Branch Press

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Templates

Starting a note from a shape you already like: the gallery, the Branch Press library, making your own, and the fill-ins that date a note for you.

What a template is

A note you start from

A template is a note with a shape: a day page with its prompts, an essay with its masthead, a reading log with its columns. You start a new note from it instead of from a blank page.

Using a template always makes a copy. Writing in the new note never changes the template, and changing the template later never reaches the notes already made from it.

  1. 1Monday
    TEMPLATEReading LogBook · Author · PagesThree lines worth keeping
    You make a note from the template.
  2. 2The note
    On KahnemanBook · Author · PagesFast and slow thinking…
    A copy. You write in it; the template does not notice.
  3. 3Wednesday
    TEMPLATEReading LogBook · Author · PagesThree lines worth keeping+ Would I read it again?
    You add a line to the template.
  4. 4Thursday
    On ArendtBook · Author · PagesThree lines worth keepingWould I read it again?
    The next note has the new line. On Kahneman still does not: it was made before.
A template is copied, never linked. A change to it reaches the notes made after, not the ones made before.

A template stays out of the way. It is always private and can never be published. It is left out of every graph, out of link suggestions, and out of your note count, because it is a tool, not writing.

  1. No graph
    Never a dot, in Branchspace or on your profile.
  2. No [[
    Never offered when you type a link.
  3. No publishing
    The switch says a template stays private.
  4. No count
    Not in your count of notes.
Where a template never appears. It lives in the gallery and in the Templates folder of your Explorer, and nowhere else.

The gallery

Templates ▸ in the Explorer header

The Templates button in the Explorer header opens the gallery. So does Ctrl P and “New note from a template”. Each template is shown as a picture of the real page; click one to see it at full size, then press Use this template.

  1. 1
    The tabs. Yours most used, the library, and the ones you made.
  2. 2
    Find one. Search names and text; narrow by kind; sort.
  3. 3
    The pages. Each drawn as the real note it makes. Click to see it at full size.
  4. 4
    Use this template. Always a copy. The template itself never changes.
The gallery. Templates ▸ in the Explorer header, or Ctrl P ▸ New note from a template.

It has three tabs:

Frequently used
Every template you hold, the ones you reach for most at the front.
Library
The Branch Press templates, with their ratings.
Templates I created
The ones you made yourself.

Above the cards, Search templates looks through names and the text inside them, Kind of note narrows to essays, day pages and so on, and Order sorts by name, most recent, kind, or best rated.

The library

Made by Branch Press

Every account starts with the Branch Press templates already installed, so there is something to start from on the first day. The Library tab lists them all, and in a template's preview:

1
← All templatesReading Desk
plain note
2
Rate this template★★★★☆Remove★★★★☆ 4.2 from 17 readers
3
Reading DeskBook · Author · Pages · Started · Finished
4
Install againUse this template
  1. 1
    Back, and whose it is. The template's name, and the kind of note it makes.
  2. 2
    Rating. Five stars to choose from; Remove takes yours back. The average and the number of readers show to everyone; who gave what, to nobody.
  3. 3
    The page itself at full size, exactly as a new note starts.
  4. 4
    Install, and use. Install reads Install again once you hold a copy.
A library template's preview. Click any card in the gallery to reach it.
Install
Puts your own copy among your templates, to use and to change as you like.
Install again
Another fresh copy, if you deleted yours or changed it past recognition.
Use this template
Makes a note from it straight away, without installing anything.

Rating one

A library template can be rated from one to five stars, in its preview. You can change your rating or remove it. Everyone sees the average and how many people rated; nobody sees who gave what.

A new edition

Library templates are improved from time to time. When the one you installed has a newer edition, its preview offers Get the new edition. The new one is installed beside yours, and yours is left exactly as it was, changes and all.

LIBRARYReading Deskedition 1
1
You install it, and make it yours: a column added, a prompt reworded.
YOUR TEMPLATESReading Deskinstalled · new edition
2
An edition 2 appears. Your card says so; its preview offers Get the new edition.
Reading Deskyours, as you left it
Reading Deskedition 2, fresh
3
Both, side by side. Keep the one you like, or take a change across by hand.
A new edition never overwrites your copy.

Making your own

From a note, or from nothing

Two ways in:

Reading Log, as I like it
Open Rename Take it out…Save as template… Private
1
From a note you already like. Right-click it in the Explorer and choose Save as template…. The note stays as it was; the template is a copy.
Templates×
Frequently usedLibraryTemplates I created
New blank template
2
From nothing. Press New blank template in the gallery, under Frequently used or Templates I created.

A template open for editing says so above the writing, and its record gains two rows:

TitleReading Log
DisciplineNone
Library nameReading Log
Makesplain note
How a template works · Every note made from it is a copy.· Fill-ins fill themselves.· Makes says what kind of note it becomes.· Library name is what it is listed under. Leaves once the template is saved
Library name
What it is called in the gallery.
Makes
The kind of note it produces: a plain note, an essay, a day page, and so on. An essay template makes an essay, masthead and all.

The four lines under the record appear on a new template, and go once it is first saved: they are the page's advice, never part of the template.

A template's record. The two rows in colour are the ones a template adds.

A Template tab also appears in the editing island while a template is open. It holds the fill-ins below and Preview as a new note, which shows exactly what a note made from it will look like today.

To change one later, open its preview in the gallery: Edit template, Rename and Delete are at its foot.

Fill-ins

Blanks that fill themselves

A fill-in is a blank the template keeps, and each note made from it fills in for itself. Put one in from the Template tab, where each button shows what it would become today.

Journal · {{WEEKDAY}} · week {{WEEK}} · day {{DAY_OF_YEAR}} of {{YEAR}} {{DATE_LONG}}No. {{ZETTEL_ID}}
1
The template, as you wrote it, blanks and all.
Journal · Monday · week 40 · day 271 of 2026 28 September 2026No. 20260928091405
2
Made on Monday at 09:14:05.
Journal · Tuesday · week 40 · day 272 of 2026 29 September 2026No. 20260929211730
3
Made on Tuesday at 21:17:30, from the same template.
One template, two days. The template keeps its blanks; each note gets its own moment.

Each fill-in, and what it wrote into Monday's note above:

{{DATE}}
The date the note is made, sortable — 2026-09-28
{{DATE_LONG}}
The same date written out — 28 September 2026
{{WEEKDAY}}
The day it is made — Monday
{{WEEK}}
The week of the year, weeks starting on Monday — 40
{{DAY_OF_YEAR}}
How far into the year it is — 271
{{YEAR}}
The year it is made — 2026
{{DATE_TIME}}
The moment it is made, the way your browser writes dates — 28 September 2026 at 09:14:05
{{ZETTEL_ID}}
A unique number from that moment, year to second, for anyone who files notes by number — 20260928091405
{{CALENDAR}}
An empty block to write the month into

A fill-in is written when the note is made, not when you put it in. A day page made on Monday says Monday, and one made on Tuesday says Tuesday, from the same template. For a date you choose yourself, such as a deadline, just type it.

Sharing yours

Not open yet

Sending your own template to the library, so that others can install it with your name on it, is built and is waiting on its terms. Until then, the library holds only the templates Branch Press made. This guide will say when that changes.

Where to go next

The other guides

All guides

Something wrong or unclear here? Tell us

Last checked against the site on 25 September 2026