Tagamac

Default Folder X, a great piece of software and particularly interesting for its helpfulness in home-grown tagging systems, has been updated to version 4.0.7. This minor update includes a fix to allow Spotlight keyword saving in Word 2008 save dialogs, a fix to make sure the recent folders list works in Word 2008 dialogs, and numerous other small bug fixes.

For more details and to download the new version, see the release notes.

Needless to say, I’ve been a bit remiss in my blog updating the past couple weeks. A four-day weekend spent in the mountains with my girlfriend and new Kindle (and no internet or cell phone access) has had a surprisingly lasting effect on my online habits. I hadn’t realized how much effort I was spending on keeping up to date with the interwebs until I took some time off.

In any case, some great software has received incremental updates in the recent past. Together was updated to version 2.1.2 (release notes), EagleFiler was bumped to 1.3.4 (release notes), Leap is now sitting at 1.0.6 (an update that includes Time Machine support, Danish support, and a couple bug/crash fixes), and Default Folder X is now at 4.0.6 (release notes). Enjoy.

Leap, the promising file system tagging solution from Ironic Software, has been updated to version 1.0.5. This minor version is primarily a bug fix release (including fixes for OmniOutliner documents and other custom file types where Spotlight comments would not be set, a new contextual menu for bookmarks, and a crash that could occur when a tag was removed in certain situations), but it also includes at least one fun new feature: you can now exclude tags and file types by command clicking on them in the sidebar, which will turn them red. One of the big annoyances that I have with tagging software is that it usually makes it easy to do AND boolean searches and difficult to do anything else. The ability to do exclusionary searches in Leap with a simple click is definitely welcome.

For more information, you’ll need to view the in-program auto-update notes as Ironic Software does not supply release notes otherwise.

Default Folder X was updated to 4.0.4 yesterday. This minor update includes a number of different bug fixes, including a crash fix caused by entering accented characters in the Spotlight comments box. For more details and to download, see the Default Folder X release notes.

Aside from being an indispensable tool for file system tagging solutions that use Spotlight comments, Default Folder X is a great all-around enhancement to the file system’s save and open dialogs. This is one of those pieces of software that became an irreplaceable part of my workflow as soon as I launched it; I highly recommend it.

Today the MacUpdate “Parallels” Promo was launched. This bundle is a surprisingly good one, and includes a number of useful tagging applications including Leap, StoryMill, and Hazel. The apps that become unlocked if the bundle does well are also extremely appealing (Sound Studio and Parallels Desktop are both apps that I use myself). And MenuCalendarClock iCal is one of those apps that you’ll install and forget it’s there because its functionality should have been written into the OS.

I highly recommend the MacUpdate promo bundle if only for Leap and StoryMill. Leap in particular is probably the best file system tagging solution available, and StoryMill is my favorite creative writing software (and uses tagging for its primary organization). Assuming the bundle sells well enough to unlock all ten apps, you’ll be getting $474.76 worth of software for $65. Most surprising is that more than 50% of the apps are worth buying (normally with these bundles two or three are worthwhile and the rest are all fluff). FYI: the MacUpdate link in this post is an affiliate link because while I would have recommended this bundle anyway, I’d love it if someday Tagamac at least paid for its hosting costs. Click through from here if you want to show me a little love, or just visit MacUpdate on your own if you hate affiliate links in your soul.

I’m a bit behind on the times, but last week Default Folder X was updated to version 4.0.3. This minor update fixes a memory issue in Carbon applications, adds contextual menus to Open and Save dialogs, and includes numerous other minor bug fixes. Definitely worth a download for Default Folder X users, but not much exciting or new to tempt new folks over.

For more information, see the Default Folder X release notes.

This is not a sale to miss! For the weekend of March 29th and 30th, 2008 only Leap is on sale for 50% off its list price from MacZot (ends up being about $30), and since its price is the main downside for the software I strongly recommend you check it out.

Despite my first impressions, Leap is the most exciting file system tagging app on the market and provides a great way for new users to get into tags (since it uses current folder hierarchies to supplement your tags). I’ve posted a bit more of an in-depth look at the strengths of Leap in the MacZot comments if you need more convincing. Incidentally, Leap was also updated to version 1.0.4 yesterday, but the update didn’t add much (just a couple of bug fixes).

Leap, currently the most likely piece of software to entice me into file system tagging, was just updated to version 1.0.3. This minor version increase includes better memory handling for some searches (particularly “Go Deep” searches), support for the new Office 2008 file types, the ability to create folders by right clicking in the Locations panel, and a number of small bug fixes and UI improvements.

For more information, see the release notes in the program’s auto-updating, or download it for the first time from the Leap homepage.

Punaka, the free file system tagging solution from nudge:nudge, has been updated to version 0.4 (technically beta software, but very stable). Punakea now requires OS 10.5, but if you’re running Leopard it’s well worth a download. Features include the ability to edit tags from directly within the tag browser, a Tags folder that automatically generates a folder structure corresponding to the tags you attach to files (complete with file aliases; this ain’t no smart folder, folks), a new Drop Box folder that will automatically attach tags to any files saved there (by default “untagged”), and numerous interface brush-ups and under-the-hood improvements.

Punakea is an excellent choice if you’re looking for file system tagging, but there is one major caveat: Punakea uses a very unfriendly syntax for Spotlight comment tagging. Although this means you can use spaces in your tags, tagging files by hand using Punakea’s syntax is difficult at best. The program provides workarounds (an excellent, unobtrusive sidebar for one), but to tag with Punakea you generally have to have the program running all the time. For more details about this update, see the release notes. Punakea 0.3.2 is still available for Tiger users.

I sometimes make mistakes. When I first used Leap, it was in the early public beta, and when Ironic Software released Leap 1.0 with no release notes (they never publish release notes outside of the download, which is annoying) and tiny, skewed screenshots I had no idea that Leap had changed drastically between the initial public betas and the final version. Thankfully a reader called me on my error, and so I’ve taken a second look at Leap.

Although I still think it’s priced a bit high, I was completely in error about Leap’s existence in limbo between file system taggers and file libraries. Leap is a full-fledged file system tagging solution that is unlike any of the other solutions currently on the market. It certainly isn’t perfect, but Leap provides a number of different ways to access your tagged files and introduces a unique way of working with files in your current folder hierarchy that no other tagging software provides. [read more…]