How do I tag a note while I'm typing?

Type # in a note. Harbor shows your tags. Pick one, and the note is tagged.

You don’t have to stop writing, reach for the tag row, and come back. The tag goes right where you typed it, as a small blue chip, and the note picks up the tag at the same time.

Tagging with a tag you already have

Type # anywhere in a note. A list called Add a tag opens with your tags in it.
Keep typing to narrow it down. #gro shows groceries, grocery-receipts, and anything else that matches.
Pick one. Click or tap it, or use ↑ and ↓ and press Enter (or Tab).

The word turns into a #groceries chip, and groceries appears in the note’s tag row.

Making a new tag

If nothing matches what you typed, the list offers Create “name”. Click or tap it, or press Tab, and Harbor makes the tag and applies it.

Enter on its own never makes a new tag. It just starts a new line. That’s on purpose: writing “Ticket #1234” or “we’re #1” shouldn’t quietly fill your tag list with junk.

Tags with spaces in them

A tag you already have, like Kids Health: type #kids h. The space doesn’t close the list. It keeps showing Kids Health, and you pick it the usual way.

A new tag with a space: close it with a second #, like #sweet treats#. The tag is made the moment you type the closing #. The list reminds you of this if you forget.

You can also add any tag in the tag row, the same as always.

`#` at the start of a line

#groceries works anywhere, including the very start of a line.

A # followed by a space on an empty line still makes a heading, as it always has. So # Groceries is a heading, and #groceries is a tag.

Changed your mind?

Esc closes the list and leaves what you typed as plain text. On a phone or tablet there’s no Esc key, so tap outside the note, or just keep typing — a space after something that doesn’t match closes the list.

Undo (⌘Z, or Ctrl+Z on Windows) brings back a chip you deleted, along with its tag. It also takes back a tag you made by accident with a closing #. On a phone or tablet, use the Undo button at the left of the formatting bar above the keyboard.

How the note and the tag row stay in step

Chips in the note and the tag row above it are two views of the same tags.

A tag you type in the note shows up in the tag row.
Delete the last chip for a tag and the tag comes off the note — unless you added that tag in the tag row yourself. Then it stays, because you put it there on purpose.
Remove a tag in the tag row and its chips leave the note too.
Adding a tag in the tag row doesn’t write anything into your note. Your text stays yours.
Rename a tag and every chip for it updates.
Delete a tag and its chips turn to plain grey text. The words stay in your note; they just stop being a tag.

Limits

Making a new tag counts toward your plan’s tag limit, the same as making one anywhere else. Using a tag you already have is never limited.

If Harbor can’t make the tag — you’re at your limit, say — it tells you, and what you typed stays in the note as plain text. Nothing is lost.

Encrypted notes

This works in an encrypted note once it’s unlocked. But know this before you do it: tags are not encrypted. The note’s text is, but the tag names on it are stored as ordinary tag information, the same as a tag added from the tag row.

That was already true. Tagging from inside the text just makes it easy to do without thinking. If a tag name would give away what’s in the note, don’t use it on an encrypted one.

Where it works

Web — Harbor 1.0.55 and later.
Mac, direct download — Harbor 1.0.48 and later.
iPhone, iPad, and the Mac App Store version — in 1.0.51, on its way through App Store review.
Android — in 1.0.25, on its way through Google Play review.
Windows — in the next release.

Not sure what you’re on? Here’s how to check.

For how tags fit together with notebooks and stacks, see How do notebooks and tags work?