Tagamac

Keyword Manager, a standby for iPhoto-related tagging, is on sale today, May 5, 2008 only for 50% off over at MacZot.

Definitely a good deal if you’re interested in an easier way to tag your photos than iPhoto’s built-in keywords functionality. Keyword Manager provides an attractive HUD interface, hierarchical keywords, and more.

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.

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).

StoryMill, my favorite creative writing software that incidentally features tagging, is on sale today March 7, 2008 only for $24.95 at MacZot (50% off the boxed price). This is a great deal; if you’re a fiction writer, I highly recommend taking a look at StoryMill.

People inevitably end up comparing StoryMill to Scrivener, but they’re really very different tools. Scrivener uses the metaphor of a 3×5 index cards and then makes you create your own structure. StoryMill uses the metaphor of scenes within chapters, and provides a structure, which for me at least makes writing easier since I spend less time worrying about how to organize things. StoryMill’s timeline feature is also the only one of its kind in creative writing software at the moment. If you’re a writer, this isn’t a sale you want to miss.

TaskPaper, the ultra-slimmed down task management software from Hog Bay Software, is on sale today, February 25, 2008 only for $12 (down from its current introductory price of $18.95) over at MacZot.

Been a while since MacZot had anything halfway worthwhile, but TaskPaper is definitely a well-designed app. Although TaskPaper isn’t fully-featured enough for me, for some people it’s the perfect minimalist way to keep track of your tasks. Even if you don’t end up buying it, I highly recommend trying to use it for a week just to discover which features actually matter to you in a task management app and which you can happily live without.

WebnoteHappy, probably the best of the Mac bookmark managers, and Booxter, an intriguing alternative to Delicious Library (with admittedly mediocre tag support), are offered as MacSanta featured items today December 8, 2007 only for 20% off with the coupon “MACSANTA07″. If you miss out, though, you’ll still be able to get them for 10% for the rest of December.

I definitely recommend trying out WebnoteHappy if you haven’t already. Although it has some limitations (like only supporting del.icio.us and not my favored Ma.gnolia), it’s still a very nicely designed piece of software with solid tagging support.

Yep, the PDF file library from Ironic Software, has been updated to version 1.7. This version brings full Leap integration (the two programs now recognize changes made in each other), along with numerous fixes and speed improvements. Additionally, German and Chinese localizations have been added to the program for our international friends.

There are no release notes available. Additionally, Yep is on sale as part of the MacUpdate Promo bundle that is running from December 3 - 11, 2007. The bundle potentially features 10 different apps (if the sales are high enough), so if you didn’t spend enough money on MacSanta and Give Good Food to Your Mac head over and check it out.

EagleFiler (and a bunch of other cool, non-tagging apps like SpamSieve and more) is available from MacSanta today December 2, 2007 only for 20% off. Although it will only be a featured deal today, if you miss it you’ll be able to pick it up for 10% off through the end of the MacSanta promotion (December 24th).

The MacSanta sale is definitely a good one to keep your eye on (because you don’t have enough places to spend money in December as is), and they provide an RSS feed for those who like to keep abreast of the latest featured deals.

This is completely off-topic, but I like a good read even more than I like a well-implemented file library (I know, it’s pretty crazy). Bill Cameron, a fellow Avenir user, is giving away five copies of his suspense novel, Lost Dog, in the Give a Dog a Home sweepstakes. Lost Dog is a great read; I’m not a big fan of suspense thrillers or crime/mystery novels (I picked it up because I knew Bill from the Avenir forums), but it was a single-sitting read for me and kept me up way past when I should have gone to bed. Definitely a worthwhile way to spend an evening. Or two, if you’re less obsessed than I.

So take a break from tagging those pesky files, head over to Bill’s website, suggest a name for his lost dog, and win yourself a great novel. Or lose and buy it anyway. Whatever works for you. And with that minor endorsement out of the way, I’ll see if I can’t write something pithy about tagging next.

Many Tricks has released yFlicks 3.0, a movie manager that helps you collect, manage, and watch anything from movies around your Mac to movies off YouTube. yFlicks 2 was alright, but 3 adds “tagging” (which is actually just standard key-value metadata, so it’s not actually tagging), smart groups, automatic metadata assignment via Amazon for full-length movies (including downloading cover images), batch renaming, and many other performance improvements a neat little features. Although the tagging is not what I’d hoped, this is still definitely a worthy piece of software to look into if you would like to enjoy YouTube videos and so forth later without having to engage in fruitless YouTube searches.

Additionally, yFlicks 3 is available today, November 20th, 2007 only for 40% off ($14.95) from MacUpdate Promo. I highly recommend giving yFlicks a spin and considering getting it at the sale price; I’ve enjoyed yFlicks 2, and expect yFlicks 3 to be even more useful. yFlicks 3 is a free upgrade for previously registered users.