Finally, there is an easy way to automate some of the static workflows using native templates in Roam Research. When I first learned that we can use templates in Roam Research, I was like a kid in a candy store. Now we can avoid doing the boring stuff of typing the same content again and again or copying and pasting content from page to page.
Roam Templates
Roam templates are shortcuts to populate content snippets to any page in your graph. It is a way to populate static repeated content automatically to a block using a shortcut.
Before Roam came out with native templates, I used to manually copy and past or rely on external tools like TextExpander. Both of these methods had limitations. Copying from a bookmark page is bearing and time-consuming. TextExpander won’t work well with multi-line blocks where I have content in a new line I create using Shift+Enter.
With native Roam templates, it has become easy to create and use snippets and shortcuts.
How to create a Roam Template
Give a name to the template and reference the [[roam/templates]] page. Below this block, you can type the content you want to populate as a snippet. The snippet can have any number of blocks and intentions.
The templates can be created from any page. For easy maintenance, I created a page called Templates and keep all my templates in there.
How to use Roam Template
From the block where you want to populate the snippet, type ;; to pull up the auto-populated list. From the list choose the name of the template you want to use. Roam will automatically populate the template content into the current block.
My Workflows and Templates
I have replaced TextExpander with native roam templates and I use it extensively for my workflows. I use it for daily, weekly and monthly planning and review pages. I use it to create tasks and to populate metadata for notes, CRM, and my writing pages.
You can copy my template from my templates page.