Tagger

Tagger is a small application for OS X that can be used for quickly adding arbitrary textual tags to files. Here's a screenshot:

It uses the OpenMeta system for saving tags, so the tags you add with it will be readable (and editable) by all the other applications that support OpenMeta.

Usage:

• Simply launch Tagger when the frontmost application window is a document window
  
  If the currently active window in whichever application you're using is a Cocoa document window, Tagger will, when launched, let you tag that document. This way, you can use whichever quick way of launching Tagger you would prefer (Spotlight or Quicksilver, for example, or a global hotkey via Spark, Keyboard Maestro or some other similar application.
  Note: In order to enable this feature, you need to select the "Enable access for assistive devices" option in the "Universal Access" preference pane in System Preferences.
• Select file(s) in Finder or Path Finder → launch Tagger
  
  You can simply let Tagger ask Finder (or Path Finder — whichever happens to be the frontmost application) for the currently selected files when it launches and let you tag them. This way, you'll be able to launch Tagger in any way that you'd like. Here are some examples:
  
  
  • Use Spotlight or Quicksilver
  • Configure a global hotkey/shortcut using for example Spark or Keyboard Maestro
  • Add a "Tag" item into your Finder context menu using FinderPop by creating an alias (called "Tag") for Tagger into the FinderPop items folder:
    
    
  • Drag a link to Tagger into the Finder toolbar:
    
    
• Launch Tagger when the frontmost application is a supported web browser
  
  If the currently active application is a supported web browser, Tagger will, when launched, let you tag the web page that you have open there. Currently supported web browsers are Safari, Opera, Camino, OmniWeb and Firefox (Note: Support for Firefox is very unstable due to Firefox's buggy AppleScript interface.) Tags that you add to web pages this way will be assigned to "web internet location" (.webloc) files that point to the tagged web page addresses and are saved in ~/Library/Metadata/Tagger/Web Links/. Files under this path are indexed by Spotlight and backed up by Time Machine by default.
• Drag & drop
  
  If you drag & drop files on top of Tagger, it will launch and let you tag those files. If you keep Tagger in your dock it'll always be easy to access for this.
• Command-line argument
  
  If you would prefer to launch Tagger via the command line (a shell script, for example,) you can specify the files to tag with the -f argument and the title to show in the main window with the -t argument. In order to specify more than one file, separate the paths of those files by new lines. An example:
  

  $ /path/to/Tagger.app/Contents/MacOS/Tagger -f "/path/to/a file to tag
  /path/to/some other file" -t "Two files"

  If you don't need to specify a custom title, you can then simply use the open command like this:
  

  $ open -a Tagger "/path/to/file1" "/path/to/file2"

When you're done editing the tags, you can:

• Commit your changes by either clicking on the "Save" button or by pressing Command-Return (or the Return key twice in a row, if you've turned this feature on in the preferences) when the focus is in the tags field
• or
• Quit Tagger and discard any changes you've made by pressing Esc or Command-Q, or by closing the window.

How do I find files I've tagged?

• Type in a Spotlight search
  
  To search for files by their tags, you can simply do Spotlight searches like: tag:tagname
  
  
• Create a Smart Folder in Finder
  
  
  
  To create a persistent Smart Folder in Finder that collects all files tagged with particular tags, do the following:
  
  
  • Select File → New Smart Folder from Finder's menu
  • Select This Mac from the "search criteria" bar in the window that appears
  • Click the "plus" button on the right edge of the "search criteria" bar
  • Click the first pop-up button on the new bar that appears (it probably will say "Kind..." by default) and select Other...
  • Select the Tags attribute from the dialog sheet that appears and press OK
  • Select contains from the second pop-up button on the right side of "Tags"
  • Type in the tags you want into the text box on the right
  • Click Save.
• Use TagLists
  
  TagLists is an application I wrote for myself for this exact purpose: as a simple and quick way to find files tagged with particular tags.
• Use some other OpenMeta-enabled application
  
  There are some great applications for organizing files that are compatible with Tagger when it comes to file tags. If you are after more advanced features or something specific, you should definitely check them out.

Tagging files from any AppleScript-supporting application

If a given application has an AppleScript dictionary, it is possible for Tagger to ask that application for files to tag whenever Tagger is launched with that application at the front. This can be done by writing a front application script for that application and installing it into Tagger. See here for more information about front application scripts.

Older Versions: