Understanding and Using Search Tags in Fluent Search

Search Tags are one of the most powerful features in Fluent Search. They act as filters that narrow your search to a specific type of content, a specific application, a file type, a folder, or even a web search engine. Mastering search tags is the key to fast, precise results.

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What are Search Tags?

When you search without any tags, Fluent Search queries all enabled Search Apps and shows a mixed list of results. Adding a search tag focuses your search on a specific scope — dramatically reducing noise and speeding up results.

Without tags: Searching report might show apps, files, browser history, web suggestions, and settings.

With a tag: Searching Files + Tab + report shows only file results matching "report."

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How to use Search Tags

1. Type the tag name (for example, Files, History, .pdf)
2. Press Tab — the tag locks into the search bar
3. Type your search query — results are filtered through the tag

You can add multiple tags to combine filters.

Tip: Press Alt + T (default) to jump focus to the Search Tags area and browse available tags.

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Common Search Tags

Search App tags

Each Search App provides its own tags:

Tag	Source	What it does
Files	Files Search App	Search all files and folders
File	Files Search App	Files only (no folders)
Folder / Directory	Files Search App	Folders only (no files)
content	Files Search App	Search inside file contents
Browser	Browser Search App	All browser data
History	Browser Search App	Browser history only
Bookmark	Browser Search App	Bookmarks only
Windows	Windows Search App	Open windows and processes
Apps	Apps Search App	Installed applications
command	Commands Search App	Command line commands
Run	Commands Search App	Windows Run dialog emulation
Powershell	Commands Search App	PowerShell commands
Cmd	Commands Search App	Command Prompt commands
Calculator	Calculator Search App	Math expressions
Settings	Settings Search App	System and app settings
Screen	Screen Search App	On-screen elements
Shortcut	Shortcuts Search App	Keyboard shortcuts
todo	To Do Search App	Microsoft To Do tasks

File extension tags

Type any file extension as a tag to filter by file type:

Tag	Matches
.pdf	PDF documents
.docx	Word documents
.png, .jpg, .gif, .svg	Image files
.mp4, .avi, .mkv	Video files
.mp3, .wav, .flac	Audio files
Any extension	Any file matching that extension

File type group tags

Pre-configured groups that cover multiple extensions at once:

Tag	Matches
image	PNG, JPG, GIF, SVG, and other image formats
video	MP4, AVI, MKV, and other video formats
audio	MP3, WAV, FLAC, and other audio formats
document	PDF, DOCX, TXT, and other document formats

You can customize these groups in Settings → Apps → Files → File extension tags.

Special directory tags

Type any of these to quickly search within common system directories:

Tag	Directory
desktop	Your Desktop folder
documents	Your Documents folder
downloads	Your Downloads folder
pictures	Your Pictures folder
music	Your Music folder
videos	Your Videos folder
recent	Recently accessed files
onedrive	Your OneDrive folder
temp folder	System temp directory
application data	Roaming AppData
local application data	Local AppData
program files	Program Files directory
program data	ProgramData directory
user profile	Your user profile root

Folder path tags

Type any folder path (for example, C:\Projects) and press Tab — Fluent Search inserts it as a search tag, letting you search inside that specific folder. Combine this with file extension tags for precise results:

Example: C:\Projects + Tab + .docx + Tab → finds Word documents inside your Projects folder.

Web search engine tags

Tag	What it does
Google	Search Google
Bing	Search Bing
Translate	Google Translate
chatgpt	Send a prompt to ChatGPT
(custom engines)	Any search engines you configure
(browser keywords)	Search engine keywords imported from your browser

Browser bookmark folder tags

Each bookmark folder in your browser automatically becomes a search tag. For example, if you have a "Work" bookmarks folder, typing Work + Tab searches only within those bookmarks.

AI tag

Tag	What it does
AI	Performs semantic, meaning-based search across all Fluent Search results using a local AI model

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Combining multiple tags

You can stack multiple tags to create very specific searches:

• Folder + extension: C:\Work + .pdf → PDF files in your Work folder
• App + folder: Apps + specific app → recent files from that app
• Browser + bookmark folder: Bookmark + Work → bookmarks in the Work folder

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Viewing available tags

There are multiple ways to discover what tags are available:

• Press Alt + T in the search window to open the Search Tags area with intelligent suggestions
• Settings → Search Tags shows all available search tags
• Each Search App settings page lists the tags it provides
• Clicking a tag in settings navigates to its configuration page

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Custom and ignored tags

Create custom tags

Define your own search tags as shortcuts for frequently used searches or specific scopes:

1. Go to Settings → Search Tags
2. Create a custom tag with your desired name and behavior

Ignore tags

If certain tags activate accidentally or are unnecessary for your workflow, you can disable them:

1. Go to Settings → Search Tags
2. Disable any tags you don't want to appear

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Customizing web search tags

Web search tags are configured in Settings → Apps → Web → Web Searches. You can:

• Add new search engines (use %s as the query placeholder)
• Edit or remove existing ones
• Set a default search engine
• Add engines for internal tools (wiki, issue tracker, docs site)

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By mastering search tags, you can dramatically speed up your searches, reduce noise, and make Fluent Search a precision tool tailored to how you actually work.