Tagamac

Default Folder X, one of the applications I find absolutely essential to my workflow, is on sale today, October 27, 2008 only for $19.95 over at the MacUpdate Promo.

Default Folder X has a slew of great features, but the one interesting to taggers is that you can define Spotlight comments when you save a file. This is possibly the best way to maintain a tagging system, since tagging when you save removes the need to go back over your files and organize them (which is unlikely to happen for most of us). If you haven’t tried Default Folder X yet, I strongly recommend it even for those people who aren’t interested in file system tagging. This is one of those applications that I wasn’t really sure if I needed, but then after I’d used it for a few days wondered how I’d survived without it.

This one deserves its own post: EagleFiler has been updated to version 1.4. This free update includes a tag cloud window, the ability to search within individual PDFs or web archives, preferences for importing Spotlight comments, the ability to display Word 2007 docs (.docx) and OpenDocument Text (.odt) under 10.5, the ability to capture from several third-party email clients and competitor Together, a slew of other improvements and fixes, and finally (drum roll, please)…custom smart folders! At long last, EagleFiler supports smart folders, and boy was it worth the wait. Smart folders in EagleFiler 1.4 can be organized into other folders, include an arbitrary number of conditions optionally nested within Any/All/None criteria, and best of all you can attach “actions” to smart folders. For example, if you have a smart folder that searches for all items with the tags “task, today” a normal action allows you to drop a document on the smart folder and have those tags added to it automatically. The only big downside of smart folders is that you can only create and edit them if you’re running 10.5. They will be usable under 10.4, but you won’t be able to modify them.

Despite its unprepossessing version number, EagleFiler 1.4 is a big and worthwhile update to an already fantastic product. For a full run-down of the many changes and additions in version 1.4, take a look at the release notes. If you have never given EagleFiler a try, now would be an excellent time to give it a whirl.

Once again I find myself slightly behind on the times, this time thanks to moving (no longer in a wasteland of apartments, I’m now living in lower Queen Anne; the difference is night and day). Some minor updates that may prove of interest include Shoebox 1.7.4, MarsEdit 2.2.1, PackRat 1.7.3, and Things 0.9.5. Shoebox now apparently has better Photoshop integration; MarsEdit fixes a number of bugs and introduces better AtomPub support; PackRat fixed some problems with Textile conversion; and Things now allows you to sort tasks by due date (along with bug fixes). Things also has a tentative release date: January 2009 at the MacWorld expo.

For more details about the MarsEdit update, see the 2.2.1 blog announcement. For more info about Things see the release notes or 0.9.5 blog announcment. The other software didn’t provide much in the way of release notes.

My favorite desktop wiki, VoodooPad, has been updated to version 3.5.2. This update includes a number of bug fixes and adds a few minor features such as the ability to specific an external image editor or open a rich text link using command-L. For a full list of changes, see the release notes.

VoodooPad’s tagging support is extremely basic, but it’s still one of my favorite applications when it comes to collecting ideas and seeing how they interconnect. Hopefully the upcoming VoodooPad 4.0 will offer better tagging in addition to whatever else Gus Mueller has up his sleeves.

PackRat, the desktop frontend for 37signal’s Backpack, has received a price drop from $24.95 to $14.95.

Aside from the benefit of an OS X rather than web-based interface, PackRat also offers the ability to access your Backpack information offline. For more details about the program, see the PackRat website.