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zombiecakes

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 11, 2012
201
59
I cant figure out a use for tagging outside of tagging people in photos, which I dont need to do. All the other things I can think of would be better done with folders, so how are tags supposed to be used that make them better than folders?
 

coldjeanzzz

macrumors 6502a
Nov 4, 2012
655
17
Lol they are pretty useless for people who are already organized as I put everything into folders and subfolders. I have only found one use so far to have quick access to a project I'm working on since I hate navigating through a bunch of folders to get to them.
 

DayVe3000

macrumors member
Jun 28, 2012
95
0
England
You may have multiple items (in different directories) that are related to the same subject - you may want to then look through it all together without chopping and chafing folders?

I personally won't get too much use from it - but I can imagine it could be fairly handy to someone in higher education.
 

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
34,283
49,520
In the middle of several books.
I like the tagging feature. I used it this morning. For someone who does a lot of work on the computer with different pictures and documents, the tagging feature is a help. For others, who don't create a lot, the tagging feature may fall by the wayside.
 

nontroppo

macrumors 6502
Mar 11, 2009
430
22
So you have a folder for your friend Anna, and another for your friend Robert where you put your written letters to each. Then you write a letter to both; which folder do you use? Or you have a music folder, a movies folder and a documents folder but then you have a document with an embedded movie in it (that happens to contain important info on a musician). Or...

Folder are reductively and falsely rigid hierarchies that are utterly inappropriate for many classifications. The problem is we've warped ourselves for so many years thinking only in terms of folder classification for ordering our digital worlds we can't see out of that small box...
 

Beavix

macrumors 6502a
Dec 1, 2010
705
549
Romania
My tag usage examples:

  • In my graphic design projects I often use the logos of other companies (for things like lists of sponsors, or list of companies participating at a conference). All those logo files are scattered in project folders and I often need to use them again. In order to see all of them in one place I tag each file with the "logo" keyword.
  • I have a folder containing stock images. Each of them is tagged with keywords describing the content of the photo, making it very easy to find all photos containing a specific object, person or whatever.
 

benwiggy

macrumors 68020
Jun 15, 2012
2,367
178
I cant figure out a use for tagging outside of tagging people in photos, which I dont need to do. All the other things I can think of would be better done with folders, so how are tags supposed to be used that make them better than folders?
They offer a complete alternative to hierarchical folder organization -- one that Apple is likely to use in iCloud.
Instead of putting files in folders, you create tags and apply them to the files. A file can have many tags.
You then query the file system with smart folders (which is what the Tag sidebar of Finder really gives you.)

Say you have files and folders about Cheese.
So, "Cheese", then subfolders "French" and "Italian". Then inside each, you have "soft" and "hard", "goat", etc.

Now imagine all those files in ONE folder, tagged with their country, hardness, animal.
You can create a smart folder displaying ALL soft goats cheeses, regardless of country. Or all Italian cheeses together. Or anything else.

That is much better organization than subfolders.
 

LV426

macrumors 68000
Jan 22, 2013
1,824
2,246
Yes, the above posters are correct. A regular computer filing system draws heavily on old technology such as a filing cabinet, with drawers and folders. This is often inappropriate where something does not fit naturally in a single exclusive location. With tagging comes the ability to organise things more logically.
 

jamesjingyi

macrumors 6502a
Dec 20, 2011
840
144
UK
I think its mainly for people who have items which fall into multiple categories. Take for example the one used in the keynote. There was a document about Space which was supposed to be schoolwork. This would allow the person to put the tags 'space' and 'school' as it was in both of these categories. It could even be put into another tag such as 'science' or 'projects' so that the person could view all the tags of a certain kind such as 'science' and it would show them all the documents they had that related to 'science' (or that they had tagged as science)
 

applesith

macrumors 68030
Jun 11, 2007
2,774
1,570
Manhattan
My tag usage examples:

  • In my graphic design projects I often use the logos of other companies (for things like lists of sponsors, or list of companies participating at a conference). All those logo files are scattered in project folders and I often need to use them again. In order to see all of them in one place I tag each file with the "logo" keyword.
  • I have a folder containing stock images. Each of them is tagged with keywords describing the content of the photo, making it very easy to find all photos containing a specific object, person or whatever.

Yup! That's pretty much what I am looking forward to using tags for on my Mac.
 

xgman

macrumors 603
Aug 6, 2007
5,665
1,378
I liked the colored labels option better for highlighting things in finder.
 
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