Organize Notes with Tags
Your folders made sense once — now the recipe note could live in Food, Travel, or Projects, and picking one feels wrong. Tags let a note live everywhere it belongs: tag it #recipe #italy #dinner and find it three ways. Folders force one home; tags allow many.
TL;DR / Quick Fix
Quick fix: type # followed by a word anywhere in a note to tag it, like #recipe. Tags appear in the sidebar under Tags — click one to see every matching note. Combine multiple tags per note for cross-cutting organization. Save tag combinations you reuse as smart folders.
Follow these steps
- Tag a note. Type #recipe anywhere in the note body. The word becomes a tappable tag instantly — no dialog, no setup.
- Browse by tag. Click a tag in the sidebar to see every note carrying it. One click replaces digging through three folders.
- Combine tags freely. A note can carry #recipe #italy #dinner. Multiple tags mean multiple paths to the same note — that is the whole point.
- Build a tag vocabulary. Pick consistent tags and reuse them. Ten deliberate tags beat a hundred one-off tags you never click again.
- Save combos as smart folders. For tag pairs you use constantly, make a smart folder that collects them automatically.
- Pair with checklists. Tagged checklists — #packing for every trip — turn tags into reusable systems, not just labels.
What NOT to do
- Do not create a new tag for every note. Tag sprawl is folders all over again — reuse beats inventing.
- Do not tag with whole sentences. #trip-to-italy-with-marco-in-june is unusable — keep tags short and generic.
- Do not forget tags sync. Tags work across iPhone, iPad, and Mac identically — use them everywhere.
- Do not nest tags expecting folders. Tags are flat labels; hierarchy comes from combining them, not nesting.
Frequently asked questions
Tags or folders — which is better?
Both. Folders for broad buckets, tags for cross-cutting themes. The combination beats either alone.
Can I rename a tag?
Yes — rename it once and every note updates. Much easier than refiling folders.
Do tags work offline?
Yes. Tagging and tag search work fully offline; they sync when you reconnect.