# How to create a node without TITLE?

**URL:** <https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/how-to-create-a-node-without-title/3195>\
**Category:** How To\
**Created:** [August 21, 2023, 1:33pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/how-to-create-a-node-without-title/3195 "2023-08-21T13:33:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ritchie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@ritchie](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/ritchie)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2023, 1:33pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/how-to-create-a-node-without-title/3195/1 "2023-08-21T13:33:43Z")

</div>

Hello, I’m in the process of moving my notes to org roam. The problem is that in order to  
create a node I must change **#+TITLE**. What is the best way to create a node  
without modifying the title? The reason for this is because I have documents that  
I export to pdf and I need the title “This is a title about topic XYZ”. What I would like  
is this:

:PROPERTIES:  
🆔 7B421C54-3580-4FF3-BCD9-3D1D12DFEE93  
🔚  
#+TITLE: This is a title about topic XYZ  
#+ROAM\_NODE: XYZ

Now when I use org-roam-ui-open I can see a node XYZ instead of “This is a title about topic XYZ”.  
A workaround would be if there was a way to only show aliases in org roam ui, I read an issue on this.

I tried: `org-roam-title-sources '((roam_node))` and then in the org file  
#+roam\_node: node-name  
but that did not work.

Thanks

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ritchie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@ritchie](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/ritchie)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2023, 11:36pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/how-to-create-a-node-without-title/3195/2 "2023-08-24T23:36:41Z")

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Not sure if this is the best way but I ended up creating the node in the first heading  
this way the node is created in the heading instead of the file.

I’m not sure if this approach can later affect a files filter in org-roam-ui?

```plaintext
#+TITLE: Some Title
* My Node Name
:PROPERTIES:
:ID: some-unique-id
:END:

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nobiot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/nobiot/32/159_2.png) [@nobiot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/nobiot)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2023, 5:41pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/how-to-create-a-node-without-title/3195/3 "2023-08-27T17:41:33Z")

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With Org-roam, a node is a file or headline with an ID in the property. This means the headline-node will be a different one if you add an ID to the file. Org-roam-ui follows this. I believe it knows the hierarchical relationship that the file contains the headline (not 100% sure how UI renders this).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ritchie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@ritchie](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/ritchie)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2023, 4:53am UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/how-to-create-a-node-without-title/3195/4 "2023-08-28T04:53:20Z")

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Thanks for the response. I understand what you mean. The problem comes in when I want to keep my title but use a different node name.

Let’s say I have this:

```plaintext
:PROPERTIES:
:ID: code-2023
:END:
#+TITLE: Programing Languages of 2023
* Python
:PROPERTIES:
:NODES: [[id:code-2023][code-2023]]
:END:
* Elisp
:PROPERTIES:
:NODES: [[id:code-2023][code-2023]]
:END:

```

The node automatically becomes “Programing Languages of 2023”, I would like a shorter node but I would like to keep that title because it’s a good title to export to a PDF.

How would I go about this? Adding a new feature named “ROAM\_NODE\_NAME” ? I don’t think I can use an alias to make it show up as “Code” in org roam ui or in backlinks can I?

```plaintext
:PROPERTIES:
:ID: code-2023
:ROAM_NODE_NAME: Code
:END:
#+TITLE: Programing Languages of 2023
* Python
:PROPERTIES:
:NODES: [[id:code-2023][code-2023]]
:END:
* Elisp
:PROPERTIES:
:NODES: [[id:code-2023][code-2023]]
:END:

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nobiot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/nobiot/32/159_2.png) [@nobiot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/nobiot)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2023, 5:52am UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/how-to-create-a-node-without-title/3195/5 "2023-08-28T05:52:50Z")

</div>

> [@ritchie](#):
>
> I don’t think I can use an alias to make it show up as “Code” in org roam ui or in backlinks can I?

Why not simply try an alias? I don’t use it very often and I don’t export to PDF so I am not familiar with the problem you are facing