While I’m on the topic of the site itself, I’d like to let folks know that I’m aware Tagamac is languishing a bit. I’ve got a reimplementation and redesign of the site in the works, but it’s taking a while to get it up and running thanks to external distractions. In the meantime, things are likely to continue to be slow here for a while; I’ll still publish notable software updates and any articles that I’m inspired to write, but I’ll be letting some of the minor updates slip by unmentioned.

I don’t give up easily, though, and ever since I relaunched Beckism.com (which as of the relaunch is completely authored in MarsEdit) I’ve been noticing that I’m updating Beckism.com more often than Tagamac because it’s easier. It was time to do something about this, particularly because Tagamac is far more popular, so I hacked away at MarsEdit’s plist and will from here on will be authoring Tagamac using MarsEdit instead of WordPress’s web interface. For those in a similar predicament, I’ve written up a guide on migrating images into MarsEdit, published over at Beckism.com.

Check out the new design or read the redesign announcement for yourself! If you’ve visited before, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

I’ve ordered my copy and will post more about it when it arrives. For more information about the book, check out the Tagging companion website. The book is currently for sale through Amazon.com (I’m not sure whether or not you can find it in brick and mortar stores).

In related news, if you’ve been wondering why there haven’t been many updates to Tagamac over the last week or two, feel free to blame StoryMill; I was contracted by Mariner to write the all-new documentation for the program and as the deadline approached it ate up the free time that would otherwise have gone towards a new article or two. (Plus there weren’t any tagging software updates, so I haven’t had any news to post.) Now that sweet freedom beckons, however, I’m hoping to bring you some more articles on tagging to start the year off right and help you meet that New Year’s resolution to tag more. You made that resolution, right?

Things is still not feature-complete, but particularly since the last alpha version (which you can see in my Things screencast) making Things my primary task manager has been a no-brainer thanks to the inclusion of a bug-free Quick Entry window and the ability to link to just about anything in the file system in the notes area of a task. Synching is still MIA and the team features aren’t fully implemented, but if you’re on the preview list, you’re in for a treat (although for many people, it will probably need to mature before you can use it full time).

The developer has stated that he wants to make the upgrade as smooth as possible, and because KIT and Together have incompatible file libraries Together’s library now lives in a new home (your documents folder) and it will offer to import your KIT library the first time you run the program if it finds it. If you just want to try Together but may still use KIT for a while, then just refuse the import; you can always do it later from the File menu.

Although Hawk Wings is usually focused on Mail.app, it also often provides information about productivity software more generally, so even if you’re not a Mail.app fan, check it out!

I’ve got a number of articles in various stages of draft, though, so once the review is out the door you can look forward to more interesting reading than a stream of version numbers and summarized release notes.

Using Tagamac

1. Browsing Tagamac
2. Have it your way

Like tagging, but uninterested in Mac software updates? Like software updates, but hate my opinions/advice on tagging? Only interested in software reviews? We’ve got you covered!

Tagamac offers custom feeds for every section of the site, allowing you to subscribe only to what you want to read. You can choose your preferred subscription from our RSS info page, or use the following links to subscribe to the main sections that were available at the time of this writing.

• General
• Reviews
• Site news
• Software updates

If I ever add a section that you want to subscribe to, simply navigate to the section using the links in the sidebar or archives and add “feed/” to the end of the location in your address bar (so it looks like this: “http://tagamac.com/archives/categoryname/feed/”). Enjoy your customized RSS feed!

However, that also means that I won’t be able to update Tagamac for the next week, and will be horribly remiss if you contact me. I’ve scheduled a couple articles to auto-post, though, so hopefully you won’t be too bereft. I’ll be back actively posting and writing in a few days!

Tagamac now features full text RSS articles. Of course, RSS articles will have ugly formatted images (until/unless I can create a WordPress plugin that inserts inline styles) and if the article falls in a series it won’t include the table of contents, but those hard-core types who never want to leave their RSS reader should now be a bit happier (okay, admittedly I’m one of them). Apologies to all subscribers for taking this long to notice the problem.

Using Tagamac

1. Browsing Tagamac
2. Have it your way

I’ve tried to make Tagamac as simple as possible to navigate, but given that it is a blog content tends to get recycled into the dreaded archives fairly quickly. Hopefully with the following tips and tricks, you’ll find it easy to locate that article that was so helpful in the past that you want to reread.

Although I love lists of three, there’s actually four different features of Tagamac that will hopefully make your life easier when it comes to finding content: the searchbar, sections, tags, and series.

If you are looking for a specific article and you remember what it was about, your best bet is to use the searchbar, located at the top of each page. The search isn’t always the most accurate in the world, but it’s the quickest way to find a specific article. The searchbar will even search static pages, such as my Intro to tags or software list.

If you aren’t looking for something specific, then you might be best off browsing the different sections of the site. Like the main page, they contain the ten most recent posts, but if you only want to see, say, news about software updates then the sections can be very useful. Section links are located in the sidebar, the archives, and at the end of every article next to the date the article was published.

If you are looking for specific topic, such as general advice about tagging, then the site’s tag cloud is a good place to look. There you can browse all articles that match a specific tag, and since most of the tags I use for articles represent discrete topics, you’ll likely get the kind of articles you’re looking for. The tag cloud is linked in the sidebar, or specific tags are attached to the end of every article.

I also group related articles into series. If an article is in a series, you’ll find a table of contents on the article’s permalink page and links at the bottom to navigate to the next and previous articles in the series. For instance, this article is in the “Using Tagamac” series, so you’ll find a table of contents at the top of the page. I link to most of the main series on the site on the Intro to tags page.

Additionally, although it’s almost not worth mentioning, you can use the monthly archive, available via the archives. The monthly archives are exactly like the main page, only sorted by month. If you just want to browse without any purpose, they are your best bet.

My goal is to keep all the terms I use either immediately obvious or simple enough that someone who has no experience with tagging can pick them up easily. Regardless of whether I achieve that goal, I figure a glossary for reference can never hurt. Plus it makes me feel so important (“I have my own glossary! Whoopee! Who needs grad school, anyway?”).

You can look forward to updates on all of the Mac software that uses tags (that I’ve found, anyway), reviews of Mac tagging software, and general information about tagging that will hopefully be useful even for those who do not use tags on the Mac.

Although this may seem odd, at least at first I will not be discussing tags as an internet phenomenon. Tags may have gained their primary impetus through collaborative online spaces, but I have found that at least for me, the intrigue and the challenge of tags is less how I can use them online (which generally is fairly straight-forward) and more about how I can integrate them into the organization on my computer. Perhaps I will begin to look at tags online more in the future, but for now Tagamac is just like its name sounds: tagging on the Mac.

I hope you enjoy! The easiest way to read Tagamac is to subscribe via RSS (link at the top of the page). If you aren’t sure what RSS is all about, please read about RSS, including recommendations for RSS software. Also, I would love to hear your feedback on the site, the content, the design, or what you had for breakfast today. Please think about contacting me.