Add tags or other properties to a file

Applies to all editions of Windows Vista.
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File properties display information about your files, such as the name of the author and the date that the file was last modified. Although there are many properties associated with your files, tags are often the most useful, because you can add tags to your files that contain words or phrases that make the files easier to find.

You can organize and find files quickly when you search and filter using file properties. For example, you can quickly narrow the view of files in the Documents folder to just those files written by a particular author or those that contain certain tags. But first, you need to add these properties to your files.

NoteYou cannot add or modify the file properties of some types of files. For example, you can add or modify the properties of Microsoft Office documents and Searches, but you can't add or modify the properties of TXT or RTF files.

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To add or modify common properties using the Details pane

You can add or modify the most common file properties, such as tags, author names, and ratings, from the Details pane at the bottom of the folder window.

Open Documents by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button , and then clicking Documents.

Click a file to apply properties.

In the Details pane at the bottom of the folder window, click the property that you want to change, type the new property, and then click Save.

Picture of tags in the Details pane
Adding a tag in the Details pane

To add more than one property, separate each entry with a semicolon. To rate a file by using the ratings property, click the star that represents the rating you want to apply.

To add or modify properties that don't appear in the Details pane

Open the folder that contains the file you want to change.

Right-click the file, and then click Properties.

In the Properties dialog box, click the Details tab, click the properties box that you want to change, type a word or phrase, and then click Apply. (If you don’t see any text for the property you want to add, point to the place where you would expect to see text, and a box will appear.)

To add more than one property of the same type, separate each property with a semicolon. To rate a file by using the ratings property, click the star that represents the rating you want to apply.

Picture of the Tags box in the Properties dialog box
Adding tags to a file in the Properties dialog box

Follow the steps above to change any other available properties (such as Authors, Rating, or Comments).

To add or modify properties while saving a file

You can also add or change properties to a file when you create and save it, avoiding the need to find the file and apply properties afterwards.

Click the File menu in the program you are using, and then click Save As.

In the Save As dialog box, type tags and other properties in the appropriate boxes.

Picture of the Save As dialog box
Adding properties to a file in the Save As dialog box

Type a name for the file, and then click Save.

To remove properties from a file

If you plan to share a file with another person, you might want to remove some or all of the file's properties, especially if they contain personal information. For example, the Author property might include the names of people who collaborated on a file, and tags might have words or phrases that you don't want other people to see.

Right-click the file, and then click Properties.

In the Properties dialog box, click the Details tab.

Click Remove Properties and Personal Information.

In the Remove Properties dialog box, click Create a copy with all possible properties removed, and then click OK. This allows you to keep the original version of the file with all of its properties, and make a copy with all of the properties removed that is suitable for sharing.
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In the Remove Properties dialog box, click Remove the following properties from the file, select the check box for each property that you want to remove, and then click OK.

NoteIf you added properties using a program other than Windows, you should remove those properties using that program. The Remove Properties dialog box removes properties that were added using Windows, but it might not be able to remove all properties added by some programs.

Add tags or other properties to a file

To add or modify common properties using the Details pane

To add or modify properties that don't appear in the Details pane

To add or modify properties while saving a file

To remove properties from a file

See also