sidebar row, and the chip a mention of it draws.

Set icon

With the caret on a type (its row in Types, or its page), ⌘K Set icon opens a search over about 3,500 Nucleo glyphs. Type a word, pick one with ↩. No icon puts the generic glyph back. A single document takes one the same way, worn instead of its type's. Tasks and meetings keep their own glyphs.

A saved search takes an icon the same way, for itself. When you are signed in to a model, Orbital picks a glyph for every type that has none yet, once; your own choice always wins.

Set colour

⌘K Set colour lists twelve named colours, each drawn in the type's glyph, with the current one ticked. Grey removes the tint, and Tana's colour goes back to the colour Tana has. Type a name to narrow the list, or a number from 0 to 360 for an exact hue.

Fields on a document

A typed document shows its fields between the title and the outline, one line each: the field's glyph, its name, then its value, all values starting in one column. An expanded document in a list shows them too.

1 2 3 4 5 6

1. Glyph The field's icon. ⌘K Set field icon changes it for the whole type.
2. Text and date fields Small outlines: type, ↩ for another line, ⇥, ⌘Z, all as in a row.
3. Options Chips, one per value.
4. Struck A value the type no longer offers ("No longer offered"). You can only remove it.
5. ⚠ A link to something the field does not link to. Tana would refuse it.
6. Select value, Link to … Mark an empty field; click to fill it.

Pick a value

Options, link and member fields hold a closed list, so there is nothing to type into. ↑ ↓ stop on them like rows. ↩, Space, a click or any letter opens the picker; ⌫ takes the last value off. From ⌘K: Select value … or Link to ….

The options picker ticks what is chosen. A single field writes and closes; a multiple one toggles and stays open. Clear value empties it. A link picker searches only what the field may link to (members, for a member field), listing them before you type.

Define a type's fields

On a type's page, ⌘K Edit fields lists its field definitions under the title, each with its kind as a grey chip: Options with its choices, Link with the types it links to, Member, Date or Text, and Single or Multiple where set. Done editing fields hides them again.

⌘K Add field … (on a type or any of its fields) asks for a name, then a kind.

Change a definition

Click a definition, or put the caret on it and press ⌘K:

• Set field type …: Text, Options, Link, Member or Date.
• Number of values …: Single or Multiple.
• Edit choices … (options): type and ↩ to add, ↩ on a choice to rename it, ⌘⌫ to remove, ⇧⌘↑ ⇧⌘↓ to move. At most 60 characters and no duplicates; the page says so before anything is written.
• Link to types … (links): which types it may point at.
• Set field icon: the field's glyph, everywhere it shows.

Each change is one undo step.

Keys in this chapter