Using tags to easily find content is well known on the Internet. Social networking sites is a great example of how tagging or labeling content is used when searching for information.

Instead of trying to remember a long URL's, the name of an article, photos or videos, tagging lets you use descriptive keywords such as "computer", "laptop", or phrases, "watching the net", moms photos" that can be used when searching.

With Windows Vista, users can now tag files and use those keywords to organize and search all documents on their desktop.

Tagging files in Vista is simple. When saving a file, The Save As dialog box displays showing two window panes at the top, Favorites on the left and the file list of the current folder on the right. Towards the bottom are three fields, File Name, Save as Type, and Tags.

When adding tags, they must be separated by semi-colons. Tags with spaces are allowed without quotes and are useful when adding phrases. An example of tagging would look like this:

tagging; computers; laptop; hardware and software; watching the net; windows vista tagging

Tagging properties can include things like the date a file was created, the author of a file, or names of people who appear in a photo. Vista also includes a nice suggest-a-tag feature that displays a pull down tab with keywords related to what words are entered in the tag field.

Adding tags when saving a file is one way of tagging. Adding tags can be used when opening a
file or from the Details pane and the bottom of the file's Explorer window when the file is selected (notice rate a file above the tag filed. click the star will represents the rating you want to apply)

You can also tag an entire group of files at once. Just select multiple files and add a property to the Properties dialog box.

You 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 PNG,TXT or RTF (Rich Text) files.

If you’re still not sold on Vista's new Explorer look and feel, Vista includes a Hide view if you still prefer real folders to the virtual view. Clicking "Hide Folders" in the lower left corner of the Explorer window allows old-fashioned navigation.

Once you get used to the robust desktop search capabilities of Vista, you'll find using meta tags with your saved documents and the search feature of Windows Vista Explorer is easy
compared to old fashion way of searching through your hard drive.