A QuickTime Look at Panther’s Labels

When OS X first came out there was a small but vocal group of Mac user’s who lamented the passing of labels. I was definitely one of those users who used label s to organize my files. The great thing about labels is they added another layer of categorizing files apart from date created, kind, name, etc—a category created by me, the user.

The good news is that the beta version of Panther that Apple released at the WWDC in San Francisco last week has reintroduced labels to the Macintosh. The bad news is that (so far) they have been integrated in a limited form. Panther is a beta so Apple could very well be hard at work making labels in OS X on par with OS 9. We shall see. If you are like me and miss labels I strongly suggest you give Apple that feedback.

So what is missing? You cannot name labels in Panther—labels are simply colors. This is a shame because labeling allowed me to give my files custom categories. I could either use the default OS 9 names, cool, hot, etc. or give them my own names (design, photography, applematters, etc.). Gone too, as the QuickTime clip below shows, is the ability to sort by label. Also, labels do not currently appear in every view.

Remember, Panther is a beta and there is probably (hopefully) a team working on bringing the labeling system to at least on par with OS 9. It is good to see that Apple is introducing this user-centric tool back into their operating system and we thank them for it.