Tag the way you think
Ideas are networks. They link together in our heads, sometimes in glorious chaos: that’s where creativity starts. Traditional file structures don’t allow for this. Each file (or idea or note) is defined by a single path, isolated from its associations. That’s why tags help: tagging an idea brings associated ideas together.
But traditional tag views are limited. There is no visual prompt for the relationship between tags nor for how frequently the tag has been used. It’s just a sometimes long, bland homogenous list. Why is the tag I use most often not more prominent? Which other tags are associated with it? What are its connections?
TagNotes is a Mac app built around a simple idea: that notes are useful not just for what’s in them but also for how they connect to everything else.
In TagNotes, every note you create can be tagged, and those tags form a live network: a visual map, showing how your ideas relate, cluster, and overlap. It’s the kind of overview that a simple list can never give you.
If you want to keep different areas of your life cleanly separated then give each its own project – work, personal, travel, research – you choose. A project is a self-contained workspace with its own notes, tags, and network. Switch between your projects with a single click.
Notes with structure
Each note has a title, body, date, priority, and star rating. That’s enough structure to be useful while being unobtrusive enough to stay out of your way. Notes are arranged by their primary tag. Closely related notes always sit together.
The Tag Network
The heart of TagNotes is its tag network view: an interactive, visual map of all your tags, sized by how often you’ve used them and connected by the notes they share. Arrange the network however makes sense to you, in clusters, in columns, in rows, in an organised bedlam only you can make sense of. Or use Focus mode to explore a tag’s connections and grey out the noise.
Who it’s for
TagNotes isn’t a to-do list and it isn’t a task management app. It’s for easy visualisation of how ideas connect multidimensionally, where the links matter as much as the ideas themselves.
Creative writing. Track characters, themes, locations, and plot threads, and see how they intersect across your story.
Research. Capture sources, theories, and arguments, and watch the network reveal which themes keep recurring, and which connect in unexpected ways.
Planning. Gather scattered thoughts on a project: people, resources, risks, decisions. Tag however makes sense to you and let the network show you the shape before you commit to a plan.
Reference and knowledge-building. Build a personal archive of ideas over time, where every new note strengthens the map rather than getting buried in a list.
There are no fixed categories or rigid fields. A tag can be a person, a place, an object, a status, an emotion, a concept: whatever your thinking needs. TagNotes can help anywhere that simple one- or two-dimensional lists, folders, or mind-maps fall short.
Small, quick, private
TagNotes is deliberately focused and lean. There are no subscriptions, no formatting distractions, no clutter and no cloud. It’s just your ideas and their connections, on your Mac and only on your Mac.
Designed for Mac
TagNotes was built from the ground up for macOS. It has a design language and interface you’ll be instantly familiar with, including keyboard shortcuts, right-click menus, dark mode, a quick-entry icon in the menu bar, and a sidebar that keeps everything a click away.
TagNotes available now on the App Store is free to try. Unlock unlimited notes, tags and projects with a one-time App Store purchase of £3.99 and release your creativity.
Screenshots
Tag network view
Tags arranged the way you think. Focus on connections and filter out the noise.
Notes view
Grouped by what matters
Focus on what’s important. Filter by tags, by starred or by priority
Dark mode
Need help?
TagNotes privacy policy
TagNotes does not collect, store, or transmit any personal data. All notes, tags, and projects are stored locally on your Mac and never leave your device. TagNotes has no network access and makes no connections to external servers.
TagNotes origins
If you want to know the story of where TagNotes came from and how the app was made, have a look at this post on my blog.
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