Getting Started

So you've downloaded and installed Taggtool, now what?

The first thing to do is tag a single file in order to understand how the Taggtool utility works.

A tag is a textual label which you relate to a physical file, the idea is that you search on these tags in order to find your files rather than manually navigating through hundreds of files and folders on your hard disk.

So what does a tag look like?

A tag can be a single word such as 'photo', it can also consist of multiple words such as 'tax return'. To help reduce tag ambiguity dot notation can be used to indicate a context such as 'computers.apple' and 'recipe.ingredient.apple', this type of tag is called a hierarchical tag.

It is entirely up you how you define your tags, the world is your oyster but we have created some sample tags to get you started.

It's important to note that the actual tags aren't embedded into the file instead the association of the file and it's tags are stored in a small database. This way all of your tags are private.

Important: Your physical files are never modified by Taggtool.

With the theory over, let's get back to tagging up a file.

Step 1 - Start Taggtool by double clicking on the Taggtool icon on your desktop.

Upon startup you are presented with the search screen.

The search screen is used to locate files based on search criteria you enter into the search field. This screen is also used to update and remove tags from existing tagged files.

Step 2 - Click on the 'Tag Files' tab to activate the file browser panel.

Use this tree view to navigate to the file you want to tag, this could be a photo, spreadsheet or any other file type you may have on your system.

Step 3 - Add the file to our selection by selecting the file name, you should see details of the file appear in the Metadata panel in the right of the screen.

Step 4 - Inside the Metadata panel you should see a text field labelled "Add Tags".

Step 5 - For the purpose of this tutorial let's create 2 new tags, type 'contacts,family' - without the quotes.

Step 6 - Click the save button, a small tag icon will appear in the tree view to indicate the newly tagged file.

In order to test our new tag we can now perform a search for this file.

Step 7 - Select the 'Search' tab panel.

There are 3 ways in which we can enter our search criteria, the first way is to simple manually type the criteria into the search field.

Step 8 - Type 'contacts' (without the quotes) into the search field, you should see your tagged file appear in the results view below the search criteria field.

Step 9 - To launch this file, simply double click on the row displayed in the results view, you can also launch the folder this file belongs to by right clicking on the selected row and choosing the 'Launch Folder' option.

Step 10 - To clear the search, click the clear button to the left of the search field.

Step 11 - Another way to enter your criteria is to select a tag from the tag cloud displayed just below the search crtieria panel. To activate the tag cloud (if it isn't already selected) select the Tag Cloud tab, then select the 'Contacts' tag. The search results panel will display your tagged file.

The final way to insert a tag is to right-click inside the search criteria text field, a popup menu will appear from which you can select tags.

This menu includes a very handy 'Used tags' group which lists all tags currently used in the active database.

Step 12 - Once you are happy with your search criteria you can save the search criteria by clicking on the save button represented by a small disk icon.

Step 13 - In the dialog which appears you specify a short name for the search and choose which search folder it should be stored in.

Step 16 - To create search folders, click the options button in the toolbar followed by the Search Folders tab.

Step 17 - To run a saved search you simply select the search from the Saved Searches menu.