Queries, tags/backlinks, and tag properties

Questions & Help
1

Hi all,

Still loving Logseq since coming over from Roam a few weeks ago, but I am stumped on one thing. I am used to using queries A LOT. I also use templates. For example, in university, I have templates that head every note-taking or assignment entry for a class. In Roam, I would tag these in way that would make it easy to query up what I needed. I could follow the same procedure in Logseq, but here, there is this new entity: properties.

When I add tag properties, they seem to create a kind of tag, but queries searching for such a tag do not call up these blocks.

Does that make sense?

  1. So, what are properties and how should I think about using them?
  2. Should I just #tag my notes as I did in Roam?

Thanks!

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2

I’m using properties like I used attributes in Roam. One advantage I’ve noticed is that Logseq auto-hides empty properties - so when using them with a roam-style template where you might not have metadata for every attribute, the end result ends up looking cleaner than Roam. I think the idea of Properties is related to the use of YAML frontmatter in markdown files - a way of segregating descriptive metadata about the note from the content of the note itself. Using templates with attributes in Roam seems to blur those two together. It took me a while to understand but I now appreciate the idea of keeping the descriptive metadata in a “separate box .”

I still tag my individual notes with hashtags sometimes but those are descriptive regarding the block, not the whole page.

I haven’t had any issue with properties not showing up in queries but I’m (so far) a very light query user, so I’m not clear what you are referring to there, sorry.

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3

Hi Jeff,
Thanks for your reply! I have been working with my queries and have worked out how to get my desired results. It’s just taken a little bit to adjust from my Roam workflow, but I am happy to do the work!

I recently learned about a special “page query” via this post:

It returns the results of the metadata tags I head many of my entries with in Logseq. So far, it looks like a great system.

Best

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