Using Tags In Notes and Reminders On a Mac

The new tagging feature of Notes and Reminders in macOS Monterey gives you a whole new way to organize. Unlike folders and lists, a note can have more than one tag. You can also create Smart Folders and Smart Lists using tags.

Comments: 23 Responses to “Using Tags In Notes and Reminders On a Mac”

    Matthew Brandt
    3 years ago

    Hi Gary, could you please explain how to delete tags in the Reminders and Notes app’s? Thank you.

    3 years ago

    Matthew: Select the tag in the Note or Reminder, press the Delete key.

    Razvan Mihai
    3 years ago

    Thanks, Gary, again for the excellent video. We now have a sophisticated way to organize our notes, but one thing that bothers me about the Notes app is the inability to change the default font. Is there any way to do that other than changing the font every time you open Notes?

    3 years ago

    Razvan: In Notes, Preferences, you can set a note to start with one of four styles. And you can change the default text size. That's about it. You can also create a "template" note and set it up like you want. Then instead of a new note, duplicate the template one.

    Razvan Mihai
    3 years ago

    Thanks, Gary. I guess you mean selecting how you want to start a note depending on the document hierarchy level, i.e., title, header, subhead, and body. But you are still a prisoner to the predefined fonts of the respective hierarchy level. Creating templates is something I have been contemplating, and I will give it a go. Thanks. I wish there were a more straightforward solution for such a simple task.

    Matthew Brandt
    3 years ago

    Gary, that worked for everything, except for multiple tags in Reminders, which was the reason for my initial question. I deleted every Reminder with those hashtags, as well as the completed ones, and when I select them, I see “No Reminders”. A search shows “0 Completed”. They do not show up in a Spotlight search, whereas every other tag does for both Reminders and Notes. Another person reported the same thing on Reddit. I deleted other tags with no problem. This is only in Reminders.

    3 years ago

    Matthew: Are those tags in Notes, maybe? The list of tags is shared. If not, is this really a problem?

    Matthew Brandt
    3 years ago

    They're in Reminders only. I'm not using any tags in Notes. When I did, they deleted without issue. It's a problem in that sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, so it's inconsistent and annoying. The more tags that cannot be deleted, the more cluttered it becomes. For those trying to eliminate folders and simplify/declutter Reminders, needless tags are counterintuitive. That and can lead to reluctance to even use the feature. If I have 40 tags, and 20 are useless, it's a problem.

    3 years ago

    Matthew: So it must be a bug. Not happening for me. Report it to Apple and hopefully it will get fixed in a future update.

    Fred
    3 years ago

    How do you delete a tag in Notes? Doesn't seem to work with the delete key or deleting all the occurrences of a tag. Same on iOS. Odd, no?

    3 years ago

    Fred: It should work if you delete all of the occurrences. Keep in mind that you'd need to delete all of them in Reminders too. But some people report that they sometimes stick around even after you delete the last one.

    John
    3 years ago

    Hi Gary. Great video. Is there any provision for dragging a tag onto a note? I can’t seem to find one.

    Neil
    3 years ago

    Hi Gary, It seems that a tag in a locked note is not recognised - have you come across this?

    3 years ago

    John: No, you just have to type them.

    3 years ago

    Neil: That's right. And if you have a note with tags, you can't lock it.

    John
    3 years ago

    Hi Gary. Is there a quick way to add tags to multiple items. I have a notes folder with 186 notes in it and I would like to tag them all so I can remove the folder. The only way I can find is to create a smart folder, which automatically adds the tag based on the name of folder then delete the smart folder and the tag remains. But what if you want to tag them all with a different named tag?

    jasper
    3 years ago

    You can also apply tags by dragging a note, or several selected notes, onto the tag in its list in the sidebar.

    3 years ago

    John: You just have to add them all individually if they are to have different tags. Or try Jasper's idea.

    John
    3 years ago

    Thank you Jasper and Gary. Dragging a note onto the tag worked a treat!

    Jeff J. Frank
    3 years ago

    I just updated to Monterey 12.1 on my MacBook Air 2020 and do not have Tags for either Notes or Reminders. Is there a toggle to turn them on/off that I'm not aware of or another step to enable them?

    3 years ago

    Jeff: Keep in mind that would only be available for iCloud-stored Notes. The Notes app also can access notes in other cloud systems, like Google. So create a new Note but in iCloud.

    Paul
    3 years ago

    In Mac Reminders, I'm in the tags section of a reminder, I type a few letters until the pop-up menu for tags only shows one item. Now it seems I still have to use the arrow keys to select that item in the pop-up menu and then hit return after that. My hands have to leave home position on the keyboard. Is there a better way?

    3 years ago

    Paul: Just type the whole tag.

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