App or workaround to manage files with tags?

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App or workaround to manage files with tags?

One of the things I wish macOS had is a good tag manager to help us find files faster and easier.

For example, right now if I want to find files that have 2 or more tags, I need to create a new search and then manually add the search criteria. Thing is, when using the TAGS filter, we have to remember the tags names, because finder doesn't auto complete. If you have 100 tags, it's hard to remember all and the slightest typo will make it not find those files.

So my question is: is there an app that automatically shows all created tags (and keeps updating the list) and then we just have to click the tag name to add it to a search bar and then click another one, etc? Then we can pick if it's an AND | OR type of search?

Posted on Aug 9, 2022 2:38 AM

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Answer 1

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VikingOSX

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Aug 9, 2022 4:36 AM in response to tiagorocha

There is no ideal, or application solution to either of your paragraphs. If you want a list of all defined tags, you can right-click on any file or folder and choose Tags… which will provide a scrollable list of all defined tags. You can also assign or remove tags through that interface. The only so-called tags manager is in Finder's Preferences, or the previously mentioned feature.

Apple already has the tool in macOS to find multiple tags on files by name, but not by tag count, or by revising and reconfiguring the Finder Find ⌘F panel. It can be done from the Spotlight 🔍 menu extras bar on the right-side of the main menu bar.

Let's say I have a PDF document on my Desktop that has two tags assigned to it: 1) Red, and 2) Unique Tag, the latter being purple. In Spotlight, or a Finder Window's search field, once I click that 🔍 tool, I can enter the following to narrow that search:

tag:red AND tag:unique

Spotlight is case-insensitive, does not take wildcards (e.g. *), and even part of a name can form a match. The above search will discover all files with those two tags on them. If I just wanted a specific tagged file type, then I could have preceded the above with:

kind:pdf AND (tag:red AND tag:unique)

You are not restricted to two tag names either.

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Answer 2

tiagorocha Author

Level 1

27 points

Aug 9, 2022 4:52 AM in response to VikingOSX

Thank you so much for your reply and the extra link to that Apple article. I need to learn those.

As much as the solutions you offer are not ideal (as you said), they put me way closer to what I want to achieve. I use Keyboard Maestro (not sure if you know the app), so maybe with some tweaks, I will be able to combine those 2 approaches and come up with something. I found an AppleScript that retrieves all existing tags, so maybe that combined with what you shared, can end up being the tool I need. Let's see... if so, I will share it here, in case someone else wants to try it

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Answer 3

Aug 9, 2022 5:35 AM in response to tiagorocha

I would venture that right-clicking on a file or folder and selecting the Tags… menu item would give you a list of all declared tags without needing to run an AppleScript for that purpose.

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App or workaround to manage files with tags?

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