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Desk templates

Start a desk from one of six starters or your own template, save any desk's setup as a template, and add a template's widgets to the desk you have open.

All plansUpdated

A template is a ready-made set of widgets for a desk. Six starters come with PlexiDesk, and you can save any desk as a template of your own, so the next piece of similar work starts with the right notes, tools and layout already in place.

Templates are included in every plan.

The six starters

Starter What it puts on the desk
Daily Focus A "Top 3 today" sticky note, a 25-minute timer and a "Notes & log" note.
Project Hub A "Brief" page, "Goals" and "Risks / blockers" sticky notes and a "Decisions log" note.
Research A browser, a "Findings" page, an "Open questions" sticky note and a "Sources" Markdown widget.
Writing A large "Draft" page with "Outline" and "Ideas / cuts" sticky notes beside it.
Weekly Plan A "This week's priorities" sticky note, a "Mon–Fri plan" note, a 25-minute timer and a "Wins / reflection" sticky note.
Brainstorm A mind map with "Seed idea" and "Wild ideas" sticky notes.

Start a new desk from a template

  1. Click New desk at the top of the side menu. The New Desk window opens.
  2. Under Start from a template, click a starter, marked Starter, or one of your own templates, which follow the starters. Its description appears below the list.
  3. Type a name for the desk. If you leave the name box empty, the template's name is used.
  4. Choose a room and anything else you need, then click Create Desk.

The new desk opens with the template's widgets already on it. For everything else in the New Desk window, see Create a desk.

Add a template to the desk you have open

You can also drop a template's widgets onto a desk you have already started.

  1. Open the desk.
  2. Click the gear at the right end of the header to open Settings, then click the Templates tab.
  3. Your own templates are listed first, newest first, then the six starters. Each one shows how many widgets it has. Rest the pointer on one to see its description.
  4. Click the template you want. Applying… shows while its widgets are added to the desk.

The template's widgets are added at the places they had in the template, and everything already on the desk stays. If they land on top of your own widgets, click Tidy in the header to arrange the desk. See Tidy, auto-arrange and Smart Stack.

If no desk is open, the list is greyed out and says to open one first.

Save a desk as a template

  1. Open the desk you want to reuse.
  2. In the desk's quick actions in the header, click the bookmark, named Save as template. The Save as template window opens.
  3. Under Name, check the name. It starts as the desk's name followed by "template".
  4. Under Description (optional), say what the template is for. You see this when you pick the template later.
  5. Under What to include, choose the widgets to keep. They all start ticked, and the count beside the heading shows how many are included, for example (5 of 6).
    • Click None to untick everything, or All to tick everything again.
    • Sections are listed first, with their widgets indented under them. While a section is ticked, everything inside it is included. Untick the section to choose its widgets one by one.
    • Widgets that are not in a section follow.
  6. Click Save template.

Save template stays greyed out until the template has a name and at least one widget. To close without saving, click Cancel, press Esc or click outside the window.

Your template then appears in the New Desk window, after the starters, and at the top of Settings > Templates.

Save a template when you finish a desk

A good moment to save a template is when a piece of work is finished, because you know what helped.

  1. Mark a desk Done, with Done in the header or Mark done when its time is up.
  2. If the desk has at least one widget, Save this as a template? opens. It works exactly like Save as template above.
  3. Click Save template to keep the setup, or Skip — just close to carry on without one.

PlexiDesk asks once for each desk while you keep working. The same question can also appear the first time you open a desk that is already Done. See Track a desk's status and time.

Try the Wire & Agent Showcase desk

To see what linked widgets and desk agents can do, PlexiDesk can build a sample desk of ten worked examples.

  1. Press ⌘ K on a Mac, or Ctrl K on Windows, to open the command palette.
  2. Type showcase and choose Create Wire & Agent Showcase desk.
  3. PlexiDesk creates a new desk called "Wire & Agent Showcase" and opens it.

Each example has a card above it that says what it does. The ten examples are:

  1. Extract action items
  2. Turn notes into a task table
  3. Summarise a web page
  4. Keep in sync (live mirror)
  5. Write into a Document
  6. Desk agent: daily digest
  7. Desk agent: watch a table
  8. Receive from a URL
  9. Send to a URL
  10. Rewrite it clearer

Keep in sync, Receive from a URL and Send to a URL do not use AI. The other seven produce their results once AI is set up. See AI credits and where your AI runs Coming soon.

The Write into a Document example also creates a document called "Executive summary" in Office. To learn how the examples are built, see Link widgets and set up wires and Desk agent widget.

Common questions

The Templates list in Settings is greyed out

Templates are added to the desk you have open. Open a desk first, then go back to Settings > Templates.

Can I use a template on a desk I have already started?

Yes. Open the desk, then use Settings > Templates as described above. The template's widgets are added to what is already there.

Does starting desks from templates use up my rooms?

No. A template makes a desk, and every plan includes unlimited desks. Only rooms are limited, on the Free plan. See What each plan includes Coming soon.

Still need help? Contact support at [email protected].