Organize Your PDF Library: Folders, Tags & Search

The Problem With Most PDF Apps

Most scanner apps dump everything into one long list sorted by date. Fine for ten documents. A complete disaster for a hundred. You end up scrolling through "scan_0047.pdf" files with no idea what any of them contain.

Foldr takes a different approach. Every document lands somewhere meaningful — by date, type, or folder — and full-text search means you can find any file even if you can't remember what you named it.

Start With a Simple Folder Structure

The best organizational systems are the ones you actually stick to. Don't overthink it. Start with four or five broad folders that match your real life:

• Finance — receipts, invoices, bank statements, tax documents
• Contracts — leases, NDAs, work agreements, service contracts
• Medical — prescriptions, lab results, insurance cards, consent forms
• Personal — IDs, passports, certificates, anything that doesn't fit elsewhere
• Work — internal documents, approval forms, meeting notes

To create a folder in Foldr, go to your Library, tap the folder icon, and give it a name. From then on, every new scan can be routed to the right place before it even saves.

Use Descriptive File Names (Takes 5 Seconds)

Foldr lets you name files the moment you save them. It takes about five seconds and saves you enormous frustration later. The naming pattern that works best:

YYYY-MM — Description

For example:

• 2026-05 — Apartment Lease Agreement
• 2026-04 — Q1 Tax Return
• 2026-05 — Dr. Smith Lab Results

Date-first naming means your files always sort chronologically, and the description makes them instantly recognizable in a list.

Sort and Filter Your Library

Foldr's Library screen has built-in sort and filter controls. You can sort by:

• Date — most recent first (default)
• Name — alphabetical, great for browsing
• Size — useful for finding large scans to free up space

Use the filter icons at the top of the library to narrow by folder or type. Combining sort + filter gets you to any document in two taps, even in a large library.

Full-Text Search: The Real Superpower

This is where Foldr truly stands apart. The search bar in the Library doesn't just search file names — it searches the actual text content of your scanned documents.

Scan a receipt, and you can find it later by searching for the store name. Scan a contract, and you can pull it up by searching for a clause or a party's name. The text recognition happens automatically in the background every time you scan.

Practical examples:

• Search "Amazon" → finds every Amazon receipt in your library
• Search "liability" → pulls up every contract that contains the word
• Search "passport" → finds your ID scans without digging through folders

Quick Actions for Faster Filing

The Library's Quick Actions bar at the top gives you one-tap access to the most common ways to add documents. Use Import file to pull in PDFs from iCloud or other apps, or Scan document to capture something new — all without leaving your library view.

This keeps your workflow in one place: scan or import, name it, drop it in the right folder, done.

How Often Should You Tidy Up?

Once your system is set up, maintenance is minimal. A quick weekly review (five minutes, maybe less) is all it takes:

• Move anything in your Inbox folder to its proper home
• Delete obvious duplicates or test scans
• Rename anything you saved with a generic name

Do this consistently for a month and your library will feel effortlessly organized — even with hundreds of documents.

Summary

A good PDF library isn't about having perfect organization from day one. It's about building a simple system you can maintain without thinking. Broad folders, descriptive names, and full-text search cover 95% of what you'll ever need. Foldr handles the rest automatically.