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Larilyn’s Tip of the Week: File Tagging

I have a confession to make.

I’m a hoarder.  

But not really the kind you’re thinking of.
 
No, I’m not talking about that kind of hoarding.  I’m talking about the fact that when it comes to things on my computer, I like to save them.  Pictures, emails, memes galore.  Every paper I’ve written for most of the classes I’ve ever taken – you never know when I’ll need that essay on the many reasons why the chicken may have actually crossed the road.  You name it, I have it saved and ready for if the need for it ever arises again.

It’s great that we make folders and sub folders and organize files and such to our hearts content, but somtimes it’s hard to remember where the file I’m looking for can be, or maybe I actually have a topic that I want to review and I want to look at multiple files dealing with that topic – but they’re spread out all over creation.
 
Fortunately, there is a great feature that helps with this.  You know how online, people can tag things with key words or phrases that help to search for them?  Did you know that you can do this on your own computer with your files?

When you are saving a file in Microsoft Word or Excel for example, there is an option under the file name for More Options.
Once you click on that, it will open up another box where you can name the file, tell it where to save – just like normal.  However, at the bottom you will see the option for Add a Tag.
You can click and type whatever tags will help you stay organized.  For example, I might tag this blog as “Tips” or “Computers”.  

The great thing about Tags is that then when you are looking for something on a certain subject, you can find all of the files you have on the same topic without having to navigate across all different folders and subfolders.

All you have to do is open your File Explorer and in the Search This PC box at the top right, type tags: and the tag your’re searching for.  So for example, tags: tips.  You can whittle down as much or as little as you like of where the tag will search – searching your whole PC or just your Documents folder or perhaps your Desktop – but whatever you search, everything that has been tagged with that particular tag will show up for you.
Isn’t technology simply the best??