Tags can also be dragged and dropped to change the order in which they appear, and dragging a tag into the favourites area at the bottom of the window will ensure that you always have your most-used tags available in Finder’s sidebar and in the secondary-click menu explored earlier. One of the unfortunate limitations of the tag system is that you’re not able to use custom colours, so you’re stuck choosing between the seven defaults. Right-clicking any tag will allow you to change its text label, and clicking the dot gives you the option to choose a colour for the tag, or to remove colours entirely. From the Preferences, you can add, delete, and modify your tags as well as designate your favourites for easy access.
#Totalfinder or similar app full#
tab and you’ll see the full list of tags on your system, as well as an area at the bottom where you can designate the ones you use most-your favourites. or by typing Cmd +, on your keyboard while you’re in Finder. Instead of sticking to the default labels like Red and Green, you can assign custom labels to tags like Rejected and Approved, for example. Naturally, you’ll want to make some modifications to the tags to better suit your needs. Adding custom tags is as easy as typing them in. More importantly, the text area at the top allows you to quickly create and apply your own custom tags, just like you would in Evernote or similar apps. The seven colours appear, and underneath them you can reveal the full list of tags on the system. Right above the coloured dots in the contextual menu is an entry called Tags…, which you can click to unveil the true depth of the tagging system. Some have complained that this is less visually distinctive than the old labels, and they’re right, but tags serve a greater purpose than simple visual marking, as we’ll soon see. As soon as a tag is applied, you’ll see it as a coloured dot in front of the file name. Click one or several to apply those tags to the file, and click a second time to remove them. You’ll notice that there are seven coloured dots by default, each of which is a tag. The contextual menu allows for easy access to file tagging. Applying tags to a file is as simple as secondary-clicking it in Finder and using the options in the Tags. The simplest way to get familiar with tags is to jump right in and start using them. Whether you’re an established labels junkie or a curious newcomer to this expanded system of managing your files, you’ll leave this tutorial understanding how they work and why you might want to use them. Tags are an evolution of this capability, with the most notable difference being that multiple tags can be applied to a file or folder, whereas labels could only be applied individually. Many users of OS X have never touched the label functionality, while others found it crucial to their workflow as it allowed them to segregate and find the files they needed without interfering with the established folder hierarchy. Apple’s OS has come a long way since labels first appeared in System 7.
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First introduced way back in System 7 (that was 23 years ago!), labels were intended as a way to visually distinguish certain files by applying a colourful background to their name. If you’ve been using OS X for a while, you’ll remember labels.