<--- Back to files

### how do we find files?

So, we have stored some media in our database. Everything is hashed and cached. We can search by inbox and resolution and size and so on, but if we really want to find what we are looking for, we shall have to use tags.

FAQ: hold up, what is a tag?

The client starts with a 'local tags' service, which stores tags only on your client's database, where only you can see them. This is useful, and you should keep it in mind for specific jobs as you read the rest of this page, but please do not try to tag everything you own by yourself; unless you have a tiny collection, it will take you hundreds of hours, and your time is better spent helping build tag collections with other people.

In order to share tags with others, you must connect to at least one tag repository. You can create your own, if you like, and share access with whoever you like. I run a public tag repository, which you are very welcome to access and contribute to. To add its details, go services->manage services, select 'tags' on the left, and hit the 'add' button. You'll be asked if you have a registration key or an access key; you have an access key.

Here's the info so you can copy it:

- 4a285629721ca442541ef2c15ea17d1f7f7578b0c3f4f5f2a05f8f0ab297786f@hydrus.no-ip.org:45871

Tags are rich, cpu-intensive metadata. My repository has millions of mappings (about 70MB of network data, at last count), so expect your computer to take hours to synchronise fully. You can close the client at any time, and it will continue where it left off when it next boots. If it is slowing your normal browsing, you can pause it at services->pause->repositories synchronisation.

The client will report its current update processing status in the middle of the status bar, at the bottom of the screen. You can watch more detailed progress in the services->review services dialog as usual.

### adding tags

If you connect to a repository that has a lot of tags, you'll probably see them appearing in your client in any normal search. But if you want tags for your rarer files, or you don't connect to any big repositories, you'll have to add some tags yourself.

Select some files. Right click on them and select manage->tags, or hit F3. This will boot the very important manage tags dialog.

This shows the current selection's tags, and will add/remove tags to/from the entire selection. There's another autocomplete dropdown, just like when you search, that throws what you input at the box above. Submitting a tag that already exists will attempt to remove it, or you can just double-click it. You may be prompted to give a reason for removing a tag from a remote repository, creating a petition that an administrator will review.

The tag box will show the current changes with numbers in different sets of parentheses:

- (n) - Tag exists for n files of the selection.
- (+n) - Tag will be pended to n files.
- (-n) - Tag will be petitioned for n files.
- (Xn) - Tag has been applied and deleted for n files; you may or may not have authority to re-apply.

If you edit tags for the local tags service, they will be applied instantly; otherwise, they will be pended, waiting until you are ready to upload. You can re-open the dialog and edit your pending changes as much as you like. When you are ready to upload all your pending tag changes, use the pending menu in the main interface.

Please do not upload tags to my public tag repo until you get a rough feel for the tag schema, or just lurk until you get the idea. I am only interested in objective tags. If you don't like my guidelines, feel free to start your own tag repo!

You can synchronise with more than one tag repository. Their different tags will be merged using a union operation. Press the up or down arrow keys on an empty autocomplete input to quickly jump between your repositories.

FAQ: why can my friend not see what I just uploaded?

### now let's find some files

Once you are all set up, start to type in a tag, and the autocomplete dropdown will offer suggestions for you:

Becomes:

More tags will narrow a search:

Or, when prefixed with a hyphen, exclude:

When you are more familiar with namespaces, sorting and collections, you can easily find and display whole books with just a few keystrokes:

### typical usage

I find the following import-cycle works well for me:

- import anything in my downloaded images folder
- filter a few hundred from my inbox
- go system:archive, system:numtags<4 and tag some stuff
- upload pending tags
- feel good about myself

Read about ratings --->

Read about subscriptions --->

Go back to the index --->