DockDuck Documentation
Color tags
Assign the standard macOS Finder color tags to files and folders, then find everything tagged a given color from the sidebar. The tags you set here show up everywhere the system does.
What it is. Color tags are the seven standard macOS Finder tags: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, and Gray. When to use them. Reach for a tag when you want a lightweight, color-coded way to group files that live in different folders (everything “in review,” every receipt, every asset for one project) without moving anything.
These are the system’s own Finder tags, not a DockDuck-only label. DockDuck reads and writes the same tags Finder uses, so a tag you set here is visible in Finder, in Spotlight, and anywhere else macOS shows tags, and vice versa.
Assigning and removing a tag
Tags live in the right-click menu, shown as a row of colored dots.
Select one or more files or folders.
Right-click and find the row of tag dots near the bottom of the menu.
Click a colored dot to apply that tag. Click the same dot again to remove it.
Clicking a dot toggles the tag: it applies the color to items that don’t have it and removes it from items that already do. A file can carry several colors at once: tag a folder both Blue and Yellow and you’ll see both dots.
Tagged items show their color dots inline next to the name in list, grid, and column views, so you can scan a folder for a color at a glance. Items with several tags show the dots as a tight overlapping cluster, the same way Finder renders them.
What gets a dot
DockDuck renders a dot for each of the seven standard Finder colors. Custom text-only tags you may have created in Finder (like “Important” or “Work”) are left untouched on the file, but they don’t get a colored dot: there’s no agreed-on color for them, and Finder itself doesn’t draw a dot for them either.
Finding everything tagged a color
The sidebar has a Tags section with a row for each color. Click a color and DockDuck shows every file and folder tagged that color across your home folder, no matter where it actually lives on disk.
Tag rows search your home folder using Spotlight, the same index Finder uses. Results appear as a normal listing you can sort, preview, and open like any other folder.
You can also filter a regular search by tag: open the search options and pick one or more tag colors to narrow results to items carrying those tags.
Where to go next
- Search: filter any search by tag, kind, or date.
- Smart Folders: save a tag-filtered search so it re-runs live.
- Pinning: keep a tagged folder one click away.