Tags vs. Collections ​

Tags and collections are two key organizational features of Capacities, so it's important to know how to use them.

Both tags and collections let you group content together. Grouping content within the same object is done with collections. Grouping content from different objects is done with tags.

Why Use Collections ​

Collections let you create subgroups of content within one object. This lets you organize your content beyond just filtering it or sorting it, as you can sort it into groups.

These groups allow you to 'zoom in' on a group within your object to work more closely on it whilst maintaining the filtering, sorting and different views that each object has.

Importantly, content can belong to multiple collections within your object, and can easily be moved around. There is no need to unnecessarily silo information into one place.

How to create collections ​

Simply open the object dashboard, click on “create collection”, customize the name and icon then click the add button. Your collection is now set up.

How to add content to collections ​

Open the collection you have just created and click 'add' in the top right corner. You can either type in the name of existing content, add new content, or open the content picker to look more closely at your content.

Remember that this will only show content from the object in which you have created the collection. This is why they are considered sub-groups of the object. E.g groups of people (People object), meeting types (Meeting object), media types (Media object).

Once the collection is created, you can also go into the wall or gallery view, click the three dots in the top right corner and open the object menu. There is a shortcut to edit what collection the selected piece of content is in.

Using the collection ​

You can filter, sort and view the collection how you would like. You can also embed the collection in different pages (using the @ or [[]] function), which will maintain the ability to filter, view and sort them differently in a location of your choosing.

How to collect content from different objects. ​

When you realise you want to unite content from different objects under the same heading, you need to create a tag.

Tags ​

Tags live within the tag object. This is a basic object which is automatically created the first time you add a tag. This is done simply by writing #{tag-name}.

Because tags are an object, they are their own piece of content, even if the tag shares the name of another piece of content in your system.

For example, if you had a ChatGPT tag and a ChatGPT page, these would be two separate pieces of content.

You can add as many tags to a piece of content as you'd like. They either live at a page level (global tag) or in-line at a block level.

Examples ​

ChatGPT ​

ChatGPT's page could explain what it is and what it can do. You could also embed weblinks to blog posts about it, or tweets that show different use cases. This is one way of combining information about ChatGPT.

Another way would be to tag the ChatGPT page, the weblinks and the tweets with a ChatGPT tag. That way you can click on the tag and see all the places this tag has been mentioned across your space.

When you click on the tag, you see a window that allows you to filter, sort and view your results differently.

This also means you don't need to add each new ChatGPT related piece of content to the ChatGPT page. Simply add the content to Capacities via the command bar (Cmd + P), add the tag, and resurface the content when you need it.

Statuses ​

If you track tasks or projects in Capacities, you might benefit from a status tag. You can use whatever terms make sense to you and create tags for each. For example you could use 'to do', 'doing', 'done'.

You can create a drop down menu of these statuses in a property and then assign each status when you need to.

If you click on one of these status tags it'll show you everything in your space tagged with it: everything to do, everything you're doing, and everything you have done.

This is very useful for getting an overview of what you're working on.

Ratings ​

You can do something similar for rating content in your space, such as books or films.

Simply create a system you like for ratings (I like the star emoji) and then you can add these to a property just like with the statuses. You can review everything you've rated 5 stars!

Using tags and collections together ​

Tags are a great organizational tool, but because they are so useful you may end up with many, and you might want a way to organize them. One organizational method is creating collections within the tag object.

Based on the examples above, I would have a status collection, a rating collection and then leave ChatGPT out of a collection for now. As more tags emerge, I might need a ‘tech’ or ‘AI’ collection.

Maintaining your structure ​

If tags and collections are integral organizational structures to Capacities, you need an easy way to maintain them. How do you know what has not been tagged or added to a collection?

The new object dashboards have built-in sections to help with this. Here you can see all the content that hasn't been tagged or added to a collection.

Go to the dashboard of every object type, click the customize button on the right hand side of the screen and add whichever sections suit you. Start with both the 'not tagged' and 'not in any collection' sections.

You can adapt later, but you know this is one unified place to maintain your content in the way that suits your system.

Summary ​

In short, if you are organizing content that just belongs to one object, start with a collection. As your work expands, you may start wanting to collect content from other objects under the same title as the collection you've been using. You can create a tag then. You might also want to use tags for some special use cases such as statues or rating. In order to maintain your collections and tags, use the object dashboards found in each object.