--- title: "Folders vs tags: which should you use?" description: "Folders answer where a thing lives, tags answer what it's about. Use folders for the one home, tags for the three other ways you'll look for it. With examples." source: https://savepad.app/blog/folders-vs-tags --- [Blog](https://savepad.app/blog) · 15 February 2023 # Folders or tags? How to organise anything you save Folders answer where a thing lives, tags answer what it's about. Use folders for the one home, tags for the three other ways you'll look for it. With examples. *A Savepad library with nested folders on the left and a row of tags filtering the grid* **TLDR** - Folders answer “where does this live?” Every save gets exactly one. - Tags answer “what else is this?” A save can have as many as it needs. - Start with a few broad folders and almost no tags. Add a tag the second time you wish you had it. - If you catch yourself making the same folder in three places, that folder should have been a tag. ## The short answer Use both, for different jobs. A **folder** is a place. The Northbrew landing page lives in *Work → Landing pages*. It can’t also live in *Inspiration → Dark mode*, because a thing is only ever in one place. A **tag** is a label. That same landing page can be `#dark-mode`, `#pricing` and `#long-form` at the same time, and show up when you look for any of them. People get stuck because they try to do everything with one. All folders, and you end up with *Dark mode* folders inside *Landing pages*, *Ads* and *Emails*. All tags, and you have 400 of them, half spelled two ways (`#darkmode`, `#dark-mode`, `#Dark Mode` 🫠). ## When a folder is the right call - **The thing has one obvious home.** A client, a project, a trip. *Madrid, May* is a folder. - **You’d browse it.** You’ll open *Paid social → Meta → Carousels* and scroll. Folders are for browsing. - **You’d share it as a unit.** Planning Mexico City with your partner? Send them the folder. Nest them if you like. Three levels deep is usually plenty. More than that and you’re filing, not finding. ## When a tag is the right call - **It cuts across folders.** `#dark-mode` applies to ads, emails and landing pages. That’s a tag. - **It’s a quality, not a place.** `#good-copy`, `#steal-this`, `#funny`. - **It’s a status.** `#to-review`, `#used-in-q3`. Tags come off as easily as they go on. ## A setup that works for most people *A mock landing page for a fictional mattress brand, Dozy* 0127 · Work / Landing pages · #dark-mode #pricing *A mock cart reminder email for a fictional shoe brand, Stomp* 0224 · Work / Emails · #dark-mode #good-copy *A mock ad for a fictional coffee brand, Northbrew* 0321 · Work / Ads / Meta · #dark-mode One save, one folder, three tags. The folder says where it lives. The tags say what else you'll want to find it by. 1. **Three to six top-level folders**, one per big chunk of your life or work. *Work*, *Side project*, *Home*, *Trips*. 2. **A folder per type of thing inside work**, if you save a lot of it. *Ads*, *Landing pages*, *Emails*, *Onboarding*. 3. **No tags on day one.** Seriously. 4. **Add a tag when you go looking for something across folders and can’t find it.** That’s the tag you needed. Now you know. The [swipe file template](https://savepad.app/blog/swipe-file-template) has a full folder structure you can copy if you’d rather not think about it. ## What about search? Honestly, search makes a lot of this matter less. If your tool searches the words on the page, in the PDF and in the screenshot, you don’t need a tag for every topic. You need folders for browsing and a few tags for the things search can’t know, like “this one’s good”. That’s how [Savepad’s spaces, folders and tags](https://savepad.app/docs/spaces-folders-and-tags) work: nested folders, as many tags as you want, and [search](https://savepad.app/docs/search) that reads everything you saved, including the text inside images. Stack a folder and two tags as filters and you’re down to the six things you wanted. If your bookmarks are where the mess is, start with [how to organise your bookmarks](https://savepad.app/blog/how-to-organize-bookmarks). Same idea, applied to the bookmarks bar. [Join the waitlist](https://savepad.app/#waitlist) ## Read these next - [How designers keep a swipe file without it becoming a Pinterest board: A design swipe file that stays useful: save whole pages, keep the fonts and colours, sort by what you'll need, and find things by colour and text.](https://savepad.app/blog/design-swipe-file) - [How to share a Google Maps list: Share a Google Maps list from your phone or computer, let friends add places to it, and what to do when a list of pins isn't enough for planning a trip.](https://savepad.app/blog/share-google-maps-list) - [Too many tabs open? How to actually close them: Why you keep 80 tabs open, and a ten-minute way to get down to five: sort them into done, now, later and never, save the later ones properly, and close the rest.](https://savepad.app/blog/too-many-tabs)