An apparatus and method for tagging a specimen slide are described. The apparatus comprises a receiving region for receiving at least one cassette magazine, a reading unit for reading the machine-readable coded information of a cassette identifier of a cassette, and a tagging unit for generating a machine-readable coded information for tagging the specimen slide with a specimen slide identifier that depends on the cassette identifier. Data are transferred from the microtome to the apparatus via the data transfer path as soon as the cassette is inserted into the microtome, and only then can the machine-readable coded information for tagging the specimen slide be applied onto the specimen slide by the tagging unit.
