Tagamac

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.