# Using non-node headings and ways of working?

**URL:** <https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/using-non-node-headings-and-ways-of-working/2391>\
**Category:** Requests\
**Created:** [January 22, 2022, 12:43pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/using-non-node-headings-and-ways-of-working/2391 "2022-01-22T12:43:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![navigable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6f9a4e/32.png) [@navigable](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/navigable)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2022, 12:43pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/using-non-node-headings-and-ways-of-working/2391/1 "2022-01-22T12:43:08Z")

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This has come up before https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/control-over-headings-turning-into-nodes/2217. I’m asking because I’m curious how other people work.

Here’s something I find myself naturally doing when creating “hub” pages that link to a relatively large number of other pages. I’m going to create node `fruit` as a new org file, and make some links in there to some nodes that don’t exist yet:

```
* roam:apples

* roam:bananas

```

Then I’ll click on the link that I got from typing `roam:apples` and enter my thoughts about that:

```
Apples are nice.

```

Now when I use `org-roam-node-find` and search for `apple`, I get two results labelled simply `apple`: one to the `apples` node that’s its own org file, one to the `apples` node that’s a heading in the `fruit` file.

That’s expected when I think about it: as I understand it, headings with ids are nodes in org-roam, and using `roam:` to create links in a heading creates an id in the heading. So I can just delete that id to make the heading not a node, or maybe even write some elisp so I can control whether the id gets inserted (anybody done that? I’ve been hiding the properties drawers, so if I continue to use headings and properties this way I’ll need that).

I imagine people winding up to let me know that I could use org “plain lists” (what you get e.g. by using `-` as bullet character). Fair enough, but I also like to use headings just as lists because I like their plain-old-org behaviour.

Does anybody else feel this way? Did you resolve that just by deleting the ids, or did you find some other way of working?

What are your habits? I’m not committed to how I’m doing any of this so I’m really interested to hear how people do things differently, as well as tips on my specific way of working I’ve described here.

By the way, these link-y pages of mine aren’t necessarily gigantic lists – I don’t feel the need to make every list I start “comprehensive” – but there are obviously always going to be some nodes that are more highly connected than others and some may be fairly long.

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**Author:** ![bram85](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/bram85/32/863_2.png) [@bram85](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/bram85)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 7:05am UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/using-non-node-headings-and-ways-of-working/2391/2 "2022-01-23T07:05:55Z")

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Usually I add a `ROAM_EXCLUDE` property with `t` value to a heading. Then there’s no need to remove the ID, so you can still link to it. But it won’t appear as a node.

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**Author:** ![navigable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6f9a4e/32.png) [@navigable](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/navigable)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 1:34pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/using-non-node-headings-and-ways-of-working/2391/3 "2022-01-23T13:34:26Z")

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What do you actually type to insert the link (like the link from the `fruit` file to the `apples` file)?

It seems inserting links easily is an important thing – both ones to existing nodes and ones to new nodes.
