Tagamac

Nifty Box, a quirky alternative to some of the more popular file system tagging solutions, has been updated to 1.3; the main new feature is an enhanced ability to relocate moved files. As long as your files stay on the same hard drive, Nifty Box should no longer lose them (if you migrate to a new hard drive, it may still need a little help).

Sadly, Nifty Box has reached the end of the line. The developer has decided to pursue his true passion of working in the space industry, and Nifty Box will no longer be updated. The positive side of this is that the software is now available for free. For more information about the switch to freeware and how to transition your data out of Nifty Box, see the 1.3 blog announcement.

After one of the longest public beta periods I’ve experienced outside of Google, Punakea has finally been released. Priced at $25, Punakea 1.0 brings numerous enhancements over previous versions. The biggest difference is that Punakea now uses OpenMeta for its tag storage instead of fantastically convoluted Spolight comments. Additional improvements include the ability to Quick Look your results when browsing through tagged files, a HUD-style tagger, a global hotkey for accessing said tagger from the Finder or your web browser, and numerous bugfixes.

For more information about Punakea’s 1.0 release and subsequent move from free to shareware, see the blog posts on the first 1.0 release candidate, final pricing, and the 1.0 announcement. Release notes are also available.

Leap 2.0 was released today, finally bringing Ironic Software’s OpenMeta tagging system to their flagship product. In addition to OpenMeta tagging and ratings, Leap 2 sports a revamped, simplified interface and significant speed improvements. Tags are no longer stored in a database or cached to files on your hard drive; Leap now relies solely on OpenMeta for all of its tagging.

Leap 2 is available for $59 with a 10 day demo, or $19 for owners of Leap 1 (to get the upgrade price, install Leap 2, launch it, and click the “Upgrade Now…” button for instructions). For more information, see the release notes.

Default Folder X, the “can’t live without” enhancement for open and save dialogs, has added support for OpenMeta tagging in version 4.2. This means that you can now tag a file when you save it, which is by far the best time to do so since it obviates the need to process files multiple times in order to tag them (needing to go back over files to organize them after the fact may be the biggest barrier to tagging). Version 4.2 also includes a new Applescript command, allows you to see invisible folders in save dialogs by holding down option when selecting “Save As”, and includes several bug fixes.

I highly recommend Default Folder X even if you have no interest in OpenMeta (it’s a fantastic utility), but this release is basically a must-have for anyone trying to setup an OpenMeta-driven tagging system. For more details about the release, see the Default Folder X release notes.

Numerous tagging applications received interesting updates in March (lack of timely coverage thanks to real-life distractions). Tag Folders was bumped to 2.0 (current version: 2.0.2) and now includes OpenMeta tagging support with two-way conversion of tags and numerous bug fixes. MarsEdit 2.3 was released and added Tumblr support. EagleFiler 1.4.5 includes OpenMeta tags import, improved ways to access tags via Applescript, and numerous bug fixes. Tags 1.2 is now available and includes improved Quick Look support, a new AppleScript interface, reduced conflicts with MailTags, and several other fixes and improvements. Evernote 1.3 was released (current version 1.3.1), including a new Safari clipper toolbar button, Safari 4 support, Growl notifications, and (in not so happy news) advertisements for non-premium users.

For more information, see the Tag Folders release notes, MarsEdit 2.3 blog announcement, EagleFiler 1.4.5 blog announcement, and the Evernote 1.3 Mac blog announcement. Tags does not currently have up-to-date release notes online.

VoodooPad was recently updated to version 4.1, an update mainly focused on significant bug fixes. However, it also introduces several new features, the most interesting to me being that tags are now synched via VoodooPad’s excellent WebDAV synching, and tags are also written out to the VoodooPad Spotlight index for searching. This is pretty exciting to me, because it means that I can at long last make my VoodooPad scratchpad work the way I want.

For more information about the update, see the release notes.

Punakea, one of the original file system tagging solutions, yesterday showed some signs of life with a minor bug fix update. Version 0.4.1 adds case sensitivity to tag autocompletion and stops deleting additional content in Punakea’s tags folder. Although the update itself is not terribly impressive, it’s nice to know that Punakea is still under development and not abandonware like TagBot. It will be interesting to see how the Punakea developers, who helped blaze the way with Spotlight comment tagging, react to the release of OpenMeta and Tags.

For more information, see the Punakea release notes or the “Hey! We’re not dead” blog post.

Ironic Software yesterday released Fresh, a small utility for helping you to locate and act on the most recently added or modified files on your computer. When invoked, Fresh shows you two lists: on the top are your most recently added or modified files and on the bottom is the “cooler” where you can store files that you need to repeatedly access. Fresh also has an embedded version of Ironic Software’s free Tagit application, allowing you to tag and rate your files using OpenMeta without needing to run both programs (or even have Tagit installed).

Fresh is one of those fantastic pieces of software that targets a common problem (”where the heck is that file I was just working on?”) and provides a simple, elegant solution that you can start using within seconds of downloading the program. Even if you’re uninterested in the tagging features (which I admit I’m personally unlikely to use; I prefer Tags), Fresh is an application that will slip easily into your workflow, likely making you wonder after a day or two how you ever lived without. Fresh offers a 21 day free trial, and costs $9 to register.

Both Together and EagleFiler received minor updates recently. Together has been bumped to 2.2.6, an update which includes some minor bug fixes for Applescript behavior, syncing encrypted files, and Quick Notes with invisible characters. EagleFiler is now at 1.4.4, an update which includes numerous fixes such as a more streamlined capture workflow from Apple Mail, improved error messages when running into problems importing from various programs, and many other minor improvements.

For more information, see the Together release notes or EagleFiler 1.4.4 blog announcement.

Tags, my current favorite file system tagging solution, today was updated to version 1.1. This update includes drag-and-drop support for files and so forth onto the tag mode window (just invoke the window and drag away), a new tag manager with a number of useful options (including the ability to select which tags are your favorites), support for TaskPaper and NetNewsWire, an option to live without the flipping animation, an option to launch Tags at startup, and numerous bug fixes.

Unfortunately, the release notes don’t appear to be published anywhere online, but you can find them if you run the auto-update for the software (assuming you have it installed). If it’s not already on your computer, then now is as good a time as any to try it out.