Tags
Tags are a layer of classification that tessoa keeps for you. Put a colored tag on a file or folder, then click that tag in the sidebar, and everything carrying it comes together in one list — without actually moving anything into some "important" folder.
Tags never change the files themselves. Files under one tag can sit on different drives, in different folders. Rename or move a file inside tessoa and its tags come along.
What tags can do
- Put one or more tags on a file, or on a whole batch at once.
- Show colored dots next to filenames in every view (up to 3).
- Create, rename, recolor, nest, and delete tags in the sidebar.
- Click a tag in the sidebar to see every file that has it.
- Find files by tag name with the sidebar quick search (Alt+F).
A fresh install already has seven tags named after their colors: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, and Gray. They are just empty tags with a color picked; rename them to whatever you actually use.
Tagging files
- Select one or several files. To pick several, check them with Space.
- Right-click → Tags → click the one you want.
- With several files selected: as long as one of them does not have the tag yet, they all get it; only once they all have it does clicking clear it.
- The menu stays open, so you can click a few tags in a row. Click elsewhere to close it.
Right-clicking empty space gives you Tags for This Folder instead, which tags the folder you are standing in rather than anything inside it. All three platforms work this way.
Dragging files onto a sidebar tag
There is also a direct way: pick up files inside the window and drop them on a tag in the sidebar to give them that tag, several at a time if you like. The files themselves are not moved or copied.
Managing tags in the sidebar
The Tags section in the sidebar is where you keep them in order. The number at the right of each row is how many files carry that tag.
| To do this | Do that |
|---|---|
| Create a tag | Hover the section header and click ＋ |
| Create a child tag | The ⋯ at the end of a row → New Child Tag |
| Rename | Double-click the name, or ⋯ → Rename |
| Change color | Click the colored dot in front of the name, or ⋯ → Change Color… |
| Reorder or nest | Drag a row: onto the middle of another row makes it a child, between two rows just reorders |
| Delete | ⋯ → Delete Tag. Child tags survive; they move up a level |
After deleting, an undo prompt appears in the footer, so a mis-click is fixable right away.
Seeing everything under a tag
Click a tag in the sidebar and a tab opens listing every file carrying that tag (and any tags nested under it), no matter which folder they are actually in.
- These are still your real files: preview them, open them, right-click them, all as usual.
- Renaming the tag later changes nothing; the list keeps working.
How it relates to search
The sidebar quick search (Alt+F) looks for two things at once:
- File names.
- Tag names: match one and it lists every file under that tag.
A single Chinese, Japanese, or Korean character is enough to search on; Latin-script queries generally need two letters or more. When a result came from a tag, its tooltip says Matched tag and names it, so you can tell how it was found.
A few things to know
- At most 3 dots are shown per row, so extras are not visible (the most recent ones win).
- Files you send to the Recycle Bin from inside tessoa keep their tags if you undo the delete.
- On macOS, Import Tags from Finder in the Maintenance group reads Finder's tags in. It goes one way only; tessoa never writes back to Finder.
If you rename, move, or delete files from another program such as File Explorer or Finder, tessoa's tags can no longer find them, and those files stop showing up in the tag list. Run Clean Up Stale Tag References in Settings to tidy up.