Tagamac

I know that it’s Totally Lame that I haven’t written a significant article in a long while for Tagamac and now I’m giving you an off-topic, but work has been heinous and updates to tagging software slow. ‘Nuff said; on to the news: 1Passwd, an amazingly useful program that keeps track of your passwords for you, is on sale today, October 11th, 2007 for 33% off over at the MacUpdate Promo.

Although it has absolutely nothing to do with tagging, I strongly recommend 1Passwd for anyone who uses the internet with a Mac. The developers are working on some pretty awesome stuff for the upcoming updates, too, so now would be a great time to buy it on the cheap.

Merlin Mann over at 43 Folders asked me to share some of my tagging feng shui with him and his readers. The result is a little how-to article on building a consistent tagging system called Becoming a tagging kung-fu master. It’s a rather good read, if I do say so myself, with similar ideas to The what and a couple other articles in the “Tagging guidelines” series.

For visitors from 43 Folders exploring Tagamac for the first time, welcome! you might want to check out Tagging best practices (the site’s most popular article to date), Easy choices (a short counterpoint to some of the thoughts from the 43 Folders article and my previous “The what” article), or the software reviews. There is also a list of the most popular articles in the archives.

Keyword Manager, the iPhoto tagging plugin, has been updated to 1.3.2. The only change to the software is that it now works with iPhoto 7.1.

Head over to the Bullstorm website to download the most recent version.

Tagamac has been upgraded to WordPress 2.3, a release of the venerable open source blogging platform mostly notable for its inclusion of tagging. No longer shall bloggers be forced to suffer through Ultimate Tag Warrior’s bizarre installation and mountains of options. Tagging your blog posts is now officially supported.

Well, sort of. Unfortunately, WordPress 2.3 is very bare bones when it comes to tags. No auto-completion. No cloud underneath your editing window. You have to either remember all of your tags, or just go for broke with the random method. [read more...]

KIT, a friendly tag-based file library, has been updated to version 1.3.9. This minor release includes Growl 1.1 in the bundle and fixes several minor problems and Leopard compatibility issues.

For more information or to download the latest version, please see the KIT release notes.

InfiniteNIL, the developer of PackRat, is looking for beta testers. The PackRat beta has been updated to interface with the latest Backpack changes, and will now present your items in the same order as on Backpack. Additionally, the developer is offering free licenses to beta testers who “prove useful”. Although you probably won’t be able to get a free license by signing up and submitting a single bug, if you like Backpack and are good at beta testing it may be worth your while.

You can read more about the beta test on infiniteNIL’s blog, or shoot an email to rod obfuscate@infinitenil.com to request a spot in the beta test.

I like to think about things. I especially like thinking about things logically, piece-by-piece. Tagamac itself is a great example of this; it seems to me that most blogs get started because someone thinks to themselves, “I wanna blog about Spam!” (or whatever random topic) and sits down and does it. I thought to myself, “Gee, tagging is swell!” and then sat down and methodically listed out the things that I would write about. Seriously; I’ve got the OmniOutliner documents to prove it.

This tendency also translates into my advice on tagging. When I came up with the idea of “the what“, it was because I had sat down and tried to think of the most efficient way to tag. The article didn’t come from a system; the system came from the article. But mine is not the only way. [read more...]

Although it isn’t strictly a tagging app, VoodooPad has been updated to version 3.2.1. VoodooPad is a Wiki-style notepad that recently began offering tag-style categories as one of its side features. This update includes a large number of bug fixes and feature improvements. Most notably from my point of view is new support for linking to email messages via MailTags’ message:// protocol.

Even if it isn’t very strong on tagging, VoodooPad is still one of my favorite applications for brainstorming and idea generation, and is definitely worth checking out if you haven’t previously. For more information about the 3.2.1 release, see the release notes.

Although I didn’t know a big sale was coming when I wrote it, I reviewed FileSpot three days ago and now it’s on sale today, September 19th, 2007 for 40% off at the MacUpdate Promo.

FileSpot is a fantastic program that I highly recommend for everyone, and you can’t beat today’s price. Check out my review if you want the full scoop, or download the program for yourself and marvel at how easy it makes using Spotlight.

FileSpot ($20) is distinguished, highly recommended, and Tagamac’s choice. I have assigned it an arbitrary numerical rating of 9 out of 10. (about Tagamac’s rating system)

Straight to the point: FileSpot is a Spotlight utility whose simple and intuitive interface makes amazingly powerful searches available to everyday users in a way that Spotlight never dreamed of. Despite some minor flaws, FileSpot is a tool that should be downloaded by anyone who searches their computer. [read more...]