TagSort

As computer memory capacity grows ever larger, the number of files which must be sorted increases as well. After a few thousand files across a few dozen folders, managing the deluge becomes difficult. How many people do you know with nested filing systems 10 folders deep?

Personally, I’ve found the “traditional” approach of creating folders for each month/year/division cumbersome to navigate and difficult to implement. Drawing from common forum organization which often use a tag-cloud based search utility, I decided that it would be worthwhile to create a tag-based search utility for my own file system.

In January 2020, I decided to write that program and test whether it could be effective. The result of that endeavor is the TagSort utility:

Example of a file, associated tags, and associated multiline description.

I programmed the file icon for a file to change to whatever Windows Explorer would show.

Example of the (very) rudimentary method of data retention. The shown file is associated with tags.

I would publish the utility here, except for two file dependency issues that would need to be resolved prior to release. As of 7/2020, I do not have the interest to fix this issue though I intend to do so before 10/31/2020.

The usefulness of the utility may be limited, at its current stage, by a restriction to a single active directory (may be changed in the future) and by a tedious process of assigning tags and descriptions. However, the tedium is well worth the increased searchability and is roughly on par with the tedium of adhering to a particular filing methodology.