Tags

<h2>About Tags</h2>

<p >Tags were introduced in PersonalBrain 5.0. Originally keywords in 4.x, they have more functionality and provide a new way to structure your Brain.

How tags differ from types</p>

<ul >

<li >Whereas you can only assign one type to a thought, multiple tags can be assigned to the same thought. </li>

<li >Adding a tag will not effect the thought color, or automatically assign a thought Icon. However you do have the choice to add the tag text to the thought.</li>

<li >You can display tags as a thought in the plex. Although tags won't appear as parent thoughts when your active thought has tags assigned to them, you can click on a tag to display that tag and all associated thoughts assigned to it in the Plex.</li>

</ul>

<h2>The Tag Window</h2>

<p >The tag window shows a list of the tags you have created, and allows you to create, delete, or assign the tag properties. 

Clicking on the <b>Create</b> button, you can either type one tag name, or if you want to create multiple tags, type in the names separated by a comma or semicolon.

Highlighting a tag and choosing <b>Delete</b> will... uh, delete that tag.

Clicking the properties allows you to rename the tag, set the tag text color (called hints), and decide if you wish to show or hide the tag text in the plex.

<b> Note</b>: You can disable all tag hints from showing in the Plex by choosing <b>File > Preferences</b>, (<b>PersonalBrain > Preferences</b> on the Mac) and choosing the <b>Look & Feel</b> window. Check the <b>Hide tag hints</b> box.

Setting a tag color will cause the tag hint to display in it's assigned color, and when you click on the tag to show it in the plex, cause the tag thought to display that color also.

Here's an example of a red tag hint on a thought:

and with the tag active in the plex:

The tags are listed below the buttons. If a tag assigned to the active thought, the box will be checked and the tag will be in bold. The number to the right is the number of thoughts that have that tag assigned to them.

 </p>

<h2>Converting Thoughts to Tags</h2>

<p >If you have a parent thought that you wish to turn into a tag, you can right-click the thought and choose <b>Convert to a Tag</b>, or access the same dialog from the Thought drop-down menu. You can also convert a tag to a parent thought by right-clicking the tag in the tag window and choosing <b>Convert to Parent Thought</b>. 

 </p>

<h2>Assigning Tags to a Thought</h2>

<p >There are several ways to assign a Thought a tag:</p>

<div>

<ul>

<li>Right-Click the thought, Highlight <b>Tag</b> and click the tag you wish to assign. </li>

<li>Activate the thought and from the Tags window, click box of the tag you want to assign to the thought.</li>

</ul>

</div>

<p >Tags behave similarly to thoughts in that you can search on and activate them using Instant Search. You can also pin a tag to the plex for easy access. To pin a tag, activate the tag, right-click the tag and choose <b>Create Pin</b>. 

This can be useful if you have a tag you access frequently. For example, I have a tag called "Currently" that is pinned. Anything I'm working on gets assigned to the tag, so I can easily access these thoughts by clicking the pinned tag.

The way tags differ from thoughts is when they are not the active thought they are invisible. When you have an active thought with tags, they will not display in the plex as parents. If you have multiple tags assigned, this keeps the plex from becoming cluttered with the different tags. You can still display the tag text on the thought for visible reference, or provinding an alternate way of displaying categories.

Like types, tags will be included when copying thoughts to another Brain.</p>

<h2>Searching Tags</h2>

<p >One of the advantages of tags is the added search and reporting capability they provide. In addition to Advanced Search, you can report on tags independently from types, which allows you to cross reference thoughts with both a specific type, and a specific tag. At this point you cannot include multiple tags in your report parameters. 

To report on thoughts assigned a tag, go to the reports window, click the All tags drop-down and scroll down to the tag you wish to report on. All Thoughts with that tag assigned to it will be listed.

Finally, in <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/personalbrain-users/web/advanced-searching" rel="nofollow">Advanced Search</a> you can search on thoughts with tag names. To search on only the tag name, click the Clear All button, then select the Tags box, and type your keyword into the area below.</p>

<h2>Common Tag Uses</h2>

<p >Some common uses for tags are:</p>

<ul >

<li >GTD Contexts</li>

<li >Reporting </li>

<li >Quick access to changing thought groupings</li>

<li >Thought categorization</li>

<li >Assigning keywords</li>

<li >Workflows</li>

<li >Insert your use here. :)</li>

<li >

<div>

</div>

</li>

</ul>