Abstract's tagging system is a core component that you can leverage to cut through all the day's new bills and share with your clients, members, or colleagues only what they need. Here you will learn about setting up your tagging system and using it to track any bill that comes out of the legislature.
The naming for Abstract's tagging system, using the image above as reference, is as follows:
"Issue Area" is a Tag Title
"housing" is a Tag
The Tag Title and all of its Tags are known as a Tag Group
Creating & Editing Tags
You may create and edit all of the Tags in your workspace by navigating to the Settings Page, then clicking the "Tags" section. Here you will find your workspace's Tag settings.
In this window, you can perform multiple actions:
Create a new Tag Group
Click on "Create Tag Group" and enter your Tag Title (i.e. Clients, Position) in the empty row.
Tag groups will be displayed on every bill so you can add tags to a bill quickly, from nearly anywhere in your workspace.
Creating a Tag in an existing Tag Group
Click into the box the right of the Tag Titles and type in your Tag. Once you are done, hit Enter and the Tag will be displayed in color. You may create as many Tags you choose under any number of Tag Titles.
After creating a new Tag Title, make sure to Save and refresh your page to guarantee your new Tag Title saves. We recommend doing the same after each of the following actions: after creating a Tag Title, after inputting a batch of Tags, and after deleting a Tag.
Deleting a Tag Group
To delete a Tag Group, click on the 'x' in the red circle to the right of your Tag Group (you may have to scroll horizontally to reveal the red 'x'), and enter the name of your Tag Title in the confirmation modal, after which the 'delete' button will become clickable. Make sure to save your settings to fully delete the Title.
Deleting a Tag
To delete a Tag in a Tag Group, click on the gray 'x' to the left of the Tag of your choosing, and type its name into the confirmation modal. Make sure to save your settings and refresh the page to ensure that the Tag is deleted from all bills in your workspace.
Note: Deleting Tags or Tag Groups will permanently remove the component from all bills and sections in your workspace.
Applying Tags to a Bill
Upon opening any bill page, navigate to the Tags section at the top right corner of the page. To add a Tag to a bill, click your cursor into the box and select your Tag, or type the desired Tag into the box to the right of the relevant Tag Title. As you type in this box, Abstract will offer suggestions based on the Tags that you have set up. Simply click on the Tag you'd like to apply.
You may apply as many tags to a bill as you'd like, then use these Tags to filter for bills using the Tags Filter on the Search page or Edit Settings of your Bill List.
How to Display your Tags in a Bill List (or Report)
Abstract's Tags are completely customizable. You can decide whether you'd like to keep them internal, or share Tags with people outside of your workspace via PDF export or Live Link.
To get started, first select your Bill List.
Go to Edit Settings, then navigate to the Tags Filter and select the Tag or Tag Titles you'd like to display in your Bill List.
The Tag Title is the overarching category by which you sort your bills (i.e. Client, Position, Priority, Issue Area). Selecting any of the Tag Title options will yield all bills that are tagged under that Title. For example, for a workspace where AB 1 has an 'ACME' tag applied under the 'Client' tag title, then filtering by the 'Client' tag title will return AB 1 since the tag title for that bill contains the Client Tag, 'ACME'
You can select multiple Tag Titles to see any bills tagged with any of your selected Tag Titles; a bill only needs to be tagged under one of these Tag Titles to appear in this search.
Using this logic, you can see every bill tagged in your workspace by simply selecting every tag title in the Tags filter.
Selecting any of the Tag options will return bills where that specific tag has been applied to a bill. For example, for the aforementioned workspace, filtering by 'ACME' will return AB 1 because The 'ACME' tag was applied to it. Selecting more than one Tag will return bills where all selected tags have been applied.
Please Note: selecting more than one Tag will only show you bills tagged for all of your selected Tags. i.e. selecting "Client A" and "Client B" in the Tags Filter will only show you bills tagged for both Client A and Client B.
- To display all bills tagged for either Client A or Client B in the same report, we recommend creating a section for each: one section with Client A selected in Tags Filter, and one section with Client B selected.
Next, select which Tags you want displayed in your Bill List/report.
In your Bill List, click the purple "0 Tags Selected" button, shown below.
Check the boxes next to the Tag Titles you'd like displayed in your Bill List.
Refresh the page to see your Tags displayed in the right-hand column of your List. From here, you can easily add or delete Tags from bills in your List.
You can choose to include or exclude Tags in your export as well. To do so, first click Export, the purple button in the top-right corner of your List. Select "Add New Template," and under "Bill Information," you will find Tags.
To remove Tags from your Report, simply click on the six grey dots to the left of Tags, and drag Tags into "Don't Include." This will ensure that your Tags stay internal-only.
Have any questions? Reach out to Support using the Chat button in your Abstract workspace.