Every note you save is a small piece of your life: a recipe to try again, a contract you'll need next year, the first lines of an idea that might become something big.
Notebooks give each note a home. Tags help you connect notes across every notebook you have. Together, they let you organize your notes the way you think.
For years, though, tags lived in a narrow section of the sidebar. If you had hundreds of them, keeping them in order meant fixing them one at a time. If you had none, it was hard to know where to start.
We knew tags could do much more for you. So we've given them the space they deserve.
🔍 It started with listening
Cristina, our product lead, began by listening to people who live by their tags, to people who had never tried them, and to years of your requests. She then sat down with Elisa, our product designer, and they worked over many sessions until those insights became the first prototype of a new home for tags.
🌱 Small steps first
Over the summer, we focused on the everyday uses for tags:
- Inline tags. Type # anywhere in a note to tag it right where you're writing, no need to scroll to the bottom.
- Your tags, faster. When you add a tag, the ones you use most show up first, making the right one easier to find.
- Tags that stay out of the way. Tagging a note or moving it no longer changes its "updated" date.
Then came the request we'd heard more than any other: tag colors, together with a new menu for tags right inside your notes.
💬 A spoiler and a wishlist
With that first prototype ready, Elisa shared a sneak peek on Reddit and X with one simple question: what's on your Tags wishlist?
Within hours, the ideas were pouring in:
- Select several tags at once
- Drag tags to build a hierarchy
- See the notes behind several tags together
- Organize tags into groups
So Pablo, the engineer behind the new Tags view, rolled up his sleeves and got to work. Drag and drop to nest tags made it in. So did a way to see notes that have all the tags you selected, or any of them.
Many of your wishes start rolling out today. Thank you to everyone who replied: you've helped make Evernote better.
👑 Meet the new Tags view
On desktop, open Tags from the sidebar and you'll find a space built for them:
- 🗂️ See your tags your way. Switch between a table and groups, choose your columns, and filter or sort by color, number of notes, and last used.
- 🎨 Color your tags. Pick from 48 colors, made for both light and dark mode. Your colors show up everywhere your tags do.
- ✅ Change many tags at once. Select several to recolor, nest under another tag, or add to notes in one go. You can also just drag them where you want them.
- 👀 Preview the notes behind a tag. They open in a panel right next to your tags, so you don't have to leave the page.
- ⚡ Manage tags from your note. Click any tag in a note for quick actions.
On mobile, tags are easier to manage too: colors, filters and sorting, and the option to select several tags and change them at once.
Using Evernote at work? Admins can now let members edit tags and change their colors.
💡 A few ideas to get started
Not sure how to use tags? Here are a few ideas we see working well:
- Track progress. Tag notes to-do, waiting , and done, and move them along as things change.
- Follow a person or a client. One tag per client, project, or person brings all the related notes together, whichever notebook they're in.
- Mark the type of note. Receipt, invoice, recipe, research: find every one in a second.
- Give tags a color. Red for urgent, green for done. Your eyes will find them before your search does.
🔮 What's next
If you've never used tags, starting can feel like a blank page. So here's a spoiler of our own: we're working on tag suggestions, so Evernote can help you take that first step with your own notes.
The new Tags view is rolling out gradually from version 11.41. Open it, play with it, color something. And keep the ideas coming. Your feedback got us here, and it will shape what we build next.
Thanks for being part of Evernote,
💚 The Evernote team