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In the last post, I explained what Flickr sets are -- and now I'll explain to you what you can do with tags in Flickr.

Tags are like associated keywords for any picture -- thus for a vaction picture from Japan of Mount Fuji, you could use these tags:

japan
vacation
mount fuji
snow

The next time, you are searching for that particular picture in the 21,894 pictures you have uploaded to Flickr -- all you need to do then is use these tags as search terms -- and you'll find the picture you are searching for!

Not only can you search for tags that you have provided to your photos, you can also search for tags that other Flickr users have applied to their uploaded photos.

Adding Tags

Most of the time, all sorts of uploading options allow you to apply tags when you are uploading your photos to Flickr. But there might be times when you want to add tags to photos already in your Flickr account. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Make sure that you are signed into your Flickr account -- if you don't have a Flickr account, create one -- you'll find instructions here...
   
   
2. Click the picture for which you want to add tags. This will open the Flickr page for that picture as you can see in Figure 1.
   
   
   Figure 1: The Flickr page for any photo
   
   
3. On the bottom right of the photo, you'll find an option called Add a tag (see Figure 1 above). Click this option.
   
   
4. This will show a text box where you can enter your tags -- just type in your tags.
   
   Separate tags with spaces. If you are using a double word with a space such as water lilies, enclose them with the space within inverted commas (double quotes) like "water lilies" as you can see in Figure 2. You can also separate your tags with commas if spaces confuse you (I always use the commas).
   
   
   Figure 2: Add your tags
   
   If you want to choose from tags you have already applied to existing, uploaded photos, click the Choose from your tags option that you can see in Figure 2 above.
   
   
5. When you are done, click the Add button.
   

In upcoming posts, I'll teach you how you can add the same tags to all photos in a set. If you don't know what Flickr sets are, look at this previous post...

See Also: Flickr Tutorial Series

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Before I discuss more about uploading and sharing photos on Flickr, there are two things that each Flickr user should know. These are sets and tags. I'm explaining sets in this post, and will teach you more about tags in another post.

Sets are a way to group your photos so that they are easy to organize and identify. Figure 1 shows a few sets in my Flickr account.


Figure 1: A few of my Flickr sets

Think of sets as folders in your computer--you might have a different folder for your business correspondence, another for your spreadsheets, and yet another for presentations. Even then, sets are a little different than folders--let me explain this in a different way:

Why sets are like folders?

• Because you name them like folders to identify what's inside the set.
• Because they make it easy for you to find something at a later date--a set named Singapore Vaction August 2005 is so self explanatory that there's no way you don't know which photos you placed in that set!
  

Why sets are not like folders?

• Because unlike folders, sets don't contain the photo itself--just a link to the actual file you uploaded to Flickr.
• Also, one photo can be placed in more than one set without being uploaded more than once--since Flickr sets are basically only shortcuts (aliases) to the actual uploaded photo.
  

Viewing Your Sets

To view your sets, follow these steps:

1. Make sure you are signed into Flickr.
   
   
2. In the top navigation bar on the Flickr site (see Figure 2), click the You menu, and choose the Your Sets option.
   
   
   Figure 2: Finding Your Sets in the Flickr menu
   
   
3. This will open a page that contains thumbnails of all your sets--Figure 1 above showed some sets on my page (Psst! Scooby Gooseberry has no sets yet, but we'll teach him soon).
   
   
4. Here's what you can do now:
   
   - The number of photos in a particular set are mentioned below the set thumbnail.
   
   - To edit the sequence of photos in the set, or to add more uploaded photos to an existing set, click the Edit button to open the Flickr Organizer interface.
   
   - Just double-click any set thumbnail to view the photos in that set.

In later posts, I'll explain how you can organize and view photos on Flickr.

See Also: Flickr Tutorial Series

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Yes, that question has come up often since I used his Flickr account to create all the screenshots.

Scooby Gooseberry is an imaginary, fictitious character with a real Flickr account--I created that account for him so that we could use him as a case study to learn more about Flickr in a fun environment.

Flickr likes Scooby too. In fact, just today morning when Scooby wanted to upload some photos to his new account, Flickr asked him to come back later since it was massage time for Flickr (see Figure 1).


Figure 1: Flickr's Massage Time

I'll ask my staff at Indezine.com to create a caricature of Scooby one of these days--he's such a lovable character!

See Also: Flickr Tutorial Series

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Before you ask people to see your photos on Flickr, spend a minute to create your own Flickr web address. A Flickr web address is an alias that you can specify for yourself so that it becomes part of the URL to your Flickr page.

For example, Scooby Gooseberry's Flickr web address is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scoobygooseberry

Not only will it be easy for you to send an alias based Flickr web address to others, it will also be simpler for you to remember your address!

To create your own web address on Flickr, follow these steps:

1. If you haven't already signed into Flickr, do that now.
   
   
2. You'll find an option on the Welcome to Flickr page to choose your Flickr web address (see Figure 1). Click that option.
   
   
   Figure 1: Choose your Flickr web address
   
   If you don't find this option on your welcome page (the Flickr home page after you have signed in), that might be because you have already created a Flickr web address.
   
   As a last resort, try visiting this link while you are signed into Flickr:
   
   http://www.flickr.com/profile_url.gne
   
   
3. Once you get to the page where you can choose your web address (see Figure 2), make sure you choose something that you can live with since Flickr web addresses cannot be changed once they are associated with a Flickr account.
   
   
   Figure 2: Choose your Flickr address
   
   Your Flickr web address, as you can see in Figure 2 includes the alias you choose--the chosen alias gets suffixed to the "http://www.flickr.com/photos/" URL. Your alias cannot contain any spaces, and may contain alphabet letters, numbers, underscores, and hyphens--normally a combination of these works well too. Choose something easy--if that alias is already taken, Flickr asks you to choose something else.
   
   
4. Next, Flickr asks you to confirm if you are sure you want to choose this alias (see Figure 3). This is your last chance to choose another alias.
   
   
   Figure 3: Are you happy with your alias?
   
   If you are happy with the alias, click the OK, Lock It In button--or alternatively, click the I need to choose a different alias hyperlink to start the process of choosing an alias again.
   
   
5. Once you have created an alias, you can send your Flickr web address to anyone--and people can see your public photos even if they are not Flickr members. I discussed the distinction between public and private photos in an earlier post.
   

Here's my Flick web address:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/geetesh/

See Also: Flickr Tutorial Series

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