Notes/docs/User Guide/User Guide/Advanced Usage/Templates.md

# Templates
A template in Trilium serves as a predefined structure for other notes, referred to as instance notes. Assigning a template to a note brings three main effects:

1.  **Attribute Inheritance**: All attributes from the template note are [inherited](Attributes/Attribute%20Inheritance.md) by the instance notes. Even attributes with `#isInheritable=false` are inherited by the instance notes, although only inheritable attributes are further inherited by the children of the instance notes.
2.  **Content Duplication**: The content of the template note is copied to the instance note, provided the instance note is empty at the time of template assignment.
3.  **Child Note Duplication**: All child notes of the template are deep-duplicated to the instance note.

## Example

A typical example would be a "Book" template note, which might include:

*   **Promoted Attributes**: Such as publication year, author, etc. (see [promoted attributes](Attributes/Promoted%20Attributes.md)).
*   **Outline**: An outline for a book review, including sections like themes, conclusion, etc.
*   **Child Notes**: Additional notes for highlights, summary, etc.

![Template Example](Templates_template.png)

## Instance Note

An instance note is a note related to a template note. This relationship means the instance note's content is initialized from the template, and all attributes from the template are inherited.

To create an instance note through the UI:

![show child note templates](Templates_template-create-.png)

For the template to appear in the menu, the template note must have the `#template` label. Do not confuse this with the `~template` relation, which links the instance note to the template note. If you use [workspaces](../Basic%20Concepts%20and%20Features/Navigation/Workspaces.md), you can also mark templates with `#workspaceTemplate` to display them only in the workspace.

Templates can also be added or changed after note creation by creating a `~template` relation pointing to the desired template note.

## Additional Notes

From a visual perspective, templates can define `#iconClass` and `#cssClass` attributes, allowing all instance notes (e.g., books) to display a specific icon and CSS style.

Explore the concept further in the [demo notes](Database.md), including examples like the [Relation Map](../Note%20Types/Relation%20Map.md), [Task Manager](Advanced%20Showcases/Task%20Manager.md), and [Day Notes](Advanced%20Showcases/Day%20Notes.md).

Additionally, see [default note title](Default%20Note%20Title.md) for creating title templates. Note templates and title templates can be combined by creating a `#titleTemplate` for a template note.