The Mac|Life 101 series is where you can come to learn new and simple ways to do things with Apple’s desktop and mobile operating systems. Whether you’re new to the platform, or just want to learn a new technique, then MacLife 101 is for you.

You have physical labels, tabs, and other forms of organization in the real world, but what about the digital world of your Mac desktop? Sure, you may use an app for that, but there’s a little known feature that gives you the same flexibility in organizing your files and folders in the Finder. Labels are OS X’s way of visually organizing and tagging your files for future use, and in this MacLife 101, we’ll show you how to label your files and folders, and then search for files using their labels.

Customizing the Labels

You can customize the meaning of the labels by opening Finder > Preferences (or by pressing Command + , [comma]). Then, select the Labels tab.

Here, you can change all the label names for the seven different color labels. The standard names (in order from top to bottom) are: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Gray. Names can be as general or as specific and descriptive as you wish, as they will only be for your personal use.

Labeling Your Files and Folders

To label a file or folder, right-click on the file or folder in the Finder (or open the Get Info panel by selecting the file and pressing Command + I), and select the appropriate color that you wish to use to describe that file in the “Label” section. The filename color in the Finder will then turn to match the label that you have selected.

If you change your mind about the label, you can simply repeat the process above to correct the label, or click on the small “No Label” button (which looks like an X inside a box) to remove the label.

Searching for Labeled Files and Folders

Labels are a great way to distinguish between files visually, but searching is where the true power is. To search for items that have a specific label, open a new Finder window and begin typing in the search field.

Click on the small + (plus) button to the right of the Save button in the search content area, and then in the first filter box, select “File Label” (if File Label doesn’t appear, click  other to select that filter criteria), and then select the color label you wish to filter using. Only files and folders matching both the label and the search text will appear when searching.

Searching is great, but if you want all of your labeled files and folders to appear in one place, then a Finder Smart Folder is what you need. To create a new Smart Folder based on your search criteria, delete the search text, and then click the Save button. This will prompt you to type in a name for the new Smart Folder, and specify a save location. You can optionally add the new Smart Folder to the Finder sidebar for easier access.

Clicking on the new Smart Folder in the sidebar will show all of the files and folders with the specified label color in one place. This Smart Folder will be updated automatically whenever a new file is labeled with that color.

Note that deleting a Smart Folder will not delete the contents inside of the Smart Folder.

Cory Bohon is a freelance technology writer, indie Mac and iOS developer, and amateur photographer. Follow this article's author on Twitter.