Tagamac

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.

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.

Together, the file library formerly known as K.I.T., has been updated to version 2.0.8. This minor update includes the option to automatically launch Together at login coupled with the option to hide Together’s library window on launch, improved performance in numerous areas, and a number of helpful bug fixes and minor UI enhancements. If you find yourself running Together constantly in the background so that you can collect your info and notes in one place, this is a good update to download.

For the full story, see the Together release notes. As always, Together is OS 10.5-only.

Yep, the PDF tagging file library from the makers of Leap, has been updated to version 1.7.6 today. This minor update fixes a Leopard TWAIN bug, a problem where Yep would sometimes stop saving tags if Leap was installed, and a number of other small fixes. Additionally, the trial period has been reset, so if you’ve used up your trial and want to give Yep another go, you’re in luck!

As is common for Ironic Software, there are no release notes available unless you download the program or auto-update, although some details are available via MacUpdate. Yep is $34, or $10 when purchased with Leap (for a total cost of $69).

PackRat has been updated yet again to version 1.6. This version fixes a couple of synching problems with the Backpack API as well as adding a preference for using an SSL connection (instead of having PackRat try to figure out whether it should use SSL on synching).

For more details, see the PackRat 1.6 blog post.

Another MailTags 2.2 public beta has been released, this one marked as release candidate 1. Included in this beta is the option to uninstall MailTags if your trial has expired, a reset to the 21 day trial period for all you who want to continue to play with it without registering, various IMAP bug fixes, and a number of new preference fixes and new options to help with managing your tags.

As always, keep in mind that this is beta software (and won’t run on OS 10.4). For more information and to download the beta, see the MailTags for Leopard beta page.

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...]