How to Organize Word Documents With Tags

Tags make finding and organizing your documents easier

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Updated on January 14, 2021

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Add tags, or keywords, to Microsoft Word documents to make documents easier to find. By default, when you save a Word document, there are no tags saved along with it, but you can add your own before or after you make the document.

Instructions in this article apply to Word 365, Word 2019, Word 2016, Word 2013, and Word 2010.

How to Add Tags to Word Files

Tags are useful when you have several related documents in a single folder or on a flash drive, for example, and each document has a non-descriptive or nearly identical file name like project.docx, otherproject.docx, and otherproject1.docx. To quickly find related files in a folder, categorize each file by applying a tag. Then, search the folder for a specific tag to find documents with that tag.

Here's how to add tags to a Microsoft Word document:

Go to File > Save As.
Select Browse.

In Word 2010, skip this step.
Choose where to save the document and enter a name for the file.
In the Tags text box, enter the desired keywords. Word automatically places a semi-colon at the end so you can add multiple tags.

Word might recommend tags as you type. Select an autosuggestion, if one matches your needs, and use your custom tags.
Save the document.

How to Add Tags Using Windows Explorer

You can add tags to a Word document even if you don't have the app installed. Here's how:

Open Windows Explorer and find the Word document.
Right-click the file and choose Properties.
Go to the Details tab.
In the Tags text box, enter the keywords.
Select OK to save the tags and close the dialog box.

How to Edit or Remove Word Document Tags

Once you've added tags, edit or remove tags using the method described above. You can also choose to remove all tags from a Word file using the following steps: