Tagging

Tagging (or Bookmarking) allows you to create a reference to a file or object and easily find it later. Tagging is also used by the central repository to mark items as notable.

Tagging items

When an interesting item is discovered, the user can tag it by right-clicking the item and selecting one of the tag options.

When you tag a Blackboard artifact result, you have the choice to either:

• Tag File – use this when the file itself is of interest
• Tag Result – use this when the result is of interest

Which to choose depends upon the context and what you desire in the final report.

At this point there are three options:

• Use one of the existing tags to add it to the file/result without a comment
• Tag and Comment – use this if you need to add a comment about this tag

• New tag – Create a new tag and add it to the file/result

There are several default tag names:

• Bookmark - Default tag for marking files of interest
• CAT-1 through CAT-5 - For law enforcement use
• Follow Up - Default tag for marking files to follow up on
• Notable item - Default tag for indicating that an item should be marked as notable in the central repository

You can also create custom tag names. These tag names will be automatically saved for future use and will be displayed above the default tag names.

If you just want to tag the item with the default "Bookmark" tag, you can also use the keyboard shortcut control+B instead of going through the menus.

You can also apply tags to groups of items at once. Select multiple items in the Blackboard, right click, and add the appropriate tag. Items may have more than one tag.

Tagged results are shown in the "Results" portion of the tree under "Tags". Tagged items are also highlighted in the Results Viewer.

Managing tags

The list of tags can be edited through the Tags tab on the Options menu.

From here, new tags can be added, existing tags can be edited, and user-created tags can be deleted. Note that deleting a tag does not remove it from any tagged items, and that tag will still be usable in any case where it has been used to tag an item.

If using the central repository, changing the notable status will effect tagged items in the current case only in the following way:

• If "File A" is tagged with "Tag A", which is not notable, and then "Tag A" is switched to notable, "File A" will be marked as notable in the central repository
• If "File B" is tagged with "Tag B", which is notable, and then "Tag B" is switched to non-notable, if there are no other notable tags on "File B" then its notable status in the central repository will be removed.

Hiding tags from other users

Tags are associated with the account name of the user that tagged them. This information is visible through selecting items under the "Tags" section of the directory tree:

or through the Annotations content viewer:

It is possible to hide all tagged files and results in the "Tags" area of the tree that were tagged by other users. Open the View Options menu either through the gear icon above the directory tree or through Tools->Options, and then select the checkbox to hide other users' tags in the tags area of the tree.