Tags and Folders

[Alan Watson]

I was surprised that selecting first a folder and then a tag (in 1.4.14) did not show me all only the records with the selected tag in the select folder, but rather all record with the selected tag.

Tags and folders seem to be very similar (from the user's point of view). The main differences seems to be that a record cannot be in more than one folder, deleting a folder also deletes any enclosed records, and the dragging a record in a folder to another library does not necessarily preserve the folder structure. Is that it? If so, I don't really understand the use-case for folders rather than tags. Is it just to accommodate people who are more familiar with folders than tags?

What I was originally trying to do was divide a library into sections. I hoped to place projects in folders and use tags for categories (e.g., meetings, letters, notes, etc.). Then to select all of the letters from a given project, I hoped to select the appropriate folder and the "letters" tag. Any suggestions on how to accomplish this? Smart folders and "compound tags" containing both the project and the category are too awkward.

[AmberV]

You described the use-case yourself. Folders are incredibly useful for describing the one fundamental attribute that file has that sets it forever apart from files with other fundamental attributes. One is an Apple and the other is an Orange, and there is no physical way that a file can be both an Apple and an Orange.

If you don't need that kind of rigidity, or none of your files are that distinguishable from one another, then ignore folders altogether, or use them chronologically as that can be a handy way to find things.

I don't really use keywords all that much except to denote status and workflow conditions. An optimum file has no keywords at all. A file with keywords means it is still a work in progress in one way or another.

[Michael Tsai]

Originally Posted by Alan Watson

I was surprised that selecting first a folder and then a tag (in 1.4.14) did not show me all only the records with the selected tag in the select folder, but rather all record with the selected tag.

Currently, selecting multiple sources (regardless of type) shows the union of their contents. However, your expectation regarding tags seems to be a very common one, so I’m considering changing the way tag sources behave.

Originally Posted by Alan Watson

Is it just to accommodate people who are more familiar with folders than tags?

No. I think Amber explained this well. Not everyone needs folders (or tags, for that matter), but if you need them you really need them.

Originally Posted by Alan Watson

I hoped to place projects in folders and use tags for categories (e.g., meetings, letters, notes, etc.). Then to select all of the letters from a given project, I hoped to select the appropriate folder and the "letters" tag. Any suggestions on how to accomplish this?

I agree that what you suggest would be really handy. Currently, one option would be to select the folder and then type “meetings” into the Search field (with it set to Tags) or “tag:meetings” (if it’s set to Anywhere). Or, depending on how large your folders are, it might be sufficient to sort them by Tag Names. Lastly, folders can be nested, so you could have a separate Meetings folder for each project.

[Alan Watson]

Thanks very much for your replies.