001.
/ Basic Usage of "Blocks". /
In the Notion interface, there is no traditional top menu anymore. Place the cursor at the desired location and click the popped-up plus sign, or directly type a slash (/). You can add various elements at the current location, such as text, pages, to-do lists, headers, tables, images, videos, audio, web bookmarks, code, mathematical formulas, boards, calendars, and more, including Google Maps, Figma drawings, Sketch files, PDFs, etc.
All these things you add are referred to as "blocks." Place the cursor on the six dots in front of a block, and you can freely drag its position. Select multiple blocks to drag them together. Dragging left or right can create columns, and adjusting the size is possible by clicking in the middle.
Selecting a block allows you to click the first button to switch it to other blocks, add links, comments, bold, italicize, underline, convert to code, formula, change the main or background color by clicking the "A" symbol.
Click "@" to add a date or reminder, mention your friends or colleagues, or link to other pages. The three dots and the six dots here serve the same purpose—delete, copy, convert to other blocks, copy the link of the current block, move, comment, and also reset the color.
But Notion's actual operation is not that complicated.
002.
/ Advanced Usage of "Blocks". /
Type a slash (/) and quickly enter the corresponding English word for the block, e.g., to-do list, image, table, bullet, number, quote, math, code, etc. Usually, entering one or two letters and pressing Enter will do it. For instance, to highlight text, type "/", callout, and then enter text, switch emojis, change background color, etc.
It can be even simpler: