Add and Remove Tags from the Properties Panel [Beta]

Updates Announcements
#1

Hi Creators,

We are pleased to announce that adding and removing tags from the properties panel is now enabled as a beta feature.

After you turn the beta feature on, you’ll be able to see a new section for adding and removing tags at the bottom of the properties panel, right above the attributes section. The union of all tags on selected instances will be displayed underneath the tags section.

What are tags?

Tags are part of the CollectionService, which allows you to register tags to specific instances. Tags are especially useful for adding behaviors to many instances at once.

For example, if you were building an obstacle course and wanted to add bricks that kill players on contact, instead of pasting the same kill script in all of them, you can tag them with the “KillBrick” tag. You can then write a single script that will apply the kill behavior to all instances with the “KillBrick” tag!

Adding tags

To add a tag, click the plus button on the tags section to open the add tag popup. It will display a list of all tags that are currently being used in the Workspace, with the most frequently used tags appearing at the top. Clicking on one of these tags will add it to all currently selected instances.

Additionally, you can use the textbox to either type in a new tag to create and add or filter the list of current tags. You can then either click the tag you’d like to add or use keyboard inputs. The up and down arrow keys can be used to navigate through the list, and pressing the enter key will add the selection as a tag.

Removing tags

To remove a tag, hover over it in the tags section to reveal an X button. Clicking on it will remove the corresponding tag from all selected instances.

Known Issues

  1. Adding a brand new tag via the properties panel will not immediately update in the TagEditor plugin. Deselect and reselect the instance to refresh the TagEditor display.

  2. On Windows, clicking outside of the add tag popup to close it will also send the mouse click to the UI below the cursor. For now, you can click on the Tag header or use the escape key to close the add tag popup smoothly. A fix for this issue is coming within the next weeks.

Please let us know if you encounter any issues or have any feedback, and thanks for all your support!

Many thanks to @tnavarts, @jimjamjomj, @polarporcupine, @Dogekidd2012, and @NightlyShores for all their help in making this feature possible!

519 Likes
Use a single script to control all elements
How can you get every instance of something in roblox?
#2

This topic was automatically opened after 10 minutes.

#3

Now this, this is epic.

Something else that would be useful is being able to assign a colour to a tag, then, through the explorer, selecting which of these tags will show in the explorer with a circle (with the colour of the associated tag), next to the instance name, similar to how we have a yellow circle for modified packages

It makes organising tagged instance a lot easier if I can see them at a glance in the explorer, rather than clicking on each instance and checking its properties individually

171 Likes
#5

Oh my god. I absolutely love every single one of you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’ve been dying for this update forever, as I’ve been stuck using the command bar and the Tag Explorer plugin to add tags.

@tnavarts, @jimjamjomj, @polarporcupine, @Dogekidd2012, and @NightlyShores; you guys are absolutely amazing.

This is one of the best Roblox W’s I have ever seen.

116 Likes
#6

Bless, it has to have been over five years. I’m happy Roblox is finally hitting some of these old pain points.

It would be awesome if the reason why it took so long could be shared. The transparency is always appreciated, even if you think its uninteresting and boring, we’re developers too.

101 Likes
#7

What exactly is a tag? Is it a label you put onto things or is this a programming oriented feature?

85 Likes
#8

Tags are related to CollectionService, in which you can fetch and use instances based on Tags.

78 Likes
How i can add tags for multiple part
#9

Took them a few years but its finally there now

91 Likes
#10

  • It should have had proper tooling on release but it was released in an era before we had as good coordination between Studio and engine features so there wasn’t any time in Studio’s schedule around the time tags released in the engine.

  • It wasn’t seen as an important core engine feature initially, though it certainly has grown to become one.

  • The team which owned it was overburdened with higher priorities for a significant portion of tags lifespan.

  • The community building very good third party tooling for tags before we got to it lowered the priority on us building first party support.

  • At the time of release the architecture of the Properties pane wasn’t very flexible and it would have been hard to make it support tags. It’s recently been refactored to the point where implementing it now was much easier.

TL;DR: As with most unexpected things, many circumstances lining up in just the wrong way.

144 Likes
#11

Will the Icons that are set inside the TagEditor be ported across? or is that not possible with the current properties panel. It’s a nice feature to have for viewing at a glance.

Also maybe a side suggestion but it’d be nice to have some sort of icon next to an instance in the Workspace panel that shows if that instance has tags/attributes.

64 Likes
#12

Honestly was joyous of the addition of :AddTag() and RemoveTag() on Instances as a beta feature. And to see this as another addition of collection service is unbelievably convenient, no need to have the Tag window up just to see what tags are applied to an Instance WOOOT!!

Although, would be kind of nice if it also showed the group that the tag was apart of. And within the little GUI which shows current tags that you can apply, allowing search by group results.

55 Likes
#13

Soooo long overdue. Thank you very much :heart:

I like a lot of the updates recently. Not a big fan of the niche ones like the animated faces, while that can be good I bet less than 5% of people ever use or pay any attention to it. More just straight up engine features and such I think would be a better use of time.

BUT I LOVE things like this. The recent error tracking update as well. Doing great, love to see it

49 Likes
#14

Do you think you could elaborate on what you mean by “group” in this context?

49 Likes
#15

Within the tag editor itself, it allows grouping of tagged instances for a visually better way of organizing the tags. Was referring to these types of groups.
image

55 Likes
#16

YES! I’ve found tags to be so helpful recently. Instead of having instances in a folder together, we can just have tags for em. And now we don’t need to use the TagEditor window, so it’s all in one place along the Properties & Attributes ! Very nice, will come in handy in future.

Great update

41 Likes
#17

Surprised it took this long, but glad its here.

Tag editor will still stay around I presume?

39 Likes
#18

No plans to remove the Tag Editor. The Tag Editor does enough stuff that we wouldn’t want to clutter the properties pane with all of the capabilities it has, rather keeping it around for more complex tag related workflows.

50 Likes
#19

What is the use of using tags on properties?

36 Likes
#20

This reminds me of Unity, which is always a good thing to see!

39 Likes
#21

I am so immensely grateful for this! I actively avoid using tags because of how easy it can be to lose what is tagged and the arduous nature of untagging and retagging things. This is so helpful to workflow! Thank you!!

35 Likes