In short, grouping files with tags makes them much easier to organize. Instead, I can look under any of those tags to find it, along with other files that share the same tags. What’s most important, though, is that the tags make it easier for me to find that photo later, since I don’t have to remember exactly when it was taken. With tags, I can tag it with (Josh) (Hannah) (Wallpapers) (Engagement), and then store it in a folder of photos named for the month in which they were taken. What if a file falls into different categories that make choosing a single location difficult? For example, I have a lovely engagement picture of my wife and me that makes for a good Desktop background. Well, a file can live in only one directory at a time. “But why not just keep them all in the same folder,” you may ask.
Admittedly, that could be accomplished with aliases, but tags make it so the document I stored in iCloud appears with all the rest, something that’s not possible with aliases. I tagged each of these files as “Apple Financial,” so despite being scattered all around my hard drive, I can easily group them in one place.
Then, I converted the PDF to a PNG in Preview, and dropped that file into my Pictures folder, which the automation utility Hazel subsequently organized into my TidBITS Screenshots folder. Next, I exported the chart as a PDF, which I saved in my Documents folder. I compiled the data and chart in Numbers, which I saved into iCloud in case I needed to collaborate on it with the editorial staff. A recent example is a chart I prepared to compare Apple’s product sales over time. Why would you want to do this? Let’s say that you have a project that involves different kinds of files: spreadsheets, images, and documents.
In plain English, that means that you can collect files together without using folders, and do so in a way that’s easier and more flexible than working with aliases. But after playing with the feature for a few weeks, my eyes have been opened to just how powerful tagging is.įor those not in the know, tags are a form of metadata that enables non-hierarchical grouping. So when file tagging was announced as a feature of OS X 10.9 Mavericks, I wasn’t terribly excited. Tags have been popular since the dawn of “Web 2.0,” but I never quite wrapped my head around them.
#1594: iOS 15.2.1, AirTag stalking, CES Tech Trends for 2022.#1595: Replacing the Time Capsule, AT&T and Verizon 5G coverage expands, is iOS 15's Focus overkill?.#1596: OS updates, Apple Q1 2022 outpaces supply constraints, Yahoo POP bug, Apple Personal Safety User Guide, Simply Piano.#1597: Apple Watch fitness tracking, cloud storage issues, Roku Express 4K+, watchOS 8.4.1.#1598: OS updates, Fantastical 3.6 self-scheduling, Mindfulness measures HRV, Monterey on too-old Macs, TidBITS list gremlins.