Tags was a feature added to Finder in Mavericks, and when used properly it’s a great way to trying to keep all your content organized and easy to find. The problem however, is that the tags themselves are not organized. You can tag something with the color red, but what does the color red represent?

Changing the name of the tag helps you remember what’s actually being tagged. Changing the color can emphasize the tag, for example; red is attention grabbing so maybe it would work well as the “Important” tag or deadline tag.

 

Change Tags Name & Color

There are two ways of changing the name and color. One way is through Finders preferences and the other way is by simply right-clicking on the tag in the sidebar.

rename tags mac

The easiest method is to just right-click the tag in the sidebar, from here you can quickly change the name and color of it.

The preferences method gives a few more options. While you can rename and change the color, you can also change which tags show up when you right-click on files.

change favorite tags

Right-Click Favorites

Normally while in Finder you can just drag a file or selection of files onto the tag that you want to add it to. If you’re working outside of Finder and want to right-click a file or folder to add to a specific tag, you would right-click and select the desired tag. But what if your desired tag isn’t there?

In the Finder Preferences window there is a favorites section under the tags tab. This area is used to modify the tags that are available from the right-click menu. Drag tags down to the favorites area and arrange them in the order that you’d like and they will show up when right-clicking files and folders.