013 | Tagging Files: Another Hidden Gem in Your Technology Toolbox

Are you tired of spending precious time searching for files you know you've created but can't seem to locate? As educators, we pour our hearts into crafting engaging lessons, only to sometimes lose track of our own brilliant ideas. What if there was a simple solution to organize and maximize all that hard work?

Welcome to the Productivity for Teachers podcast, where we tackle the unique challenges of balancing classroom creativity with organizational efficiency. In this episode, we're exploring a powerful strategy that will revolutionize how you manage your teaching materials: the art of tagging files.

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Transcript

Hi, teacher friends. Dr. Sarah here. Thank you for joining me today. I am so glad you're here. Today I want to talk about tagging files. I started thinking about this because I am a Windows user at my school and tagging files is not quite as easy on Windows as it is on a Mac. But I switched to a new textbook this year and all of a sudden realized that my wonderful file naming convention that I've used for years and years and in my old textbook series obviously didn't work very well for my new textbook anymore. And I was spending a lot of time searching for files and remembered that when I used to be a Mac user, I used to use tags a lot. And I realized that if I had just started tagging my files all those years ago when I created them, or even before I switched textbooks, I would have been able to find my files a whole lot easier this year as I'm transitioning to this new textbook. So I have started using tags again and would like to share how you would do that and why you would want to do that, give you a couple of examples, and then we'll talk about how to tag in Windows and how to search for tags in Windows, and then we'll do the same for Mac. So my old file naming convention, actually the one I still use with my new textbook, is to start with the textbook name and I abbreviate it and level. So for my current textbook, that would be IK1. Then I do an underscore, then I do the chapter, so CH2 or CH1, then another underscore. And then I do the lesson like L1. So I start every file with the textbook name or abbreviated textbook name and number, underscore, chapter, underscore, lesson, underscore, and then the name of the file. And I try to think of future Dr. Sarah when I'm naming a file, I try to think of how I will search for that file in the future. I don't always get it right. So that's where the whole naming convention really comes in handy. And like I said, I'm switching to a new textbook. So that naming convention worked great, but now I'm having to rename things, which is fine. However, tags are a little bit different. When we assign a file to a folder, we only have one folder we can put a file in. Think of a tag as offering more than one folder choice for a file. For instance, as a language teacher, if I create a game, let's say a review game, then I might want to put that in a review folder or I might want to put it in the folder for that chapter. Or if it's a review for an exam, I might want to put it in the folder just for the textbook because it covers multiple chapters. If it only reviews verb conjugations, then I would want to tag it with verb conjugations. But if it also reviews vocab, I would also want to be able to put it in a folder called vocab. So you can see one file can have lots of different options, or you might wish for lots of different options for the folders that you can place that file into. So think of tags as being folders. Back to the example of my new textbook. When I create files now, I use my new naming convention according to my new textbook, and I name the file as best I can. But then I also tag it with things like conversation or listening or review or summative or formative or vocab or or grammar. All kinds of different things that I can tag. And I try to tag that file with as many tags as I can think of at the time. That way I know in the future I'll be able to find what I'm looking for for sure. So let's talk about how to tag files in Windows and how to search for tags in Windows and then we'll do the whole thing over again for Mac. Alright, to tag files in Windows is not as easy as it is in the Mac, but you'll get there, I promise. And before you know it, it'll kind of become second nature. So right click your file and select Properties and then go to the Details tab. Double click the word tags in the Details tab and then enter your tag names that you want to tag this file with. Now, I found that after you double click the word tags, you might need to just move your cursor slightly to the right to get that window to open where you can type the tag names into. So when you're typing the tag names into this little window, make sure to separate them by semicolons. And when you're finished, click Apply and ok. And you should now see the different tags that have been assigned to this file. Now, Mac users are able to kind of easily look at a list of tags that they have created over time. It's not that easy in Windows, so I would definitely recommend keeping a little list of tags that you create. For instance, you might tag one thing with grammar and then the next thing with conjugations, and then you're going to just have to keep searching for both of those Terms. Or you might tag a file with Game and another one with Activity when you really meant the same thing. So I would, for Windows users especially, create a list of tags that you're going to use so that you're consistent. Once you've tagged your files and clicked Apply, and then. Okay, now your file has these wonderful tags. Great. So how do we search for Tags then in Windows? Well, you have a couple of options. The first one is to open the folder where you keep your files. So search in a folder and then in that folder window where it lists all the files, go to the View menu at the top and select Details from the list. And now you will see a column called Tags. And if you click on that word tags at the top of the column, that will sort your files by tag. This is also a really handy way to see all the different tags that you've used within that folder and maybe kind of shore up your naming convention that way. The other option is to just open File Explorer and go to the search window at the top right and type the word tag and then the name of the tag and enter. That will then give you all the files that you have with that tag. So that covered the Windows side. Now let's talk about the Mac side. You guys have it much better than us Windows users. So in Mac, to add a tag to a file control, click the file and then you'll see at the bottom of the drop down menu you'll see the colored dots for different tags and you can go ahead and select that color that you want to use for that file if you want to rename the tags because they're named by color by default in Mac, if you want to rename a tag, go to Finder and then Settings, click on the Tags tab and select or click on the tag that you want to rename, enter the new name and press Enter. So if you don't want your tag to be called Red, you'll go to Finder, then Settings, click on the Tags tab and select that red tag and then rename it to Activity or Worksheet or whatever you want to call it. To search for tagged files in Mac, go to the Finder window, enter the tag name, and then select the tag from the suggestions and voila. Now you can see all your files that have that tag. Or in Mac, you can also simply select the tag from the sidebar. Very easy. I love it. So my friends, I hope this episode about tagging, about why you should tag and how you can tag in Windows and Mac was helpful. For you. As you know, I recommend starting small and watching those small steps add up to big gains over time. So for this week, if you're not used to tagging your files already, I would suggest thinking of two or three tags that you think would be most helpful at this point. Maybe it's formative and summative, or maybe it's introduction and review, or maybe it's worksheet and game. Pick two or three that you think would be most helpful in your searching process and go ahead and start tagging some files with those tags. Now, this is one of those situations where the work that you're doing today to tag files may not pay off, or probably will not pay off until you need those files again the next time, which for many of us won't be until a year from now when we're teaching this same material again. So this is one of those times when we have to be very mindful that the work that we're doing will definitely not yield instant results, but but just rest in the knowledge that your future self will be really, really thankful that you spent this time today tagging. So teacher friends, thank you for joining me today and I will see you next Tuesday.