![]() The basic rule is to take what first comes to mind and ask yourself that question. “What will I search for when I’ve forgotten this item exists?” It’s not always an easy question to answer. If I dealt only in CSS, I wouldn’t bother tagging with the other topics, it would just pollute my tag collection.Ĭhoose tags that will be useful next year Plus, you can cross groups: an article that covers html, javascript and CSS would get tags for all three, assuming I would be interested in all subjects in the future. It’s nice to be able to browse for all your web design articles, but maybe you’re just interested in the CSS articles at the moment.A search for bookmarks tagged “tutorial” and “CSS3” will quickly produce all of the relevant articles you’ve found in your web browsing. If you were always going to look for a file as CSS3, you should just use a folder. If you tag with two or three levels, it increases the ease of browsing in various situations. This pattern allows you to view your tag groups in a drill down fashion. They’re what make this different from just using a folder hierarchy. The only real rule is that they have to be tags you’ll consistently use elsewhere within other scopes. Tags like “research,” “approved,” “communication,” etc. These tags are going to be common tags across multiple top-level groups. Third-tier tags are where you begin to cross-pollinate the tag groups. If you consider your top-level tag specific enough for narrowing a project down in a future search, just skip to third-tier tags. If your top-level tag is a client name, then second-tier tags would include a project name or other unique identifier that can be shared across all related files. Second-tier tags divide the group into subsections. Tags such as “email,” “communication” or “research” aren’t top-level tags. If it’s a project you’re working on, a client’s name is probably the right choice for a top-level tag. For example, if it’s a website, I tag it with the primary keyword that led me to the page, or the subject I was interested in when I followed the link. ![]() Top-level tags encompass an overall topic or broad scope that the object falls into. ![]() I typically limit myself to three levels of tags. What I’ve learned is to do follow three obvious-sounding rules: tag intuitively, intelligently, and consistently. Anything that is searchable in text or other metadata is left out of the tags. Tag sparingly, only using tags that will be easy to associate other objects with.This is navigable, but often results in messy tagging. It’s a free-association tag-for-all that results in a huge collection of tags. Tag with anything and everything you could possibly associate with the object (file, email, photo, etc.).There are two basic approaches to tagging: I’ve learned this the hard way, and on multiple occasions. This happens because multiple forms of a tag are used, or long after the object is tagged the original associations are forgotten. The primary problem you run into is that tag collections get out of control, and navigating them isn’t any faster than drilling through folders and mailboxes. I use tags to create additional groups that might not otherwise be possible, bringing together files and other objects that might be related in ways that a folder reflects. The idea of “one big pile” is as frightening to me as it is to most people. As I’ve mentioned before, I still use a shallow hierarchy, especially for grouping project files together. The goal of tagging is to associate files into groups that wouldn’t be feasible using a folder hierarchy. We just have to figure out the best way to make use of it. Now that we have OpenMeta 1 and a plethora of tools (I highly recommend Tags.app) to work with, tagging is a real option. Before OpenMeta we had to make do with whatever fields Spotlight would search, which was Finder comments on files, and really no options on emails and other items accessed outside of Finder. It allows me to attach tags to anything with a filesystem representation: websites, documents, photos, source code, emails and more. OpenMeta is the most useful tool in my tagging toolbox. ![]() I’ll start by telling you that I don’t have all of the answers what I’m sharing here is what I’ve learned after a few years of constant tagging. Since publishing my first article on tagging and appearing on MacPowerUsers, I’ve been asked many times for more specifics on my tagging system. ![]()
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