What are they?

If you are editing a page, you will see a box underneath the main content box titled "tags". If there is the title of any other page (Tiddler) in that box then it will act as a "tag" for that page. Think of Tags as pieces of string that connect all the pages that are related to a particular subject area.

So a tag is really just a Topic heading, and any pages (Tiddlers) that are tagged with say "Birds" would be Sub-topics under that heading heading (so pages on Sparrows, Eagles, Seagulls and Dodo's might all be tagged with "Birds".)

Many individual tiddlers will be tagged with a variety of tags, allowing for multiple links across different areas and different themes - Dodo's might also be tagged with "Extinct" or "Dead", for instance.

One of the interesting features of this format is that a page can be both a chunk of MicroContent in its own right and also a Tag gathering up other pages under its heading.

What's the big deal?

There isn't one, really. Tags = subject headings and pages in their own right.

However, because pages can be tagged with multiple other headings, a single page can be a Sub-topic under a whole variety of different headings - as if you could have a page in a book that could fit in a range of different chapters simultaneously.

This fosters Integrative practice...

How do I USE this stuff?

Click on the Show references and info panel for this page (or any page in the manual.) Look at the Topics and Sub-topics.

This Tiddler is tagged as a sub-topic of Understanding TiddlyManual format, i.e. it is one of a set of thematically-connected tiddlers that collectively explain the TiddlyWiki format of the manual. If you click on the 'understanding tiddlymanual format' title in the "Topics" list, you can see all the other Sub-topics listed out. Clicking on any item in this drop-down 'pick-list' opens that specific tiddler. This way you can quickly see how any single page in the manual relates to other material here.

To Add or change a tag

If you are editing a tiddlywiki, it is important to think not aonly about the content of the tiddler, but also how it integrates with (fits into) the wider whole - you can help this by adding the right tags. You can add tags when you Edit a Tiddler - it is very easy, and is described in the section on how to Edit. If you click on the edit button on this tiddler, you will see the tiddler in Edit mode, and any tag(s) in the bottom box. When adding tags it is important to get the spelling and capitalisation correct. For existing tags you can use the button "tags" right underneath the tags box - it will list off all the tags in the document - select the one you want to add, and it will automatically be added.