Use tags and filters in Projects

Tags organize different things at different levels

Projects has two tag concepts that sound similar but do different jobs.

Project tags group and filter projects in the workspace project list. Use them when you want to find projects by team, client, quarter, program, region, priority, or operating area. A project tag belongs to the workspace-level set of projects, not to the canvases inside one project.

Canvas tags organize canvases inside one project. Use them when a project contains many canvases and people need to filter by asset type, review stage, team, channel, risk, or deliverable. Canvas tags are managed from the project context menu and apply to canvases in that project.

Do not collapse the two. A project tag named Marketing helps you find marketing projects. A canvas tag named Marketing inside one project helps you find marketing canvases in that project. They may use the same word, but they are not the same tag list.

Follow the visible tag controls. If you are filtering the workspace project list, think project tags. If you are organizing canvases inside a project, think canvas tags.

Availability

Choose the right tool

If the category should remain useful next month, make it a tag. If you only need a temporary slice, use a filter. If you are trying to find one thing by name, use search.

Use project tags to group workspace projects

Project tags are most useful when the workspace has enough projects that names alone are not enough. A product team might tag projects by Mobile, Web, Research, and Launch. An agency might tag projects by client. An operations team might tag projects by region or quarter.

Open the workspace project list and use the project tag chips or filter controls:

• All clears the project tag filter.
• Selecting a tag shows projects attached to that tag.
• If multiple tag selection is available in your workspace, use it only when you really want the intersection or combined slice shown by the current UI.

Too many active filters can make a healthy workspace look empty.

Project tags can be created, renamed, deleted, and reordered from Manage project tags. See Manage project tags for the full cleanup workflow.

Use canvas tags inside a project

Canvas tags belong to the canvases inside one project. They help when a project contains many canvases and the team needs a clean way to find briefs, drafts, reviews, final assets, meeting notes, stakeholder readouts, or risky items.

Open the project context menu and choose Manage canvas tags. This opens the tag set for that project. After the tag set exists, apply the tags from the canvas rows or tag controls where your project view exposes them.

Canvas tags do not create workspace-wide project categories. If you create a canvas tag inside Q3 Launch, it is for canvases in Q3 Launch. It does not tag the Q3 Launch project in the workspace project list, and it does not automatically appear in every other project.

For setup, cleanup, and missing-button cases, see Manage canvas tags.

Use filters without losing the whole picture

Filters narrow what you see. They can include tag filters, owner or member filters, status, visibility, membership, date, or search terms depending on the view. Filters are excellent for focus, but they are also the easiest way to scare yourself into thinking work disappeared.

Use one or two filters first. For example, filter to Owner: Mina and Tag: Launch before adding dates, status, visibility, and search terms. If the result is empty, remove the narrowest filter first.

When you finish a review, clear filters so the next person, or your future self, does not mistake a filtered view for the full workspace or full project.

Common patterns

A portfolio lead wants to see all active customer projects. Use project tags such as Customer, Enterprise, or the client segment, then add project filters for owner or visibility only when needed.

A project owner wants to find all design-review canvases inside a launch project. Use canvas tags such as Design review, Legal, Final, or Blocked, then filter the project view to the relevant tag.

A teammate wants to find work assigned to them this week. Use filters for owner or membership plus date, not a new tag named after the person.

A reviewer remembers a phrase from the canvas title. Use Search first. Tags are for reusable categories, not for one-off memory recovery.

Permissions and hidden controls

If tag or filter controls are missing, check where you are first. Project tags are managed from project-list tag controls. Canvas tags are managed from the project context menu. Project member access is managed from Manage members, not from either tag manager.

If you are in the right place and the action is still missing, you may not have permission to edit the project, manage tags, or change project settings. The project may also be archived, shared with limited access, in demo mode, or restricted by workspace settings.

Ask a project owner or workspace admin to confirm your project role. If you can view the project but not edit tags, that may be expected. See Manage project members and Members, guests, and external collaborators.

Mistakes that create messy projects

Do not make one tag per person when owner filters already exist. Use member or owner filters for people.

Categorize projects with project tags. Canvas tags live inside a single project and cannot do that job.

Individual canvases take canvas tags inside the project. Project tags sit at the wrong level for that.

Do not create near-duplicates such as Design, design, Creative, and Assets unless they mean genuinely different things. Pick the term people will search for and clean up the rest.

Do not treat an empty filtered view as proof that work was deleted. Clear filters, switch views, and search before escalating.

When filtered work looks missing

Start by clearing tag filters, owner filters, date filters, visibility filters, and search terms. Then switch views. A project that is hidden by a project tag filter can still exist. A canvas hidden by a canvas tag filter can still be in the project.

If the work still does not appear, check whether it was archived, deleted, moved, unshared, or restricted. Use When search misses a result, When work looks missing, and Trash.

If two people see different results, compare filters before comparing permissions. Different filters are a much more common cause than broken access.