Tagamac

Big news for those interested in file organization! Devon Technologies yesterday released a public beta of the long-awaited DevonThink 2.0. Among other things, DevonThink 2.0 offers the ability to open multiple databases at the same time, a completely revitalized interface, a web interface to your database, saves files to its database as-is (thus allowing them to be edited by external programs), smart groups for sorting your files, and at long last adds tagging (sort of). DevonThink has always been one of the most feature-rich file libraries available, and with version 2.0 it at last is a bit more friendly. If you need a lot of power and automation (particularly sorting/grouping automation) and don’t mind sacrificing the Finder-friendly approach of Together or EagleFiler for a database, then you’ll need to give DevonThink 2.0 a serious look.

The downside to the first public beta is that it doesn’t actually have much in the way of tagging support. There’s a place for tags in the Get Info window, but you can’t edit them (the contents currently defaults to the groups for a document). However, tagging (and presumably auto-tagging, given DevonThink’s long dedication to auto-sorting) is definitely on the radar for the final release. For more information about what’s new in DevonThink 2.0 and to download see the release notes and DevonThink 2.0 page. The first public beta will expire at the end of January, and upgrade options will be made available at the DevonThink website soon (they have announced, however, that users who purchased DevonThink 1.x after July 1, 2008 will receive a free upgrade to 2.0). DevonThink 2.0 requires OS 10.5.

Ironic Software, makers of Yep and Leap, yesterday released a new image searching and tagging program called Deep. Deep offers a unique approach to image searching by combining filtering by tags/keywords, location, size, and aspect ratio with color palette matching. As you build your search in the top portion of the window, the results are displayed in a carousel below with navigation reminiscent of cover flow. As with Leap, tags include not only keywords that you’ve assigned to your images, but folder names, as well, providing you with a very complete list of keywords even if you’ve never tagged a photo. Unlike Leap and Yep, however, Deep is not focused on organizing photos. Although you can add tags to a photo, the program’s primary focus is on finding photos that are similar to one another, leaving the task of organizing, importing, or editing those photos in the first place up to software better equipped for the job. Interestingly, Deep doesn’t use a database; all of its metadata (including tags and color data) is included inside the extended attributes of your image files.

The awesomeness of Deep does come at a cost, however: Deep not only requires Leopard, but is Intel-only. It will not run on PowerPCs. Deep is available for $34 or as part of a package deal with Yep and Leap for $69, and the application includes a 21 day free trial. Definitely check out the manual for some very useful tips and tricks on using the software; although Deep is simple enough to pick up and use immediately (or almost immediately, given the need to index the colors of the images on your hard drive), there’s definitely more to the program than meets the eye.

In case you’ve been living in a box, the three most compelling options in the world of Mac task managers are: Things (if you like a simple, beautiful interface), OmniFocus (if you need lots of powerful features), and TaskPaper. TaskPaper eschews the standard feature bloat of GTD applications and provides instead the minimum tools you need to manage your tasks easily and effectively. TaskPaper task lists are plain text (so you can take and edit them just about anywhere) but enhanced with features like automatic formatting, archival of completed tasks, and easy filtering/searching of your task list. TaskPaper 2.0 adds a fantastic new search system (watch the screencast), a Things-style quick entry window to add tasks from anywhere on your computer, drag and drop organizing, a customizable theme system, Applescript support, and an even more attractive user interface.

I strongly recommend TaskPaper even to people who think their needs are met by more complicated software. There is nothing like using a minimalist tool like TaskPaper for a couple of weeks to learn exactly what features you can live without and which you desperately need in a task manager, and for many people TaskPaper will be the solution that finally gets out of their way and lets them complete their tasks rather than fiddling with them. TaskPaper 2.0 is a free upgrade to users of TaskPaper 1 (although it now requires OS 10.5), or is available for $29.95 with a free trial.

MailTags has been updated to version 2.2.2 (or possibly 2.2.3; the release notes disagree with the rest of the site). This minor release mainly includes enhancements to improve efficiency when working with Mail Act-On and IMAP, but also includes numerous bug fixes and adds seven days to expired trial versions for those who want to try out the new features and fixes.

For full details, check out the release notes.

This one deserves its own post: EagleFiler has been updated to version 1.4. This free update includes a tag cloud window, the ability to search within individual PDFs or web archives, preferences for importing Spotlight comments, the ability to display Word 2007 docs (.docx) and OpenDocument Text (.odt) under 10.5, the ability to capture from several third-party email clients and competitor Together, a slew of other improvements and fixes, and finally (drum roll, please)…custom smart folders! At long last, EagleFiler supports smart folders, and boy was it worth the wait. Smart folders in EagleFiler 1.4 can be organized into other folders, include an arbitrary number of conditions optionally nested within Any/All/None criteria, and best of all you can attach “actions” to smart folders. For example, if you have a smart folder that searches for all items with the tags “task, today” a normal action allows you to drop a document on the smart folder and have those tags added to it automatically. The only big downside of smart folders is that you can only create and edit them if you’re running 10.5. They will be usable under 10.4, but you won’t be able to modify them.

Despite its unprepossessing version number, EagleFiler 1.4 is a big and worthwhile update to an already fantastic product. For a full run-down of the many changes and additions in version 1.4, take a look at the release notes. If you have never given EagleFiler a try, now would be an excellent time to give it a whirl.

MailTags, one of my favorite and most-used tagging plugins, has been updated to version 2.2.1. This minor version bump includes the ability to undo tag edits, a improved stability, and some bug fixes including a fix for an issue where tags were not being included in replies and forwards.

For more information and to download, visit the MailTags release notes.

Together, a file library whose recent 2.1 update makes it one of the most compelling choices for tag-happy users, was updated today to version 2.1.3. This minor update includes a number of bug fixes, including fixes for a crash that occurred when indexing in the background, preventative measures when trying to link to the same file twice, and a problem where PDF attachments were not displayed in Quick Look previews. the Yojimbo Importer also received a minor update, including the option to choose what kinds of Yojimbo items to import.

For more details or to download, see the Together release notes.

Ack, am I behind on the times. EagleFiler was recently updated to version 1.3.2. This minor update includes faster indexed searches when there’s lots of results found, better behavior in the “capture with options” window’s title and from fields, and numerous small bug fixes (including a couple 10.5-only problems).

For more information, see the EagleFiler 1.3.2 announcement. No new features it looks like; just a worthwhile bug fix update.

WebnoteHappy, my bookmark manager of choice, has been updated to version 1.3.2. This minor update includes shortcut support for the recently released Camino 1.6, the ability to tab to the tag browser, the ability to access tags via Applescript, and numerous bug fixes (one Leopard-specific).

For more details, see the release notes. If you’ve been wondering how to handle your bookmarks, WebnoteHappy is a great option. The only black mark against the program, in my opinion, is the lack of integration with Ma.gnolia (it’s Del.icio.us-only). Still a great example of a program that makes simple tagging just work.

At long last MailTags 2.2 has emerged out of beta and is ready for general consumption. MailTags 2.2 is Leopard-only, free for all registered 2.x users, and offers significant improvements over 2.1, including new support for tagging RSS feeds in Mail, tagging Mail notes, and a new extensible architecture under the hood that should allow either Indev or third parties to extend MailTags’ functionality in interesting ways.

If you’ve never tried MailTags, I highly recommend it. MailTags is one of those rare programs that can become an irreplaceable part of your workflow during its trial period, and is not to be missed for anyone for whom email is a central part of their productive workday. For more details about the 2.2 release in general, see the MailTags homepage, the general release notes, or the detailed release notes.