Glossary - draft work in progress

General
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  • Please provide feedback, suggestions, and comments in this thread.
  • Last updated 2021-02-11

Basic terms

  • repository/vault/graph/database (term still under discussion)
    • description: a discrete collection of notes and other content. Logseq repositories contain individual files, a database that relates those files, (and what other things?)
    • produced by: Logseq repositories are created by connecting Logseq with an existing folder or online repository
  • block
    • description: the smallest unit of content in Logseq that you can link to
    • produced by: new pages are created with one block; additional blocks are created by typing either Enter or Alt+Enter (user-configurable setting) while editing an existing block
  • page or Logseq page
    • description: a page that is part of your Logseq database; pages are composed of one or more blocks
    • produced by: entering a new page title in the Search or Create Page field or typing a [[page link]] with a new page title
    • note: unless otherwise indicated, in these documents “page” means “Logseq page” rather than “web page”
  • web page
    • description: a page that is not part of your Logseq database
    • produced by: these are not created in Logseq
  • page title
    • description: the content displayed at the top of a page, used to uniquely identify the page
    • produced by: a page is automatically generated with a particular page title when a new page title is either 1) entered into the Search or Create Page box at the upper-left of the Logseq window or 2) typed into a block within double brackets—[[ ]]—which makes it into a page reference. A page title is a property identified at the top of a file with the following syntax:
      • Markdown
        --
        title: logseq
        --
      • org-mode
        • (same?)
    • notes: page titles can be edited in page or file view
  • block title
    • description: the text content in a block that comes before the first line break in the block (if there is no line break in the block, the full block content counts as the title)
    • produced by: entering any content into a block
    • note: letting users decide whether to display a block title vs all block content, on a reference-by-reference basis, is a requested feature
  • bullet
    • description: small circle to the left of text or other content, bullets are put to the left of block and embeds, but can also be entered within blocks using appropriate text syntax
    • produced by: bullets for blocks and embeds are created automatically by Logseq; bullets within blocks are produced by starting any text following an internal line break with a - , +, or * followed by a space
  • internal line break
    • description: a line break within a block
    • produced by: users can set Logseq to either of the following behaviors:
      • (default) Alt-Enter creates a new block and Enter creates an internal line break
      • Enter creates a new block and Alt-Enter creates an internal line break
  • page/file switcher
    • description: a Logseq UI element. If Logseq is showing the page as rendered with bullets, the page/file switcher will show File: [file path and filename]; if Logseq is showing the page as an plaintext file, the page/file switcher will show Page: [page title]. Clicking on either the filename or the page title in the page/file switcher will toggle the view between these views.
    • produced by: the page/file switcher appears when the user clicks the page title for the current page
    • note: feature request to allow the page/file switcher to be toggled between visible and invisible by clicking the page title for the current page rather than defaulting to invisible on each page, and clicking to show, but not being able to hide it.
  • alias
    • description: an alternate page ID or page title that has several functions:
      • page references with the alias will automatically redirect to the original page
      • (feature request?) blocks with text matching either a page ID or that page’s aliases will qualify as an unreferenced link and will be listed in that section of the page
      • content on the original page is mirrored to the alias page (?)
    • produced by: a page title can be given aliases by adding frontmatter to the page properties in file view:
      • Markdown
        --
        alias: page1, page2
        ---
      • org-mode
        #+ALIAS: page1, page2

References + IDs

  • page reference (equivalent to page title)
    • description: a Logseq page title
    • produced by: entering a new page title in the Search or Create Page field , typing a page link with a new page title
  • block reference
    • description: a unique ?? digit alphanumeric code assigned to each block
    • produced by: automatically produced by Logseq; cannot be user-edited (true?)
  • block ID or page ID
    • Sometimes, logseq will generate a unique ID for your block or page, so that you can manually embed it or navigate to it (by copying and pasting the ID yourself).

Links

  • page link
    • description: a clickable link that will take you to a particular Logseq page
    • produced by: putting a page reference (i.e. the page title) inside double square brackets [[ ]]
  • block link
    • description: (under discussion)
    • produced by: (under discussion)
  • Markdown page link
    • description: a clickable link that will take you to a particular Logseq page (i.e. a page that is part of your Logseq database)
    • produced by: putting a page link inside markdown link syntax like this: [display text]([[page title]])
  • Markdown block link
    • description: a clickable link that will take you to a particular Logseq block
    • produced by: putting a block link inside markdown link syntax like this: [display text](((60011009-ddd9-4a8c-8925-37249791f525)))
  • Markdown web link
    • description: a clickable link that will take you to a webpage outside Logseq
    • produced by: putting a web page URL inside markdown syntax like this: [link text](https://www.google.com) (will display link text upon block rendering)
  • Markdown file link
    • description: a clickable link that will take you to a file outside Logseq
    • produced by: putting a file path inside markdown syntax like this: [link text](file://filepath/filename.png) (will display link text upon block rendering)
  • backlink
    • description: a Logseq page link for a page that links to a currently displayed page, whether it has focus or not. A list of backlinks are presented in a particular location or frame, and “backlinks” refers to the page links in this area only.
    • produced by: automatically created by Logseq

Concepts and Modes

  • properties (page and block)
    • description: (must add)
    • produced by: (must add)
  • block rendering
    • description: blocks in editing mode are shown in plain text while in that mode but are “rendered” to show different styling for ease of use when not in editing mode
    • produced by: block rendering occurs automatically when not in editing mode
  • editing mode
    • description: unlike WYSIWYG editors, Logseq offers two modes to display text: editing mode and non-editing mode. Editing mode differs from non-editing mode in these ways:
      • Users can only add or edit text to a block when a block is in editing mode (exception: some operations such as copy and paste allow adding or editing text in non-editing mode).
      • Block text is not rendered when in editing mode.
      • Some information, such as block references and link syntax, are shown only in editing mode.
    • produced by: enter editing mode by putting the cursor in a block, either by clicking with the mouse, navigating using the keyboard, or (feature request) hitting F2 while a block is highlighted
  • network of connected ideas
    • description: Your Logseq repository contains content (ideas, facts, references, etc.) that are linked together. You can think of the network as a a connection of blocks and pages that act as network “nodes” that are linked together using certain text markers (such as [[ ]] and (( )) and {{embed}} much like the network of linked neurons in your brain.

Embeds

  • embedded Page
    • description: shows one Logseq page within a block of a different page and is marked by a different colored background
    • produced by: an embedded page is produced by typing /embed, selecting Block embed, and pasting the page reference at the default cursor location. The result, in editing mode, will be something like this: {{embed (([[page title]]))}}.
  • embedded Block
    • description: shows a block from one Logseq page within a block of a different page and is marked by a different colored background
    • produced by: an embedded block is produced by typing /embed, selecting Block embed, and pasting the block ref at the default cursor location. The result, in editing mode, will be something like this: {{embed ((((60011009-ddd9-4a8c-8925-37249791f525))))}}. - embedded web page (is this possible?):
  • embedded webpage
  • embedded file
10 Likes
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This is awesome! I’ll be editing and adding more as users ask questions!

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this is excellent thank you so much for putting this together, it does help a lot!

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@andotvu, would you mind making your suggestions, edits, and additions in replies rather than editing my post? I’m an academic and author and it’s important to me that the text under my name be actually written by me directly. Sorry if this seems controlling or something—it is part of academic culture that having your name on someone else’s words is unethical. I am fine contributing to a document hosted elsewhere, or adding your text to my post in my own words, or some other solution. Thanks.

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Oh yeah sure! I’ll suggest edits in a reply. Sorry about that, I wasn’t aware of these norms. I had envisioned that we use this for the official glossary, but this should be considered more your own work/glossary, gotcha. Will make a separate glossary for myself to edit, thanks for letting me know!

Reverted to your version for you, sorry about that!

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No worries, I appreciate your understanding. If we can discuss content and ideas here, I’ll be happy to incorporate them (did that above just now). I don’t think there’s an “official” Logseq documentation keeper at the moment, unless you or @tienson are that person. Writing instructions and documentation is one of the few areas where I can contribute expertise.

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Hey thanks for putting this together it’s really good

This part is really interesting

Since I’ve started making videos on YouTube about Logseq, this is really important since I want to start educating new users with the right terms.

I’d love to know if there’s a place of discussion somewhere or perhaps we should start one. I like the term vault due to it’s simplicity, more user friendly for beginners, but I’d love to know if there’s more info on this disuccsion somewhere

Again, great work with this glossary!

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This forum is the right place to discuss these things (Discord too, but it’s harder to follow because it’s more synchronous discusison). But just FYI I think these terms will likely change somewhat because IMHO we still haven’t figured out how to talk about blocks, block elements, and links properly yet. I’m writing a post to discuss this and will post it soon.

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Sound good, make sure to link it here once you post it! Thanks for helping Logseq grow!

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Thanks for this! 2 Questions:

When adding an alias to a page and it says “has to be in the first block”, does “first block” mean the first line? Or can I click enter and indent and is that part of that first block still? If not, how do I add multiple points of metadata? I see on pages I have a title it add “title:: title of page” for me. Do I put a period, and then add more data after like the alias? Use a comma? Semicolon?

Second, what about @ symbols? I notice when I use @ add a space then put someone’s name it creates a new page for them. If I type @name with no space it doesn’t create a new page. Obviously I can see the difference, but I’m not sure what’s happening to that tag (I guess?) after creating it. Where is it, how can I reference it or search for it in the future?

Thanks!