Notion offers many design features like adding horizontal dividers, adding color to a block to make it stand out, creating buttons, and more. However, adding a vertical divider in Notion is not straightforward.
This is a shortcoming because vertical dividers are an important element for page design. They act like a partition between blocks and provide visual separation. This improves readability and UX, making your Notion pages look more aesthetic.
But that does not mean that there is no way to add a vertical divider in Notion. There is a workaround.
How to add a vertical divider in Notion?
You can use the Quote block in Notion as a substitute for the vertical divider. The Quote block comes with a vertical line, to the right of which you can enter text. By placing this block between two blocks and resizing it, you can easily achieve the illusion of a vertical divider.
Here’s the step-by-step process for adding a vertical divider in Notion:
1. Create the blocks that you want to separate with a vertical divider.
For reference, we will use the Agency dashboard that we created in the how to create a Notion dashboard tutorial. It has three columns, we will show you how to separate the first two columns with a vertical divider.
2. Add a Quote block anywhere on the page
For adding a Quote block, type /quote and click on the only block that Notion displays. Here’s what an empty Quote block looks like.
Notice the tiny vertical line? It will become the vertical divider in the next couple of steps.
3. Drag the empty Quote block where you want
We want the vertical divider to appear between column 1 and 2, so we dragged the empty block there.
It has disrupted the layout but don’t worry, we will fix it.
4. Shorten the width of the empty Quote block
Hover a little towards the right of the empty block to see the Drag pointer. The below image shows a light-grey vertical line between the empty block and the Client Related column, the drag pointer appears there.
Click on it and pull the pointer to the left - as far as the tool allows. The intent is to let it take the least horizontal space possible.
Here’s what the page looks like after reducing the width of the empty Quote block.
Two issues arise here: the line is not long enough, and Notion suggests unwanted text. We will resolve both issues in the next step.
5. Add spacing to the block
Click inside the block, hold the Shift key and hit Enter. Everytime you hit Enter, you move to the next line and the Quote block’s default line gets longer. With this step, the default text also disappears.
The dashboard looks like this after the vertical divider is made as long as the column.
We went a step ahead by duplicating the vertical divider and placing it between column 2 and 3.
And that’s done! You can use vertical dividers to split the Notion page in half. You can also use them to separate any number of columns from each other.
However, vertical dividers are only one of the many design elements available for your Notion pages. There are many other ways to make your Notion look aesthetic but nothing beats Super when it comes to designing your web pages and creating a website that your audience loves.
Whether it is a Notion Portfolio or a huge organizational website, Super can help you create a custom domain with custom navbars, CTA buttons, fast-loading pages, and SEO optimization for your content on Notion. And guess what, you can try most of these features for free!
FAQs
Can you make a vertical divider in Notion?
Yes. You can make a vertical divider in Notion by repurposing the Quote block. Essentially, you place an empty Quote block between two columns that you want to separate and make the block longer by holding the Shift key and hitting Enter till you achieve the desired length.
How to change the color of the Notion vertical divider?
You can change the color of the vertical divider by changing the text color of the Quote block to Grey. This way, the vertical divider matches the color of the horizontal divider and blends into the page subtly.
How to split a page vertically into two in Notion?
Follow these steps to split a Notion page vertically into two halves:
- Start by creating all your content blocks that need to be separated. Use the ‘2 columns’ block to split the page in half.
- Add a Quote block by typing ‘/quote’ in Notion. This block comes with a built-in vertical line on the left. You'll see an empty Quote block appear on your page.
- Position and format the divider by first dragging the Quote block between the two columns you want to separate. Then hover towards the right edge until you see the 'Drag' pointer. Next, reduce its width by dragging from the right side to make it as narrow as possible.
- Finally, hold Shift + Enter to add line breaks and extend the divider length, which also removes any unwanted suggested text.
Since Notion does not have a built in page split feature, this Quote block method serves as an effective workaround.
How to add a line in Notion?
You can insert a horizontal line in Notion by using the divider block.
1. Go to your Notion page and place the cursor where you want to insert the line.
2. Type /divider. This will display the divider block as demonstrated in the below image.
3. Click on the block to insert the horizontal line.
A faster way to insert a horizontal line is typing three consecutive hyphens.
How do you make a divider bold in Notion?
Paste this code in your Notion page to make your horizontal divider bold —
\color{black}\rule{500px}{5px}The last bit of the code determines the width of the divider. It’s set to 5px in the code, which is quite thicker than the default divider width, but you can increase it based on what you need.
How do you color a line in Notion?
You can add lines of different colors by pasting this code in Notion —
\color{black}\rule{500px}{5px}Replace black with any color you want.
