I was first brought into the world of tagging years ago, when I was cleaning up my MP3 files…I found that each file (an MP3 ‘song’) had along with the title and some other factors a number of ‘tag’s one could add. A tag is just a ‘key work’ associated with the file. So, if I were adding a ‘key word’ to…let’s say a mid 1950’s Miles Davis track, I could add such tag’s as: cool jazz, or trumpet, or post bop…depending upon which track it was. The real value was that in whatever MP3 player I was using, I could do a search for ‘cool jazz’ and get a list of the tracks which I had already tagged as such…
The idea of tagging is actually quite powerful and works mostly because we are using increasingly powerful CPU’s on our computers. With tags there is little or no need to organize your files and documents into various folders and subfolders, instead you can ‘search’ for what you want, and then be presented with a list of related files…
If you think that this sounds like using Google on the internet, you’re right. The only real trick is to add lots of tags to everything. The good news is that there are more and more tools out there which can automatically generate useful tags for you.
I use tags (most of them are automatically generated too…)on my online Diigo account (a social bookmarking tool), and with the rudimentary Notebook system of organizing files on an EverNote account, the use of tags is something which you REALLY need to do…especially if you store everything…
Here are a couple links which can show you how to use tags on your Windows system (i.e. in your windows explorer…).
Tag files on your Windows system for organizing them effectively
http://digitizor.com/2009/04/04/tag-files-on-your-windows-system-for-organizing-them-effectively
File Name Tag Explorer Allows Automated Tagging to Search and Perform Different File Operations
http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/file-name-tag-explorer-allows-automated-tagging-to-search-and-perform-different-file-operations
