Hi all, I see a lot of discussions on why/when/how to use tags, but I’d love to learn from other taggers where they put their tags. I’ve gone between all three options - top of the note, bottom of the note, and in the front matter as YAML. I’d love to hear what you do and why.
I’m unsettled on which to use but here’s my pros/cons for each:
Top
Pro: Easy to see when browsing through notes, especially notes longer than one page
Con: Disrupts the natural flow between the title and content
Bottom
Pro: Natural way to reflect on content when its completed and feels more natural of a location to me
Con: Varies in location and can’t see when content longer than one page
Front Matter / YAML
Pro: Structured and feels appropriate as “metadata”
Con: Obsidian-specific, looks odd when most notes don’t have front matter, wee bit more friction IMO
I look forward to hearing other people’s approach and thoughts. Right now, my notes are organized by a fun Cambrian pot of tags, MOCs, folders, and links. And of course, I just search for most things irregardless of the org structure!
I put my tags at the end of the first paragraph, so I can see the note’s summary when the tag is searched. This is a recent change; in older notes the tags are in a list item below the first paragraph (the list is essentially a YAML block that’s not a YAML block). In older notes with less metadata the tags may be on a line by themselves below the first paragraph.
Sometimes I add tags to the end of a particular paragraph (or other block) that I want it to apply to. Officially tags apply to whole notes, but because search previews show a preview for each line they’re on, they effectively apply to blocks.
attributes that are not links (type, status, created,…) go in YAML.
some attributes that are links, such parent::, subject::, and a few others not present in all notes, go on top, after the front-matter YAML. Recently I position some of them in a violet callout without title, i like a little of color around them.
other attributes that are very relevant links go at the end of note, in a section called ##reference
for example, in reference section I can have one or more source::[link] or literature::[link] referring to sources that I used for write my note
For tags, I don’t use a very large tag system. I prefer linking for subjects, for example, an subject:: [[link1]], [[link2]] goes on top after YAML.
I use some tags in YAML if they refer to the entire note (for example, #progress/evergreen and #inbox), while I use tags in the body when they refer to specific blocks in the note (for example #to-complete if I leave a block of text partially written, #urgent if I need to collect that block in my urgent todo list)
Oh that’s interesting. It’s almost like a preview of the content then the tags. For short notes that might be just a sentence or list, do you just put it at the bottom then?
No worries. I’ve seen a number of people who use the YAML front matter extensively like basically an informally structured database. It’s cool for sure. I like that it’s still portable data and easy to manipulate outside of Obsidian (if need be) with simple scripts.
For a short, single-paragraph note where I used the “notes after the first paragraph” method, then yes, the tags would be at the bottom because there’s no more text after the first paragraph. But in new notes I’m putting tags at the end of the first paragraph instead of after it.
Some kind of notes, like my daily notes, have front matter and a few predefined tags and put more there if needed. But with notes that don’t have YAML/front matter, I just put tags where ever. Usually in the bottom, since it is easier to decide on tags when the note is finished. Sometimes it’s easier to put on the top, before I actually write the note. And quite often I just scatter them around the note, as part of the text. I have a handful of tags that I use frequently and some I just make up as I go. But of course I also use links. They are often in a more ordered fashion and not as chaotic as my tags.
I prefer them at the bottom so they’re unobtrusive. With the expansion of properties and their usage, it’s becoming less relevant, though, because there’s fron matter in most of my notes now, anyway. (What I’d really like is to be able to display the whole FRONT MATTER somewhere other than at the top of the note.)
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