<p>Any reason why you'd choose <a href="https://craftcms.com/features/categories-and-tags" rel="nofollow noreferrer">tags over categories</a>? </p>

<p>Categories seem to be more of what you're describing:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Eventually, every single required tag will be created at some point.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>And since Craft 2.5, authors can easily create categories right in the Entry screen as well as pick the category they want if it's already created. No manual typing required if it already exists.</p>

<p>Tags are usually <em>looser</em> approximations of the content and are considered by content strategists to be more of a "folksonomy". </p>

<p>If you wanted to push forward with checkboxes as tags, you could probably create a custom field that spits out all the tags as checkboxes, along with a way to add new ones. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-05-02T11:52:00.870Z
Thanks for the comment! The reason I want to have tags is mainly to make the flow of "folksonomy" more frictionless, so less typing and more of the visual hints (existing tags' checkboxes) would do the best job for this kind of stuff.


Categories are also used, but in more strict format. The idea behind tax to give an little extra (I'm creating a system with the main functionality being searching "items" based on various factors).


That said… you mentioned custom field… It might work! That sounds like some custom plugin to me. Is that correct? Or is it somehow built into Craft?
Mikhail Kornienko
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-05-04T18:16:14.707Z
Yeh the custom field would be [plugin development](https://craftcms.com/docs/plugins/field-types) territory. If your concern is purely UX, one other thing you might want to consider is just another category field. Unlike something like WordPress, Craft lets you have as many fields and field types as you want.  You can even have multiple category groups... one strict as you want and one "looser" that resemble tags. You could then name the "looser" category field something like "Tags" or whatever and ignore Craft's built-in tags.   Then let the user pick and choose from that category group.
RitterKnight
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-05-01T16:26:32.343Z
2017-05-01T16:48:52.250Z
2017-05-01T16:48:52.250Z
RitterKnight
<p>The system I'm building requires a flexible taxonomy, where users should be able to add new taxonomy stuff to entries really easy and freely as soon as the need arises. So tags seem to work best for this situation.</p>

<p>However, there's a usability issue I'm concerned about. And that's a lot of typing, potential typos, and general "closeness" of what's already available to users (existing tags already added by users)</p>

<p>What I would ideally like is a tag field, which would still allow standard entry, but which also has a checkbox list of all existing tags as well - so users could just quick check tags they want to add to an entry - without typing anything - and add any extra tags manually only when these are needed.</p>

<p>Would something like that be possible to implement in Craft?</p>

<p>(The system will be an internal one, so there's no worry about too many users adding too many tags. Eventually, every single required tag will be created at some point, and users will be able to just choose from checkboxes - that's the ideal vision of how things would work on the data entry side)</p>

<p>thanks!</p>

<control-panel><admin><tags><checkboxes>
Is it possible to allow a user choose tags in admin panel using checkboxes?
# Is it possible to allow a user choose tags in admin panel using checkboxes?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-05-01)

The system I'm building requires a flexible taxonomy, where users should be able to add new taxonomy stuff to entries really easy and freely as soon as the need arises. So tags seem to work best for this situation.

However, there's a usability issue I'm concerned about. And that's a lot of typing, potential typos, and general "closeness" of what's already available to users (existing tags already added by users)

What I would ideally like is a tag field, which would still allow standard entry, but which also has a checkbox list of all existing tags as well - so users could just quick check tags they want to add to an entry - without typing anything - and add any extra tags manually only when these are needed.

Would something like that be possible to implement in Craft?

(The system will be an internal one, so there's no worry about too many users adding too many tags. Eventually, every single required tag will be created at some point, and users will be able to just choose from checkboxes - that's the ideal vision of how things would work on the data entry side)

thanks!

**Tags:** control-panel, admin, tags, checkboxes


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-05-01. Score: 1

Any reason why you'd choose [tags over categories](https://craftcms.com/features/categories-and-tags)?

Categories seem to be more of what you're describing:

> Eventually, every single required tag will be created at some point.

And since Craft 2.5, authors can easily create categories right in the Entry screen as well as pick the category they want if it's already created. No manual typing required if it already exists.

Tags are usually *looser* approximations of the content and are considered by content strategists to be more of a "folksonomy".

If you wanted to push forward with checkboxes as tags, you could probably create a custom field that spits out all the tags as checkboxes, along with a way to add new ones.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks for the comment! The reason I want to have tags is mainly to make the flow of "folksonomy" more frictionless, so less typing and more of the visual hints (existing tags' checkboxes) would do the best job for this kind of stuff.   Categories are also used, but in more strict format. The idea behind tax to give an little extra (I'm creating a system with the main functionality being searching "items" based on various factors).   That said… you mentioned custom field… It might work! That sounds like some custom plugin to me. Is that correct? Or is it somehow built into Craft?  
> **username_1**: Yeh the custom field would be [plugin development](https://craftcms.com/docs/plugins/field-types) territory. If your concern is purely UX, one other thing you might want to consider is just another category field. Unlike something like WordPress, Craft lets you have as many fields and field types as you want.  You can even have multiple category groups... one strict as you want and one "looser" that resemble tags. You could then name the "looser" category field something like "Tags" or whatever and ignore Craft's built-in tags.   Then let the user pick and choose from that category group.  

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