When you go looking for a note, you usually remember what it belonged to rather than what you called it: "I wrote something about that launch." That is exactly what a tag is for. You stick a tag on a note, then click that tag and see everything belonging to that work in one place.
A tag differs from a status in two ways. First, number: a note has one Status, but it can carry several tags. Second, reach: tags do not belong to notes alone, they are shared with the calendar. You can give the same tag to a note and to an event, and both draw on the same list. All of it is open on the free plan. Let us go through it in six steps.
1
Add a tag to a note
When you open a note you will see the Status, Tags and Linked event rows under the title. If you have not tagged the note yet, the Tags row says Add; once you have, a small + appears after the tags. Both open the same box.
The box lists the existing tags in your workspace as clickable badges like #Launch. The tag you are after is usually already there; click it to add it to the note. Click the same badge again and the tag comes off that note.
To create a new tag, type it in the Tag name field below, pick one of the eight colors underneath it and click Add tag. If the name already exists, no second tag is created; the existing tag is attached to the note.
The moment a tag is added it shows in the Tags row as a filled badge in its own color. To take a tag off that note, click the × on the badge; the tag is not deleted from the workspace, only its link to that note is cut.
Launch meeting notes
Status
In progress
Tags
Launch ×
Marketing ×
+
#Launch
#Marketing
#Personal
#Budget
#Design
#Meeting
Tag nameAdd tag
Linked event
Add
The top of the box holds your workspace tags; the area below is for creating a new one
2
See every tag in one list
All your tags gather in a single list. Go to Notes from the left menu and switch to the Tags tab in the side panel; you can see every tag in the workspace there. Change a tag from here and the change lands everywhere at once: every note and every event carrying it takes the new name and color instantly.
You can create a tag from the same panel too, with the Add tag + button at the top.
The Tags tab in the Notes panel: every tag in the workspace, in one list
3
Change its name and color
Hover over a row and two icons appear on its right: the pencil edits, the trash icon deletes. The pencil opens the Edit tag box, where you can change the tag's name and color.
On the note page there were eight ready colors; here you can give it any color you like. The color box has two tabs, Background and Text, so you can pick the text color separately from the background. The icons to the left of the palette take you to Recent and Favorites, and the field at the bottom takes your own color code; type it and click Apply.
The pencil opens "Edit tag"; in the color picker background and text are set separately, and beyond the palette too
4
Delete a tag
When you want to delete a tag, Pumpynotes asks you: "Remove this tag from all events and notes?" The word "all" here really does mean all; the tag comes off every note and every event carrying it, not just the one you are looking at.
This is the biggest difference between a tag and a status. Delete a status and your notes are untouched, they simply show no status. Delete a tag and it is removed everywhere. If you have stopped using a tag but do not want to lose which notes and events you attached it to, consider renaming it instead of deleting it; the tag stays everywhere it is, only under its new name.
The app's own warning: deleting removes the tag not just from the list but from everywhere
5
Narrow the list by picking a tag
Click a row in the tag list and you have picked that tag, so the list shows only the notes carrying it; the other tags fade and their eyes close. You can pick more than one tag, and then every note carrying any of them shows. Click the same row again and the selection lifts; with nothing picked, all your notes are in the list. The eyes to the left of the rows tell you what is picked: an open eye means picked, a closed one means not.
This selection is not saved. It holds for that session only; refresh the page or come back tomorrow and the selection resets, and every note shows again. The Tag filter in step 6 works the same way, and resets on a refresh too. The difference is this: from the panel you can pick several tags, while with the filter above you pick one tag at a time.
With Launch picked the other tags fade; the list shows only that tag's notes
6
Filter by tag, and use it on the calendar
At the top of the Notes page, to the right of the search box, sit the Status and Tag filters. Click Tag and every tag in the workspace is listed; pick one and you see only the notes carrying it. The button then carries that tag's name and color. To drop the filter, click the × next to the name, or open the list and choose All at the top. You can use this together with the Status filter: "notes tagged Launch that are in progress", say.
Tags do not belong to notes alone. You can give the same tag to an event on the calendar: open the event, switch to the Tags tab in the left menu, type the name in the Search or create a tag box and pick it from the list. If the name does not exist yet, you can create it from the same place. Now the launch meeting is on the calendar, your launch notes are in Notes, and both carry the same tag. Rename the tag and all of them update, because there is only one tag.
With a tag filter picked, the button shows the tag's color and name
The same Launch tag can be picked in the event window; the list is shared with notes
Frequently asked questions
Can I create two tags with the same name?
No. Tag names are unique within a workspace. If you type a name that already exists, no new tag is created; the existing tag is attached to the note. In the same way, renaming a tag to another tag's name is refused. That is deliberate: "Launch" should stay a single tag so that filtering brings everything together. The one exception is upper and lower case: the app compares names letter by letter, so "launch" and "Launch" count as two separate tags. Write your tags the same way every time and you will not meet these twins.
How many tags can a note have?
Fifty at most. You will not hit that in practice; two or three tags are usually enough to describe a note. Piling on tags makes filtering harder anyway, because each one stops being a way to narrow things down and turns into noise.
If I delete a tag, do my notes go with it?
No, your notes and events stay where they are. Only the tag is deleted, and it is removed from every note and every event carrying it. The app asks before that happens: "Remove this tag from all events and notes?" If you want to keep which notes and events you attached it to, rename the tag instead of deleting it.
Why does the tag I picked in the panel disappear?
Because that selection is not saved, it holds only for the session you have open. Refresh the page and the selection resets, and every note shows again. The Tag filter at the top of the Notes page works the same way and resets on a refresh too; neither is permanent, both are there to narrow what you are looking at right now.
Do tags belong to notes or to the calendar?
To both. Tags are the workspace's shared list, and Notes and Calendar draw on the same one. Create a tag in notes and it turns up on the calendar; rename it on the calendar and it changes in notes. That is how you can mark one piece of work by its meeting on the calendar and by its notes at the same time.
Do I need a paid plan to use tags?
No. Tags are open on the free plan too: creating, naming, coloring, filtering and sharing with the calendar are all available. There is no plan limit on the number of tags either; the only limit is the fifty tags on a single note.