Notion Sidebar
The sidebar acts as the control panel for your entire workspace. It sits on the left edge of the screen at all times. Mastering it helps you find any page in seconds instead of hunting through nested folders.
Sidebar Layout
| Section | Content |
|---|---|
| Top | Search, Home, Inbox |
| Middle | Teamspaces and Shared pages |
| Bottom | Private pages and Templates |
Reordering Pages
Drag any page up or down within the sidebar list. This changes its display order without affecting page content. Group related pages together for faster access, such as placing all active projects near the top and archived ones lower down.
Collapsing and Expanding
Click the small arrow beside a page name to expand its sub-pages. This arrow only appears when a page contains child pages. Collapse a section to reduce clutter when you focus on other work, then expand it again once you need those pages.
Favoriting Pages
Click the star icon on any open page to add it to Favorites. Favorited pages appear in a dedicated section at the top of the sidebar. This shortcut saves time for pages you visit daily, such as a task dashboard or a project tracker.
Favorites vs Regular Pages
| List Type | Sorting | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Favorites | Manual order you set | Quick access to frequent pages |
| Private Pages | Alphabetical or custom | All personal pages |
Collapsing the Whole Sidebar
Click the sidebar icon in the top corner to hide it completely. This gives the content area more screen space. Click the same icon again to bring the sidebar back. This works well on smaller laptop screens when writing needs full focus.
Search from the Sidebar
Click the search icon to open Quick Find. Type a keyword to filter pages by title or content match. Press Enter on a result to jump straight to that page. Quick Find also shows recently visited pages when the search field is empty, which speeds up return visits.
The Inbox
The Inbox section collects notifications, mentions, and comment replies in one place. Checking the Inbox each morning replaces the need to scan every page for new activity. This becomes essential once a team grows past a handful of members.
Organizing a Growing Sidebar
A sidebar with more than twenty top-level pages becomes hard to scan quickly. Group related pages under a single parent page instead of leaving them all at the top level. This keeps the visible list short while still giving every page a home.