How to add tags to Notes and Reminders entries for smarter organization

Hashtags became a useful way to track tweets across topics many years ago on Twitter. They spread to other social networks and into organizing apps. Apple brought hashtags (as plain old “tags”) to Notes and Reminders with iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS 12 Monterey.

You can use tags as ad-hoc categorization. Instead of building a set of hierarchical categories or having to create a bunch tags first that you then apply, you can simply type the hash or pound symbol (#) followed by text with no spaces. Typing this creates a tag with no further effort that Notes and Reminders can display in a Tags list in Reminders, and which you can use to build smart folders in Notes and smart lists in Reminders.

For example, you might want to tag any personal note that involves medical care with #health or any reminder that has to do with work on your house with #homerepair:

• In Notes, there’s no special place to add a tag. Just type # and the tag name, like #health. Notes auto-suggests entries you can select among based on tags that have already been added to any other note. You can edit tags on a note by using Find > Note List Search in macOS and entering the tag, or swiping down in Notes in iOS/iPadOS, tapping the Search field, and typing the full tag starting with the #.
• In Reminders, you can add tags anywhere in the text, but there’s also a dedicated tags field. In macOS, creating a note or clicking to edit reveals an Add Tags area. You can type in tags, like #electronics, or type # and get suggestions. In any version of Reminders, tap or click the info i icon, and then you can tap Tags or click Add Tags to add tags. You can also edit tags i those areas.

Once you start populating notes and reminders with tags, it could be useful to create collations using the “smart” features in either app.

• In Notes, tap the New Folder icon in the lower-left corner of the main screen and tap New Smart Folder in iOS/iPadOS, or choose File > New Smart Folder in macOS. Name the folder. You can select from all tags in iOS/iPadOS or enter tags in macOS. Tap Done or click OK.
• In Reminders in iOS/iPadOS, tap Add List at the lower-left corner, name the folder, tap Make into Smart List, select tags and other filters, and tap Done. In macOS, choose File > New List, name the list, check Make into Smart List, and add tags in the Tags field. Click OK.

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