(Feature request) A quicker way to create a bunch of new pages from a template

[agentydragon]

Describe feature

Many of my pages follow a template. For example, I have a few hundred pages for various AI and CS papers in Trilium, and have a template that endows them with inherited promoted attributes like "author", "cites this other paper", "topic", "arxiv link" etc.

Usually, I start out without the citations filled out. Then, as I read the paper, if I see it citing some paper that sounds interesting, I add a new instance of the "cites this paper" relation, paste in the paper's title, and either link an existing page (if I already have that paper in Trilium), or create a new page for it from the relation combo box.

I am now reading a paper and creating references this way. Currently I follow roughly this workflow:

• Read a bit of the paper I'm reading
• Type some notes into Trilium
• If the section I just read references something I wanna read, use the relation combo box to create or link the cited papers.

After that, I end up with a bunch of new empty pages (just with a title), for the papers I just added as those new relations. Then, I want to endow all the newly created pages with the paper template - so that they have the right promoted attributes etc.

The way I currently do that is:

• Ctrl+click every new page I created in the sidebar, opening each of them in a separate tab
• Ctrl+Tab to select tab of the first new page
• Repeat for every page:
  • Alt+A to open owned attributes
  • Type (or paste from keyboard): ~template=@Paper template, Enter to confirm
  • Ctrl+W to close tab and go to next page

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I have several ideas for how this workflow could be improved.

Bulk-adding attributes

When the user uses Shift+Click to select a bunch of pages in the tree bar, add a right-click option (and maybe keyboard shortcut) that open a dialog for adding owned attributes to all selected pages.

This way I could add the ~template=@Paper template attribute en masse.

Select template when creating page

The flow for creating a new page (either via linking to it with Ctrl+L, or via creating a relation to it) could maybe be improved by adding a control to easily select a template for the new page.

Auto-infer correct template, or set at relation level

The ~cites relation is only supposed to refer to pages that are either papers, or books (or other media). I have an informal, unenforced "type system" like this in my Trilium database. Other types in it are: "issue", "repeated note", "person", "location", "belonging" (as in "an object I own") etc.

Ideally I'd like Trilium to understand this type system and check for it and leverage it for better autocomplete suggestions on relations.

But, as a simpler idea, you could allow a relation definition to set that pages created in this relation's combo box should be created with a given template.

Additional Information

No response

[zadam]

Hi, your first 2 proposals look like good features and I have already thought in similar directions, I've split them out into #2812 and #2813.

[agentydragon]

awesome progress on both, thanks a lot!

only thing i'd request in addition would be to be able to navigate the "create page from template" dialog with keyboard only - ideally with a combo box that lets you type in part of a template name. it could be a better experience than finding the particular template i'm looking for with my eyes and clicking it.