How to Use Tags and Smart Folders in Apple Notes (Mac)

Folders force every note into exactly one place. Tags don't — a note can be #client-acme and #invoices at once, and Smart Folders turn any combination into a self-updating view. This is the system that scales past a few hundred notes, and it's built into Notes on Ventura, Sonoma, and Sequoia.

Tag a note: just type #

There is no tags dialog — the tag is text. Type # followed by the name anywhere in a note's body (#receipts, #book-ideas) and press Space or Return: the text turns into a rounded yellow token, and the note is tagged. As you type, Notes suggests your existing tags so a system stays consistent. A few mechanics worth knowing:

• Tags are one word — use hyphens for compounds (#project-alpha). The tag ends at the first space.
• Put tags anywhere: a line at the bottom of the note is a common convention, but inline mid-sentence works identically.
• Delete the token to untag. Backspace over it like any text.
• To tag many notes at once, select them in the list, right-click, and choose the tag under Tags.

Browse with the tag browser

Scroll the sidebar to the bottom and the Tags section lists every tag in the account. Click a tag to see its notes; click several tags to narrow to notes carrying all of them — #client-acme + #invoices is a two-click retrieval that folders can't do. The All Tags tile shows everything tagged. Housekeeping happens here too: right-click a tag to Rename Tag (it updates inside every note that uses it) or Delete Tag (removes the token from all notes; the notes themselves are untouched).

Build Smart Folders

1. Choose File → New Smart Folder.
2. Name it, then add filters. Tags is the workhorse, but on macOS 13 and later you can also filter by Date Created, Date Edited, Shared, Mentions, Checklists, Attachments, Quick Notes, Pinned Notes, and Locked Notes.
3. Set the match rule — notes matching any filter or all of them — and click OK.

The folder now populates itself. Useful recipes: Active projects (tag #active, edited in the last 30 days), Open checklists (checklists: with unchecked items), Receipts this year (tag #receipts, created this year). A Smart Folder is a saved search, not a container — you can't drag notes into it; you tag a note and it appears. Editing the rules later is a right-click: Edit Smart Folder.

Tags or folders?

Both, honestly — but with different jobs. Folders work as broad, stable buckets: Work, Personal, Archive. Tags carry the cross-cutting facts — which client, what status, what kind of thing it is — because a note can hold many tags but live in only one folder. If you're migrating an overgrown folder tree, the practical move is to collapse it to a handful of folders, tag as you touch old notes rather than in one heroic session, and let Smart Folders become the views you actually open every day. Tags sync through iCloud, so the same structure appears on your iPhone and iPad.

A note on tags versus search: Notes' search is genuinely good — it reads text in scanned documents and finds words inside notes — so don't tag what search already finds. The word "invoice" in a note's body is searchable for free; the tag #invoices earns its keep by marking notes that are invoices without saying so, and by powering Smart Folders. Tag for the categories you'll browse repeatedly; search for everything else. A dozen well-chosen tags beat a hundred aspirational ones you'll never click.