Can’t wait for Mavericks’ file tagging? Use smart folders

Reader Andrew Ainsbury can’t seem to wait for the future. He writes:

I watched Apple’s WWDC keynote address the other day and loved the idea of adding tags to my files. Is there a way I can do something similar with Mountain Lion?

Sort of. A large part of what’s going on here is that you’re adding a keyword to a file, which you can then use to catalog your data. There are a couple of ways to do something similar in your current version of OS X.

Using Labels

First, you can label items and then create a smart folder that looks for specific labels. To do that select a file (or group of files) in the Finder and choose Finder > Label and assign a color to the items. Now choose File > New Smart Folder, click the Plus (+) button in the resulting window, and choose Other from the first pop-up menu. In the sheet that appears, type “label” into the Search field. Select the one entry that appears—File Label—and click OK.

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