Articles in this section

Tagging

Important note: as of October 2025 the Ftrack main navigation will be changing.  While we update our documentation to reflect this change, click here to learn more and orient yourself to the new layout.

Tagging can be used to help label and categorize the items you are tracking in your projects with custom keywords that can then be filtered to help surface specific data more quickly.

Tags can be applied to any object, task, milestone, or asset version in your projects.

Setting up Tags

Tags exist in ftrack as a type of Custom attribute. To set this up in your workspace go to System settings > Workflows > Custom attributes and select Create.

tags-system-settings.png
 

Note: This can also be created as a project-specific attribute from a project's Task Spreadsheet or Versions Page by clicking on the settings gear icon.

Like any other Custom attribute, enter a Label and Name, select the Object you would like to add tags to, then select the attribute type of Tag.

create-tag-attribute.png

Tip: Depending on use-case or preference, you can opt to set up separate Tag Attribute columns for different object types, or use the Projects and Objects option to have one Attribute column that can be used across your entire project hierarchy.


Edit the User role permissions to ensure it reflects which User roles you would like to be able to view tags (read) and edit tags (write), then click Create.

edit-user-permissions.png

Adding Tags to a Project view

Add your new Tag Attribute column to your Task Spreadsheet or Versions page the same way you would to add any other Custom attribute, by selecting the gear icon > Attributes > Custom Attributes

project-attribute-add.png

If when you created your Custom attribute, you added your Tags to Project and Objects, you will be able to select your Tag attribute column here.

project-object-tags.png

If when you created your Custom attribute, you added your Tags to a specific object, hover over that Object and select your Tag attribute from the list of Custom Attributes for that object.

object-custom-attributes-1.png

object-custom-attributes-2.png

The Tag attribute will then be added to your Task Spreadsheet view.  You can create a Saved View from here if you would like to have a dedicated view that includes your tags.

Creating Tags

To add a tag to an object or task, double-click on the pencil icon that appears in the Tags Attribute cell upon hover.

click-to-add-tag.png

This will open the dialogue window where you can now create the tags you wish to use on your project.

If your Tags Attribute has just been created, this dialogue window will be empty, but will display all existing tags once some have been created.

Type a name for your first tag in the text field, then click Add Tag.

create-first-tag.png

Tip: Clicking the coloured circle to the left of the Name field will allow you to change the colour associated with your tag.

To continue to add more tags, click the Add Tag button at the bottom left of the dialogue window:

other-add-tag-button.png

Or, you can begin to type your tag name in the search bar. If the tag does not already exist, it will prompt you to create it.

search-to-add.png

Clicking the 3 dots to the right of the tag name will allow you to edit it if needed.

edit-tag.png

Once you have created all the tags you need, select the ones you wish to add to your object by clicking the checkbox, then click Select.

save-tags.png

The selected tags will now be visible in your view:

tags-in-spreadsheet.png

Tip: Multi-select can be used to add the same tags to multiple objects or tasks at once.

The Tags Attribute will also be visible and editable in the info tab of the sidebar, organized with your other Custom attributes. 

tags-in-sidebar.png

Viewing Tags in an Overview Dashboard

The Tags Attribute can be added to any List or Card views on the Overview page by clicking Settings in the top right corner, then clicking Add Attribute in the Settings panel.

overview-settings.png

add-attribute-overview-settings.png

The Tag Attribute will be found under Custom attributes, select it to add it as a column in your list view, or an attribute on the cards view.

select-attributes-overview.png

Save the dashboard once the column has been added if you wish to create a Custom Dashboard that will always include your Tags Attribute.

Filtering on Tags

Tags can also be used to filter data in your projects.

From the Task Spreadsheet or Versions page, upon opening the Filter panel, you will find your Tags Attribute as an option under Add filter > Custom attributes. Select the object you created your Tag Attribute for if neeed.

project-filter-tags.png

tags-filters-in-panel.png

From the Overview page, select Filter from the top right of the page, and you will find your Tags Attribute organized with your other Custom attributes.

overview-filters.png

overview filters.png

Note: While the Tags Attribute cannot be added as an attribute to the Timeline view for the Projects dashboard, it can be added as a filter while using this view.  To filter on the Tags Attribute from the Users Timeline view, a separate Tags Custom attribute will need to be created and linked to Users.

Limitations

There are a couple of known limitations when it comes to using Tags in your workflow:

  • Tags can not be populated directly from an Overview dashboard.  They can only be populated from the Task Spreadsheet, Versions Page, or Sidebar, same as any other Attribute or Custom Attribute.
  • If you have opted to create your Tags Attribute with the Project and Objects option, this does not extend to Asset Versions.  Therefore if tagging versions is a desired workflow, a separate Tags Attribute will need to be created specifically for versions.  Please note that Tags created for Objects will not carry over to this field.

Additional reading:

Here are some help articles that cover other features mentioned in this article in more detail:

Using Custom Attributes

Cross Project Views

Filtering

Using Views

Was this article helpful?
0 out of 0 found this helpful