TagSpaces Lite
TagSpaces Lite is our open-source desktop application, offering the fundamental functionalities used in our other product. Here you will find an overview of the major features available in this application. It runs offline and locally on you Windows, Mac, Linux or Android device and does not require an internet connection or any kind of registration.
Open Source
The source code of TagSpaces Lite is available on GitHub and published under the AGPLv3 license. It can be inspected by anyone and we accept pull request with new features or improvements. Bugs are tracked in the GitHub's issue tracker.
File and folder tagging
- Tagging by file renaming — here the name of the file is used for storing the tags. So if you want to add the tags
vacation
andalps
to an image namedIMG-2653.jpg
, the application will rename it toIMG-2653[vacation alps].jpg
. File renaming is a controversial solution, with its own limitations, but once embedded in the file name, the tags stick with the file on any common operating system. This makes the tagging durable, portable and usable outside of the TagSpaces app. - File tagging with a helper sidecar file — The advantage of this solution is that the name of the file is not changed after tagging and there is theoretically no limit in the number of tags you can add to a given file. The sidecar file is saved in a
.ts
folder of the folder containing the tagged file. - Folder tagging with a sidecar file — Folders are always tagged with a sidecar file called
tsm.json
located in the.ts
sub folder.


Creating and editing text files (notes)
The file creation is available at any time during the using of the application and can be initiated by clicking the button with a plus sign, visible in the screenshot. There is also a global shortcut key combination for file creation which is
CTRL+SHIFT+N
on Windows/Linux and CMD+SHIFT+N
on macOS.The files are created in the current folder and are opened automatically in the corresponding file editor.
File management operations
- Creating of folders and text files
- Renaming of files and folders
- Deleting of files and folders
- Moving files
- Opening files with the current default application for the operating system
- Revealing a folder in the default file manager of the operating system
- Opening the parent folder of a file in the default file manager for the operating system


Tagging with drag and drop
- Adding tags from the tag groups to files and folders in the list and grid views
- Adding tags from the tag groups to tagging are in the file properties
- Dragging a tag from a file to another file or folder, will tag the second file with tag from the first file
- You can move a tag from one tag group to another with drag and drop
- Dragging a tag from a file or folder to a tag group is also possible
Search capabilities
- The search algorithm considers the information with different weight: file name, folder name, tags, description, entry path.
- There are three type of searching:
- Fuzzy — it will deliver broader search results, tolerating typos in the search query
- Strict — it will deliver exact search results
- Semi-strict — it is same as strict but case insensitive

Preview files directly in the app
- Image viewer — for JPG, PNG, GIF, SVG, BMP, WEBP, ICO, PSD, TIFF and JIF files
- PDF viewer — for PDF files
- Archive viewer — for ZIP archives
- Text viewer — for Markdown and all kind of text files
- Media player — for playing audio and video files
- Spreadsheet viewer — for CSV, Excel, ODF file files
Source code browser and editor




Portable mode
The Windows and Linux versions of TagSpaces can be started in the so-called portable mode, allowing the use from an USB-stick or other portable devices. In this mode all the configuration information such as tags, tag groups and location configuration is stored in the folder from where the application is started and not in the home user folder on current operating systems. Find out more on portable mode section in the documentation.
Free downloads
TagSpaces Lite packages for Windows, Linux, macOS and Android can be downloaded for free from our download page.
To learn about our main TagSpaces Pro visit our Products Comparison