Things
Tag colors and placement
How tags look and where they sit on a thing.
Why you'd care
Tags inline in the sentence read as part of the writing. Tags on their own line read as metadata. Which one you want depends on whether tags are part of how you write or a layer on top, and both are reasonable.
Placement
A tag can sit above the thing, below it, or inline where you typed it. Set it in Settings Lists & things Tag position.
Inline keeps sentences natural. Above and below keep lines clean, and are better if you tag heavily.
Colors
Tags can carry colors, which is what makes a tagged list scannable at a glance rather than requiring reading. Color is per tag, so it stays consistent everywhere that tag appears.
To change a tag's color, open the Tags view and tap the colored dot next to the tag, then pick a color.
Web, Mac, Windows, and Linux
You can also click the pencil on the tag's row. The same window lets you rename the tag.
iPhone, iPad, and Android
You can also tap the pencil on the tag's row, which lets you rename the tag as well.
Ordering your tag list
Settings Lists & things Tag order controls the order tags are offered to you: most recently used, most used, or alphabetical. Recently used is the best default, because tagging tends to come in bursts on one topic.
Settings that change this
- Settings Lists & things Tag position places tags above, below or inline.
- Settings Lists & things Tag order orders the tag picker.
- Settings Lists & things Show tags in side menu lists your tags in the side menu.
- Settings Lists & things Reset tag counts recounts the numbers that drive "most used", for when one has drifted out of sync.
Tips
- Change colors in the Tags view, where every tag sits side by side and you can see which ones already share a color.
- Color three tags, not thirty. Color only helps while it is still a signal.
- If tags are cluttering your lists, move them below rather than abandoning them.