Retrospective TAGs

[N.A. 21]

Hi.

Recently I stumbled into the necessity to re-tag some older notes with TAGs which have been created in more recent times. TAGs I use for quicker searching and organisation, but as you can imagine TAGs change over time. There could be situations when I need to group older notes under a new tag for better organisation and there's no mechanism to suggest which notes could qualify to be tagged with the new tag.

Clipper has a tag suggestion feature (for new notes) but the main application does not?

Have other Evernote users encountered such a need and how they tackled the issue?

I'll appreciate any insights.

[gazumped 11,658]

Hi.  Evernote doesn't review your existing notes - something to do with their privacy and security principles I'd imagine;  some expert person or system somewhere has to make a decision on how and whether or not to re-categorise the note content,  and (IMHO) the best 'person and system' to do that is me.

Having said which I'm going through a similar situation myself,  having seen the possibilities of a slightly different process.  I'm using Filterize - no personal connection other than being a subscriber to that service - which allows you to set parameters like IF (a note) contains <keyword> or is tagged <keyword> THEN move / tag / retitle it with <new information>.

Baby steps for me - I'm over 46K notes now and I do not want to mess this up!  🤞

[DTLow 5,736]

12 hours ago, N.A. said:

Clipper has a tag suggestion feature (for new notes) but the main application does not?

I wasn't aware that the web clipper had a tag suggestion feature.
I  know Evernote has an auto-file feature based on similar notes.  It's based on some unknown algorithm and I turned it off. 

I use a script (Mac) to assist with processing notes in my inbox; assigning title, notebook, tags, reminders, ...
The first point is to identify note type (tag) which drives further processing.  
For example receipt notes require vendor and budget tags.

As @gazumped mentioned, Filterize allows the setup of rules to trigger tag assignment.  
I've implemented similar processing using a script on my Mac
For example: processing a transaction file from my bank
                       else if noteTitle contains "MANULIFE" then
                                    copy "?Vndr-Manulife" to end of note_Tags
                                    copy "!Budget-HealthInsurance" to end of note_Tags
                       else if noteTitle contains "PRESSREADER" then
                                    copy "?Vndr-PressReader" to end of note_Tags
                                    copy "!Budget-EntertainmentGeneral" to end of note_Tags

[PinkElephant 8,091]

Yes, there is a sort of AI that may help with newly clipped stuff, or not.

I have turned it off, and I hope that it will not be the same kind of AI that one day will drive my car ....

My process with tags is more manual:

With some frequency (every 3 month, +/-) I review my tags.

• Which are seldom used? 
• Which are used very often ?
• Are there near hits, meaning quasi the same ?
• Are there tags named the same but meaning different things ?
• etc.

Because  tag nesting is only supported on the desktops, I usually do this on Mac or Win. Nesting helps with keeping tags structured. I have a basic nesting structure following 1st Level Tags like When, Who, Where, How, Where from, Where to, Current status etc.

This review works with sufficient precision to keep my tag base up to the moving content I am filing away, and it keeps my memory of what tags I have and what I (should) use sufficiently trained to have a pretty solid tagging throughout my notes.

Sometimes I decide to assign a new tag to a number of existing notes. This is then done by a mixture of searches and mass-selection of notes, to tag a number of them in one go (again on one of the desktop clients, for they offer this feature).

[N.A. 21]

thanks everyone, I appreciate it.

[CalS 5,280]

On 7/2/2019 at 1:34 AM, N.A. said:

there's no mechanism to suggest which notes could qualify to be tagged with the new tag

Searching by the old tags that will fit the new tag:  Then bulk retag?  Add the new one first.