How Tags Work - Basically to select the tag function you would simply select “Tag This post” at the bottom of the specific post in much the same way that you would add a post to My Clippings (by selecting Add to clippings). The difference is, rather then selecting the folder that you want the post to be filed in, you will type the name
of the tag that you want the post associated with. This is a little bit tricky because you have to remember all the Tags you have already used and type them in the same way every time. While the names do not appear to be case sensitive, similar tags are not grouped together. What I mean by that is if you create a Tag called tech, NewsGator will group together all of the posts with a tag of the same spelling, such as teCH, Tech, or TecH. However it will take the way that you last entered it as the current tag name. So if you originally enter it as Tech and then the next time you enter it as tech, then it will be tech unless you change it again. The system will not group Technology or any other form of the word in with Tech though. I also found it a little annoying that I had to keep typing in each Tag rather than being able to select from a list after I typed a tag in for the first time.I like the concept of the Tags and it easily coincides with other services and news agencies on the web today. By tagging a post you are saving it for later under the head of
the Tag. When you select the “My Tags” link at the top of your folder list the reading pane empties and there is a Tag Cloud on the top right side of the pane. It is called “My Tags” and under it is a listing of all the Tags that you have created. This is a little more aesthetically pleasing then the traditional folder tree system as well and with all the other folders that we have to look at all day (like email, my documents, etc) it is nice to have a different view. Although the folder list is always present and you can have the exploded folder list open or closed it is nice to have the Tag list in the top right with all of the tags available and at the risk of sounding weird since the same thing can be accomplished in my clippings by changing folders, I found that I enjoyed switching between topics by simply selecting a new tag.You can also retag posts if you find that a post should be in a different category. For instance if you tag a post quickly when you are reading the headlines, but save it for later to read, and it turns out to be about politics rather then technology then you can easily retag just by selecting “Tag This post” again and entering the name of the tag that you want to file it under. Another interesting thing about the Tags is that they change visually as you add posts under that tag. For instance I was tagging various posts and had created sev
eral Tags within the cloud. When I was done I found that the tag with the most posts was bold, larger font, and Green. The next highest was bold, medium font and orange. The next highest were simply bold. Each tag does not show the number of posts that are related to it, but the cumulative number of posts tagged is visible in the traditional folder tree next to the My Tags link.The one benefit I see for “My Clippings” over “Tags” is when you utilize more then one NewsGator platform. For instance since I am testing out the online version, the desktop application and the Outlook plug-in all of My Clippings synchronize across the various tools. The Tags do not seem to flow to either NewsGator Online or FeedDemon. You also cannot Tag posts from either of the other applications. So unless you use NewsGator Online exclusively or you use the Tags in a different manner then the Clippings I recommend the use My Clippings.
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