Learn how to tag files and folders on the Mac.
In this lesson for the Mac, I show you how you can tag files and folders on the Mac. Tagging files and folder offers a different way of organizing your files and folders. With tags, you can easily apply multiple tags to a single file or folder, thereby making it available in multiple locations. See how tagging works on the Mac in this lesson for the Mac.
Video Transcript (video also has closed captions):
Introduction: In this video, we’re going to look at how we can tag our files and folders. Let’s go to my Mac. Now, if you’re looking at a finder window, I’m looking at my documents here, you’re going to see in my sidebar, I have tags. What are these tags? Well, what we can do is we can tag our files and folders. This gives us an easy way to categorize them.
Renaming Tags: The first thing you may want to do is rename your tags. Maybe you want to have a tag for priority. To rename the tags, what we do is we go up to our Finder preferences. I’m going to go to Finder here, and then we go over to our Preferences. Select it, and then what we need to do is we need to go to tags. From here, you’re going to see all of your tags. To rename any of them, you click on it. I’m going to go ahead and click, and let’s name this one, high priority. We’re going to name this yellow one here, low priority. Let’s also name this one, work in process. This means that I’m working on that file. Now I have a few tags.
Showing Tags in a Finder Window Sidebar: The next thing we want to do is we want to make sure that they are checked. When they are checked, they will show in the sidebar. You’re going to see that I have– Let’s move this window here. I have three tags here. If I uncheck one of them, let’s go and uncheck high priority. We can see it is no longer there. I’m going to go back over to high priority and check it.
Creating New Tags: If you want to create a new tag or delete a tag, click on the plus and minus.
Favoriting Tags: Down at the bottom, you’re going to see that we have our favorite tags. What is this? Our favorite tags show up in our finder menus. When I select a file– Let’s go ahead and select this file here. What’s going to happen when I go up to file here is, I’m going to have access to my favorite tags. What I want to do is I want to make sure that high priority is in here, so I drag it down, and let’s go with low priority, and then let’s go with work in process.
Changing the Color of Tags: If you want to change the color of these, what you do is you click on the color, and you can go and change the color. I’m just going to leave them as they are. I click on the red button to close the window. Now, I have my tag set up.
Using Tags: How do we use them? Well, let’s say I’m working on my travel brochure, so now what I need to do is I need to tag this as a work in process. I select it, and then I can go up to file and select work in process. All you do is click on the red button, or what I can do is I can use my secondary menu. I’m going to two-finger tap; we have work in process. Then the other way is to drag this on top of one of the tags over in my sidebar. I’m going to go and drag this over and drag it on top of work and process, and now we can see it added that tag.
Now, let’s say this is also a high priority. We can have multiple tags on one file. To add another tag to it, we go and select our tag. This time, I’m going to use a secondary menu, and I select my tag, and now we can see we have two tags here. Let’s go and select this one and make this a work in process. We’re going to make this one a low priority. Let’s go with low priority for this one, but this time we’re not going to mark it as a work in process.
Viewing Tags in a Window: Now, I have my tags here. Let’s go and take a look at this in list view. Click on list. Now, I can easily see which ones are high priority or which ones are low priority. If I want to view all of my work and process, what I do is I click on work in process here, and I can see both of my files. I want to see all of my files that are high priority, I click on high priority, and now I can see my high priority.
Once you tag your files, you can easily select just those files by going to the sidebar and clicking on that tag. I can also arrange them by tags or group them by tags. I’m going to go back over to my documents. This is where all my files are located, and now what I want to do is I want to arrange them by tags.
Arranging Tags in a Window: We’ll talk a little bit more about arranging in another lesson, but if we go up to our toolbar, you’re going to see we have this icon here. This is my arrange icon. When I select this, I can arrange them by tags. I let go, and now I can see all my high priority at the top of my window, I can see all my low priority next to that, and then I can see all of my work in process. Now, when you are viewing them arranged like this or by group, which means they’re grouped by tags, you will see duplicates. Remember how I have lighthouses as both a low priority and a work in process, or if we look here under low priority, you’re going to see lighthouses, and it’s going to be under work in process. When you do arrange them by tag, you are going to see duplicates if you have multiple tags on a file.
If you no longer want them arranged by tags, you go back up under arrange here, and then you go to none, and now they are no longer arranged by tag. To remove a tag or even change a tag, we go back to our tags. I’m going to control-click, so I’m going to bring up my secondary menu, and you’re going to see I have my checkmarks here for the applied tags. Let’s say this is no longer a high priority. All I do is click on the X here, and it is no longer a high priority. You’re going to see that that tag is no longer there.
That’s how we can tag files and folders on the Mac.