How do you remove a tag from a document?

DEVONthink Tips
1

I’ve just got the new beta 2.0pb8 and exploring the Tags view.

There seems to be a big problem in the UI in that I can’t find any way of removing a tag from a document. I’ve turned on the Show Tags option and tried deleting the unwanted tag in the tag bar. It is apparently deleted i.e. it temporarily disappears) but if you select another document and then go back to the first the deleted tag has been reinstated! Likewise if you open the Info panel, you can try to delete the tag but again, DT “knows better” and reinstates it.

What’s going on? Can anyone rid me of these meddlesome tags?

2

Both of the methods that you mention work for me. Do you see this behavior with all documents? What happens if you delete a document from the tag group (the document will not be deleted from the database), does it reappear with the tag?

3

Which view are you using? Because I couldn’t reproduce this over here using three pane, column or tags views.

4

I’m in the Tags view and it is completely reproduceable for me, as follows:

  • Select a tag group (e.g. “China”)
  • chose a document with multiple tags
  • try to delete the tag for the currently viewed tag group (“China”)
  • whether I use the tag bar or the info panel DN won’t let me delete the tag
5

@Greg Jones:

actually, when I tried your suggestion the document WAS deleted from the database and I had to retrieve it from the Trash. This seems very dangerous as I would definitely have expected the behaviour you suggested

6

Is your tag group gray in the list, indicating that it is a tag assigned from a regular folder group? Or is it blue, indicating that it is a tag from the Tags group?
Tags Group:

I ask because deleting a blue tag does work for me following your China example, and deleting a document contained in the Tags group removes the tag from the document, but the document remains in the regular folder group. What you are experiencing is not the norm.

7

My tag group is grey i.e. the tag has been created from a previously existing folder group. Why should this make any difference?

8

Because tags in DT are a blend of the containing groups and specifically created tags. So if I have a group in my database named ‘China’, and I have not excluded this group from tagging (set in the Info pane), then all documents in the group will also have the tag ‘China’. This group will be represented in the Tags view in gray. If I do not have a group named China, and I specifically create a tag ‘China’, the tag will be created in the Tags group (visible in the database using a view other than the Tags view-see the screen pictured above).

When you are in the Tag view and delete a document from a gray group, you are deleting the document from the database just the same as deleting the document from the group in say the three-pane view. That’s why the groups are colored gray and blue-to indicate what the expected behavior is when working with documents in the view. Note that I just explaining how it works-don’t shoot the messenger!

9

OK, thanks, I think I’m starting to understand. I do think this makes for a very unintuitive interface. and sorry if I came across as shooting the messenger, I do appreciate your friendly help but equally I think the DT implementation needs a lot more work by those who are responsible for it.

So you can delete a blue tag when in the Tags view but not a grey tag. I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s going to find this confusing!

And thus when DT says in the Help file “DEVONthink Pro treats groups as tags and tags as groups” it isn’t really true …