Learn how to organize your notes in the Notes app with tags on the iPad.
In addition to organizing your notes in forlders, in the Notes app on the iPad, you can also tag them! By tagging them, you can have a single note show in multiple ‘folders’. This was introduced in iPadOS 15. With tags, you can add multiple tags to a note, and you can create smart folders that include multiple tags! Learn how to add tags and smart folders, and why you may want to, in this video for Notes on the iPad.
Video TranscriptIn this video, we’re going to look at how we can add tags to our notes on the iPad. This was introduced to the iPadOS 15. Let’s go to my iPad.Let’s open up my Notes app. Now you’re most likely familiar with folders. What we’re able to do is create a new note and place them into different folders. To create a new folder, you just go down to the icon in the lower left-hand corner, tap on it, and you can create your folder. From there what you’re able to do is drag and drop any of your notes in to your different folders. So when I go into Travel here, I have three different notes. What I’m able to do is drag and drop these notes. Let’s go back over to my folders here. What I’m able to do is drag and drop these notes into different folders.
But now with iPadOS 15, in addition to these folders, while are also able to do is tag our notes. Now, why would we want to tag them as opposed to placing them in to folders? Well with tags, all we’re able to do is add multiple tags to a single note. Think of it as having a note in multiple folders without duplicating it. You’re going to have one note, but it can be in multiple tags.
So how do we add a tag to a note? And then how do we view all of the notes that have that tag? Well, all we have to do is just open up our note. I have my Travel folder here. Let’s go over to Restaurants to Eat At. I’m going to San Francisco. Let’s say I was going to San Francisco. These are the restaurants that I want to eat at. So what I want to do is tag this note as San Francisco. To do that, all we have to do is just tap in here to type, and then we put in the pound sign. This tells the note that you’re creating a tag.
So I just go down to my keyboard here and I tap on the pound sign. Now, what I have to do is create that tag. I’m going to go with San Francisco. So I just type in here, San Francisco. It does have to be one word. So now I have that tag here. It is still not tagged. What I need to do is tap the space bar or hit return. So I’m going to tap the space-bar and you’re going to see it turn to a different color. This is now a tag. Oops. I misspelled it. We’re just going to leave it as is.
If I wanted to add another tag to this, I could do that as well. Just hit the pound sign and then start typing, but let’s go over to my shopping list.
I’m going to tag this one this Shopping List here for sun lotion is for Florida. Let’s say I was going to Florida as well. So I tap in here and then I go back over to my pound sign and I type in Florida. Again, what I do is I hit the space-bar or hit return. This time I’m going to hit return and you’re going to see a change to a different color. And it is now tagged.
Let’s go over to my packing list, this packing list here. I want to have both of those tags. I want to have San Francisco and I want to have Florida. So now I just tap in here and I start typing. I go to the pound sign and you’re going to see I have my most recent tags show up above the keyboard. So I’m going to tap on Florida. We have our space there and now I’m going to type in the pound sign. And I’m going to go with San Francisco. So now this particular note, my packing list is set up for two different tags. So it’s going to show up in both of those tags. So I have restaurants to eat at, which has the San Francisco tag. I have the shopping list, which has the Florida tag. And then I have the packing list, which has both tags.
So now where do we view these tags? Well, all we have to do is go back over to our folders. You’re going to see, I have all of my folders here, but below that I also have tags. So now I want to view all of the tags that have Florida. Let’s say I was going to Florida. I do not want to view any of the notes that have to deal with San Francisco. All I have to do is just tap on Florida. And we can see, I have both of my notes or the packing list and then my shopping list, which has a suntan lotion.
Now let’s say I was preparing for San Francisco. I only want to view my notes that have San Francisco. All I do is just go back over to all of my tags here. I tap on San Francisco and then I de-select Florida here. We can select multiple tags. And now you’re going to see, I have my two notes that deal with San Francisco. Again, my packing list and also restaurants to eat at.
If I select multiple tags, let’s go back over to Florida here. I have both of these tags selected. Now it’s only going to show me the notes I have both of those tags, which is my packing list.
So that’s how we tag notes in the Notes app on the iPad. Think of it as folders, but instead of placing a note in a single folder, what we’re able to do is place a single note into multiple folders, by applying multiple tags. To add a tag, you just add the pound sign and then the tag you want to create. It does have to be one word. Once you add a tag, it’s going to show below all of your different folders. To select all of the notes that have a specific tags, just tap on the tag, and you’re going to see all of the notes. So now, in addition to creating folders, you can also organize your notes by tags.
Now, the Reminders app also does include tags, but these tags are not shared among the two different apps. So I am not going to see my San Francisco tag in my Reminders app. And if I have any tags in my Reminders app, I’m not going to see them in my Notes app.
So that’s how we add tags to our notes on the iPad.