Usage Guide
Journal Bases provides two specialized Base views: Periodic Notes for daily journaling and Periodic Review for extracting insights across period types.
Periodic Notes View
The Periodic Notes view supports daily journaling with easy navigation between notes.
What It Does
- Lists notes for one period type at a time (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly)
- Displays notes in descending order (newest first)
- Provides expandable/collapsible cards for focus
- Enables inline editing without leaving the view
- Auto-saves with 1-second debounce
- Highlights the current period
- Shows create buttons for missing notes
View Options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Period type | Which period to display (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) |
| Future periods | Number of future periods to show (0-12) |
| Expand first card | Auto-expand the most recent note on load |
| Show missing periods | Show create buttons for missing notes in sequence |
Use Cases
- Morning journaling routine
- Quick review of recent entries
- Batch-creating notes for upcoming days/weeks
- Filling in gaps for missed days
Periodic Review View
The Periodic Review view facilitates periodic reviews with a multi-column layout.
What It Does
This view (inspired by Andy Matuschak’s sliding panes) lets you:
- Select or create a yearly note, then
- Select or create a quarterly note, then
- Select or create a monthly note, then
- Select or create a weekly note, then
- See all daily notes for that week
Hierarchical Drilling
- Select a week to see daily notes from that week
- Select a month to see weeks in that month
- Select a quarter to see months in that quarter
- Select a year to see quarters in that year
The Review Workflow
- Open the Periodic Review view
- Navigate to the period you want to review
- Read through child notes in the left column
- Extract key learnings into the parent note
- Mark the review as done (optional)
- Repeat at each level
View Options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Show columns | Toggle visibility for each period type |
| Column width | Width of each column in pixels (300-600) |
Column Features
- Collapse/expand: Click the fold button to minimize columns
- Mark as Done: Track completed reviews (cascades to child periods)
- Previous/Next: Navigate between periods in each column
- Create buttons: Appear for periods without notes
Use Cases
- Weekly reviews: synthesizing daily notes into weekly summaries
- Monthly reviews: extracting themes from weekly notes
- Quarterly reviews: identifying patterns across months
- Yearly reviews: creating annual summaries
Note Cards
Both views share these card features:
Editing Modes
- View mode: Read-only display
- Edit mode (Live Preview): Edit with formatting visible
- Source mode: Edit raw markdown
Auto-Save
Changes save automatically after 1 second of inactivity. No manual save required.
Current Period Highlighting
The card for today’s/current period has a visual indicator.
State Preservation
When files change externally:
- Expanded/collapsed state preserved
- Editor mode preserved
- Cursor position preserved
- Scroll position preserved
Creating Notes
Missing Note Placeholders
When a note doesn’t exist for a period, a create button appears.
Template Support
If you have Templater installed and configured a template path:
- New notes are created using the template
- Templater processes the template on creation
Folder Creation
Nested folders are created automatically if they don’t exist.
Week Boundary Handling
Weeks that span month or year boundaries appear in both parent periods.
Example: Week 2025-W01 (Dec 30, 2024 - Jan 5, 2025) appears in:
- December 2024 and January 2025 (monthly view)
- 2024 and 2025 (yearly view)
Integration with Other Plugins
Periodic Notes Plugin
When the Periodic Notes plugin is enabled:
- Settings sync automatically
- Journal Bases settings become read-only
- Settings remain editable if Periodic Notes is later disabled
Templater Plugin
- Configure template paths per period type
- Templates are processed on note creation
- Without Templater, notes are created empty
Life Tracker Plugin
Both views provide a getFiles() interface returning visible daily notes for Life Tracker commands.