# Setting up a collection

> Shortcuts are written for the Mac. On Windows and Linux, use Ctrl where it says Cmd, unless the text names another key.

A collection is a group of pages. Use it like a folder to keep pages together, or like a database, with properties, views and filters. For more advanced uses, extend it with custom code, as a plugin, to add your own views, buttons and integrations.

A simple list of docs, projects with a status and an owner, a visual board with renovation ideas, meeting notes with a date, customers with a stage and contact details: each is a collection. Every entry stays a full page where you write, add tasks and drop files.

Views are different ways of looking at the same pages. For example, you can show a collection as a table and as a board, or make several boards, such as one by Status and another by Quarter. More about the available view types below.

Click the **+** next to **Collections** in the sidebar, give the new collection a name and an icon, and you have a collection with a list of pages. Add properties and views as you need them. The [Roadmap example](roadmap-example.md) walks through the whole setup, click by click.

*A collection with three views of the same pages: Itinerary, By flight and By day.*

## One or more collections

You can create as many or as few collections as you like. Your first workspace starts with a [Journal](../tasks-and-journal/the-journal.md) and a Notes collection, and new pages go into Notes. Add more collections over time, or add new views to an existing one.

## Default collection

A workspace has a default collection. New pages you create with Ctrl+N (macOS) or Alt+N (Windows/Linux) go there, and Cmd+K offers it first. Admins choose it with **Set Default Collection**. To move a page to another collection later, use **Move...**; see [Pages](../writing/pages.md#move-a-page).

## Collection Settings

**Collection Settings...**, in the collection's menu or the command palette, has all of a collection's settings:

- **Properties**: the fields every page in this collection has. See [Properties](properties.md).
- **Views**: how the pages are shown. Add a view with **Add View**, pick its type, and choose its columns, sort order, grouping and filter. See [Views](views.md).
- **Pages**: how the sidebar lists the collection's pages under **Display in Sidebar**, as a list, as sub-pages, by date, or grouped or nested by a property, which property sorts them, and whether they appear in the command palette. See [The sidebar](../search-and-navigation/the-sidebar.md).
- **Related**: a query shown at the top of every page in the collection, such as all tasks that link to the page. See [Live queries](../search-and-navigation/live-queries.md).
- **Edit Code**: the collection's configuration as JSON, plus optional JavaScript for formulas and custom views. See [Collection plugins](../plugins/collection-plugins.md).

Changes apply to everyone in the workspace, so rename a property rather than deleting and recreating it: the values stay attached.

## Trash a collection

**Move to Trash** on a collection trashes it with its pages. **Restore Collection from Trash** in its settings brings it back.