Tagamac

It really is a leap day: Leap, the pseudo-file system tagging software that I asked a few questions about back in October, has at last been released. Leap is billed as an alternative Finder, and provides tagging, Spotlight searching, and more for your files. Unfortunately, it isn’t a true file system tagging solution; Leap’s tags are stored in its database, so you’ll have to use have Leap running to tag and browse your files (rather than being able to tag in the file system) (Update: a reader brought to my attention that there’s a lot more than meets to eye to Leap, so I took a second look). If file libraries are too restrictive for you and Spotlight comments tagging inadequate, then Leap may well be a useful middle ground.

Unfortunately, it costs $60 to register (or a discounted price for Yep owners). Given its comparatively high price (file libraries hover around $40, Punakea is free, and TagBot is $20) and the drawbacks of being not quite one thing and not quite another, Leap will likely be a fairly niche product. However, if you’re not happy with the available file system tagging options, Leap is well worth a trial.

Hot on the heels of the 4.0.1 update, St. Clair Software has delivered Default Folder X 4.0.2. This minor release includes proper behavior in Carbon apps that use sheets on windows with toolbars, corrects selection and window activation problems, and includes a hidden setting to make Finder-click available when the Finder is hidden.

For more information and to download, see the release notes. For those who haven’t tried it yet, Default Folder X expands the capabilities of the OS Save dialog in ways that not only help you roll your own tagging system (if you’re into that sort of thing), but generally make you wonder how you lived without it before.

Yurk! I got bogged down by work last week, and so here’s a couple things that got updated that I failed to note (there’s a third, too, but OmniWeb lost one of my browser workspaces somehow and I can’t recall what it was; oh well). Hopefully next week will be calmer and more conducive to blogging.

Default Folder X has been updated to version 4.0.1, including numerous bug fixes, more options for the display (including an old-style gray option for people who don’t like the new HUD look), and more. For complete details, see the release notes. Together was updated to 2.0.7, an update that consisted mainly of bug fixes. Read more about it at the Together download page.

St. Clair Software released Default Folder X 4 today, the next incarnation of the venerable Mac utility. Default Folder X has enhanced the default Mac open and save windows for years, and version 4 is another solid step forward, poviding a new HUD-style interface, support for Quicklook in Open dialogs, Leopard improvements, support for TagBot, improvements to Spotlight comment auto-completion, and much more. Default Folder X is a great utility for anyone who wants a better workflow when saving and opening files, and is an indispensable tool for people rolling their own tagging solution because it allows you to edit a file’s Spotlight comments while you are saving it.

Given the number of excellent enhancements in version 4, Default Folder X is definitely worth checking out. For those who purchased Default Folder X after June 1, 2007, version 4 is a free upgrade. For everyone else it costs $34.95 new or $14.95 upgrade (and for those true old-skoolers who used the Classic version of Default Folder, you can snag it for $19.95). If you’d like to see the full list of changes and improvements, see the Default Folder X Change History.

MacWorld’s Dan Frakes has posted an excellent screencast previewing the upcoming Default Folder X 4.0. Version 4’s main changes are a new HUD-style look to the interface, and QuickLook attached to Open dialogs (a feature that, interestingly enough, will have limited support for OS 10.4, as well). Tag-happy individuals, however, will likely be most interested in Default Folder X’s ability to apply Spotlight comments to files when you save them. If you’re rolling your own tagging solution, Default Folder X can be an indispensable tool.

But don’t wait until version 4! If you want access to some of Default Folder X’s sweet capabilities now, you’re in luck. St. Clair Software has an upgrade policy that will allow you a free upgrade to version 4 if you buy version 3.0.6 now. Version 3 is fully Leopard compatible (as long as you aren’t running any 64-bit apps); it just lacks the translucency. For more information, and to download Default Folder X 3.0.6, see the Default Folder X website.

TagBot, one of the two main Spotlight comment tagging applications, has been updated to 1.1.1. This update at last brings full compatibility with Leopard, allowing you to double click those tags like there’s no tomorrow, and all without crashing the Finder. The update is available via the program’s auto-updating, or from the TagBot website for the impatient.

For more information, please see the TagBot 1.1.1 announcement.

Although not strictly tagging software, Quicksilver, one of the two best application launchers and all-around Mac enhancements (the other being LaunchBar), has been released as open sourced software to the general community. Although the developer has been promising this for quite some time, that it’s actually been accomplished is quite exciting; hopefully some talented programmer with lots of time on their hands will pick up the project and provide a much-need bug fix and overall revamp. Quicksilver is a beautiful piece of software, and one of the staples in many peoples’ do-it-yourself file system tagging systems.

If you yourself are interested in taking a peek at the source code, it is freely available from the BlackTree Google Code site. The current BlackTree release of Quicksilver remains a beta, although it has been updated for 10.5.

Big Robot Software has posted a notice that while TagBot is mostly compatible with Leopard, showing tagged files does not yet function. If you’ve upgraded to Leopard, you’ll still be able to use TagBot to apply and import tags, but until Big Robot is able to release a full bug fix, double clicking a tag in the list will be pretty pointless.

They point out that the incompatibility has no harmful side effects, so you can continue to use TagBot with impunity; you’ll just need to browse your tags some other way (for instance, through the much speedier Spotlight).

Tagamac is launching a new section of the site! Called “Mac tagging”, this section will house articles and more focused on tagging specifically in Mac OS X with desktop software (as opposed to the articles about general tagging principles in the General section or newsbites about software updates).

To kick things off, I’ve got a special treat for you: an interview with Tom Andersen, one of the two developers of Leap, a new application for tagging your file system. I don’t generally go in for interviews, but the recently released Leap public beta made me pretty curious and I decided to head to the source. Tom reveals where Leap is heading before the final 1.0 release, explains why you need to ditch your complex Finder hierarchies, and describes why Cover Flow in Leopard is not actually your friend. [read more...]

The developers of the tag-based PDF file library Yep have just released a public beta of an exciting piece of new file system tagging software called Leap. Leap bills itself as a tag-based Finder replacement, and features an interface that is strongly reminiscent of Yep, but also uses a kind of bastardized child of Spotlight and the Leopard Source list. In a way Leap is a specialized front-end to Spotlight combined with the tag-based file library features of Yep. It also includes some very cool previewing features (the loupe in particular is a nice touch). I’ll be writing a more in-depth look at Leap in the near future, but why wait? Go download it for yourself and see what it’s all about.

Although final pricing has not yet been announced, the developers are offering a free copy of Leap (when released) to anyone who purchases a Yep license during the public beta. I’m pretty jazzed to try Leap, since it’s about time a decent file system tagging system hit the market. Whether Leap can truly replace the Finder, of course, remains to be seen, but hopefully Leap will at the very least encourage other developers to try a few new things when it comes to file system tagging.