# What labels are

A label is a coloured tag of your own that you put on files, so files about one subject can be found together whatever folder each is in.

A folder can only hold a file in one place. A label has no such limit: tag a board paper, a budget and a set of minutes with **Board**, and all three sit side by side under that label while each stays in its own folder.

**Video coming soon:** A tour of labels: making your own set, tagging files, and finding everything with a label again.

## Everything a label can do

- **Create a label**: A name and one of eight colours, made in a few seconds.
- **Label a file**: Tick one label or several from any file's menu.
- **See every file with a label**: One list per label, drawn from all your folders.
- **Spot labels in search**: Your label colours show as dots beside each result.
- **Rename or recolour**: Change a label once and every file carrying it follows.
- **Delete a label**: The tag comes off every file. The files themselves stay put.

## Labels, folders and stars

![The top left of Nest with Labels open. The orange header carries the app switcher, the SorviAI logo, a Nest pill and four starred app icons. Below it a Labels tab and the heading Labels, then seven labels, each a coloured dot and a name: Awaiting sign-off in yellow, Reference in grey, Urgent in red, Board in purple, Compliance in green, Finance in orange and Client-facing in blue.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/nest/labels/labels-screen.png)

*Seven labels, each a colour and a name. This set belongs to one person; a colleague's Labels screen shows their own.*

Nest gives you three ways to group files, and each answers a different question. A folder says where a file lives, and the file can live in only one. A star says you want it close at hand, and it's the same star for every starred item. A label says what the file is about, and one file can carry as many as it needs.

Labels are also personal. Nobody else sees your set, adds your labels to files or loses theirs when you change yours, so a label can be as specific to your own work as you like. **How Favorites differs** covers the star.

## Read these first

- **Create a label**: Make a label on the Labels screen, or while you're tagging a file.
- **Label a file**: Add or remove your labels from a file's menu in any list.

## Making labels pay off

- **Keep the set small**: Six or seven labels read at a glance. Thirty turn into a second filing system.
- **Let the colour carry meaning**: Red for urgent, green for compliance: the dot is readable before the name is.
- **Label while the file is open**: The label picker can create a new label on the spot, without a trip to the Labels screen.
- **Take labels off finished work**: A file that has been signed off no longer belongs under Awaiting sign-off.