(Archived) Categorizing tags

[jvv1001001 1]

I love the tags. Powerful layer of sorting capability...

Does anyone else have so many tags that they're becoming more of a liability than an asset (i.e. too much time to tag and finish notes)?

Is there a way to categorize tags to be able to go through them more quickly?

[jefito 5,589]

I nest them, but mainly I don't use the tag tree (I keep it closed in the UI). I do not keep a lot of tags, maybe 100 or so -- they're general and made to be flexible in application.

[jvv1001001 1]

Well, I posted too quickly...just discovered (should use Evernote on laptop more than on handheld devices) that I can drag one tag into another and categorize that way. This'll help a ton. I'm one of those users who tags heavily and likes to see the relationships. Jefito: Thanks for your post.

[jefito 5,589]

Yes, I tend to be pretty light with my tagging; I use a combination of tag and word searches to find my stuff, but I know that others build up pretty extensive tag hierarchies, and those are pretty well accommodated, though there is extensive discussion on making the tags themselves represent a parent/child relationship semantically (which Evernote dos not do, at least currently). I'll leave it to you to search to find those...

[jbenson2 2,147]

At last count, I had 750+ tags (and just 7 notebooks). I'd love to see a tag management system.

But in the meantime, I use the following method to organize my 750+ tags. The system makes it easy for me to remember tag names.

http://forum.evernote.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=24233&p=103963#p103963

p.s. one additional tip - to make it easier to remember, none of my tags have spaces.

For instance, the tag for Hewlett Packard is Com-Hewlett-Packard

[jvv1001001 1]

jbenson2: I could use your system. Mine has no rime or reason. I've only discovered Evernote since I got an iPhone in February. I have several hundred notes at this time and about 100 tags. The way I use the tags, I'll need some type of hierarchy. It'd be great for keeping track of books as you do.

[MNBlockHead 3]

My use of tags are not very complicated and for the most part, Evernote's tagging features are sufficient for my needs. But the following tag management features would be nice:

1. Tag groups. There are often certain groups of tags that get applied to certain types of documents on a frequent basis. I would be nice I could select a tag group and have all tags in that group applied to the document(s).

2. Tag clean-up tools. It would be nice to have some tools that would help clean up tags, including:

• 
  [*:14gkc5p0]deleting empty tags (any tag that has not been applied to a document)
  [*:14gkc5p0]enforcing capitalization rules and bulk-changing all tags to all lower-case, all initial case, or whatever your preference is
  [*:14gkc5p0]merging tags, I have redundant tags because if typos. I would like to be able to select a number of tags and merge them. Currently, you have to select the tag you want to get rid off, tag all of its documents to the correct tag, and then delect the incorrect tag. A tag-merge feature would be more convenient.
  [*:14gkc5p0]the ability to apply tags to multiple notes by typing rather than selecting the tags. If you have a large number of tags, the picklist of the CNTRL+ALT+T dialogue is cumbersome. I would like to have the option to have CNTRL+ALT+T behave similar to how you tag a single document, auto-suggest while you type, which for me is by far the faster of the two methods to tag docs
  

[jefito 5,589]

1. Tag groups. There are often certain groups of tags that get applied to certain types of documents on a frequent basis. I would be nice I could select a tag group and have all tags in that group applied to the document(s).

Sounds similar to another recent suggestion: http://forum.evernote.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=29836

the ability to apply tags to multiple notes by typing rather than selecting the tags. If you have a large number of tags, the picklist of the CNTRL+ALT+T dialogue is cumbersome. I would like to have the option to have CNTRL+ALT+T behave similar to how you tag a single document, auto-suggest while you type, which for me is by far the faster of the two methods to tag docs

Assign Tags in the Windows client certainly does auto-suggest as you type in the Add New Tag control. Also, it will respond to key presses in the tag list, so you can jump around the list alphabetically.

[MNBlockHead 3]

the ability to apply tags to multiple notes by typing rather than selecting the tags. If you have a large number of tags, the picklist of the CNTRL+ALT+T dialogue is cumbersome. I would like to have the option to have CNTRL+ALT+T behave similar to how you tag a single document, auto-suggest while you type, which for me is by far the faster of the two methods to tag docs

Assign Tags in the Windows client certainly does auto-suggest as you type in the Add New Tag control. Also, it will respond to key presses in the tag list, so you can jump around the list alphabetically.

[jefito 5,589]

Glad to hear it!

[risssa 0]

Ok - but how do you nest tags on the mobile? I've searched for android and I cannot find the instructions on how to accomplish this.

[jbenson2 2,147]

Ok - but how do you nest tags on the mobile? I've searched for android and I cannot find the instructions on how to accomplish this.

No, don't go there. Tags are too important.

In my opinion, any maintenance on tags should be done on the Windows or Mac client.

And a tip to make it easier to see the hierarchy, use a system like this:

Company

com-Amazon

com-Costco

com-Lowes

Insurance

ins-Car

ins-Dental

ins-Home

Personal

per-Gift

per-Travel

per-Yard

Using the prefix, will avoid a jumbled list of tags that look like this:

Amazon

Car

Company

Costco

Dental

Gift

Home

Insurance

Lowes

Personal

Travel

Yard

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

i don't tag.

http://www.princeton.edu/~cmayo/evernote-organization.html

i used to tag, and i even tried to work it into my account again recently to try and take advantage of the excellent windows sort features, but i just don't need them. nothing at all wrong with them, and they beat notebooks for flexibility. but, if you are at the point where you are overwhelmed, you might want to step back and consider alternative approaches that don't use them, or at least ones that use fewer.

[jbenson2 2,147]

There are several reasons I use tags.

Many of my notes have photos. Evernote has a difficult time interpreting the text on the image (especially maps). This weakens Evernote's search capability. A tag nails it down 100%.

Different spellings of a term make Evernote's search tedious. Example: These are all considered correct spellings in different locations: 1.) Moammar Gaddafi, 2.) Muammar Gaddafi, 3.) Moammar Gadhafi, 4.) Muammar el-Qaddafi, 5.) Muammar al-Gaddafi. By using one tag, I reduce the amount of searches.

Different terms have the same meaning. Example: 1.) Obamacare, 2.) Universal Health, 3.) Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

4.) health care reform legislation, 5.) PPACA. One tag covers all these different terms.

Negative Notebook searches are not allowed in Evernote. All my political notes are tagged with a Z. If I want to search only personal notes, I will block the political notes by adding -tag:z to my searches.

Tags help identify the correct Tax Year for my tax records. Some receipts are dated in one year, but apply to another year.

Tags help me find family members in notes, even though their name might not be mentioned. Instead of searching for Bill, Billy, or William, I can use one tag for my son.