Tags

Tags enable a useful level of user-customizable organization in your CryoSPARC instance. Tags are shared among all users within the instance and can be customized with a title, description, and colour. There are two categories of tags, a 'general' type tag that can be applied to items of any type, and item-specific tags that only apply to either project, workspaces, sessions, or jobs.

The main purpose of tags are to allow you to quickly find and view specific subsets of data either inside of a container (projects or workspaces) or across the entire instance. This gives a lot of flexibility for creating arbitrary groupings of items that you want to be able to find again quickly or compare and reference.

Accessing Tags

The main access point for creating and navigating tags is the Quick Access Menu that can be expanded from the navigation bar on the left side of the app window. By clicking the “Tags” tab at the top of the menu you will be able to see all of the tags currently created in your instance. Each tag grouping is represented here in a collapsable drawer with the type of tag and total count of tags with that type shown on the drawer header. You can use the search bar at the top to filter the available tags and quickly find one that you are looking for. Beside the search bar there is a “+” button that will open the tag creation slide-over and allow you to create a new tag. Once created that new tag will be available to view and use. Each tag row in the menu shows the unique tag ID (e.g., T5, T20, etc.), the tag title, and a count of how many items have been given that tag (eg. a project tag of EMPIAR with a count of 10 has been assigned to 10 projects in the instance). Clicking on one of these rows will navigate you to the relevant view with a filter for that tag applied (in the case of general tags, a context menu will open when the row is clicked and allow you to select the type of item you want to view).

Applying Tags

Once tag(s) exist in the instance, they can be applied to any relevant item. There are multiple ways to apply a tag depending on how you are interacting with the item. Let’s look at applying a tag to a project as an example.

By navigating to the browse section we will see all of our projects in the cards view. We can choose a project to apply our tag to and use either the quick actions menu, or the sidebar to add it. Right clicking the card or clicking the triple dot menu in the header will open the quick actions menu, we can then navigate down to the “Edit tags” menu item and into the sub menu with a list of relevant tags. Project tags will appear first and general tags below. Each tag in the menu has the same information as the rows in the quick access menu, the ID, title, and a count of how many items that tag has been applied to. By clicking any tag in the menu (lets take our EMPIAR tag for example) that tag will be applied to the project. Opening the menu again and viewing the “Edit tags” submenu will show a checkmark on any tags that have been applied to the card (in this case EMPIAR). Clicking the tag row again will remove the tag from the project.

Tags can also be seen in the item sidebar, inside the “Details” panel (which is the first panel from the top). The tags row is just below the title row and displays all tags applied to the item. When this row is hovered, an edit button will appear, clicking this button will open the same “Edit tags” menu with the exact same functionality as the one available from the quick actions menu, discussed above.

Tags can be applied to projects, workspaces, sessions, and jobs in exactly the same way. The only difference is the granularity specific tags available.

Using Tags

As mentioned above, the main use for tags is organizing data into subsets that either compliment the existing project and workspace demarcations, or acts as a wider aggregator around them. Tags are fundamentally custom filters, and as such operate functionally within the filter system. The control bar has a “Tags” quick filter button above the main content area, where tag filters can be set and removed. Tag filters are also available in the filter bar menu with all other applicable filters.

Clicking the “Tags” quick filter button or entering the “Tags” filter submenu from the filter bar will open the same menu with identical functionality. Clicking on a tag in this menu will add a “Tags” filter group with the specific item applied. This will cause only items with this tag to be shown in the interface (eg. if you add the EMPIAR tag as a filter on the projects view, only projects with the EMPIAR tag applied to them will now show in the card grid). Adding additional tags is an additive filtering process and will show all items with any of the added tags applied to them.

Tag Management

Tags can be managed in detail from the Tags tab within the management dialog. This view presents all tags in a table, displaying their relevant metadata, including ID, title, description, type, author, and creation date. Each row represents a single tag and includes action controls at the end of the row for editing or deleting that tag.

Filters

Several filtering options are available to simplify tag management. These controls are located in the top bar above the table.

• Tag Type: Filter the table to display only tags of a specific category (e.g., General, Projects, or Jobs).

• Mine / All Toggle: Limit the view to tags created by the current user or display all tags available in the instance.

• Search: Filter tags by direct text match. The search respects and combines with any other active filters.

Editing

Selecting Edit from the tag row’s context menu (accessible via the three-dot icon) opens the edit modal. From this modal, you can modify the tag’s title, update its description, and select a new colour.

Deleting

Deleting a tag permanently removes it from the instance and from all items to which it has been applied. This action is irreversible.

Multi-Actions

The tag management table includes checkboxes in the first column, allowing multiple tags to be selected at once. Multi-selection respects all active filters and will only include tags currently visible in the filtered view.

Once one or more tags are selected, a Delete {X} Tags button appears in the top bar. Selecting this option permanently deletes all selected tags from the instance and removes them from any associated items. As with single-tag deletion, this action cannot be undone.

Tag Use Cases

• Progression of a project by assigning various lifecycles (e.g., 'to-do', 'in-progress', 'done')

• Denoting the type of microscope used to collect the data present in a project (e.g., 300KV, Krios)

• Adding a demarcation of a quality result that can be referenced or returned to in the future (e.g., Good result)

• Using a tag for reconstructions of a specific particle type that can be referenced together across the instance regardless of project (e.g., CoV S Protein tag)