Tagamac

StoryMill, my favorite place to craft longer fiction, has been updated to version 3.2. This update includes numerous improvements, but my personal favorite is the new project-wide find and replace. Although it’s been a long time in coming, StoryMill’s find and replace is possibly the best implementation I’ve ever used outside of powerful (and user-unfriendly) text editors, and uses the type of modeless window that users of Textmate or Xcode will recognize to serve up detailed and contextual information about exactly what your search has found, allowing you to make replacements with confidence. (Special Tagamac tip: if you find more hits than you were expecting, you can toggle all of the items closed by holding down option while you click any of the disclosure arrows.) Other new features include the ability to use European-style dates, Quick Look support for StoryMill files, and text zooming available in all views (rather than just the chapter view).

For a full list of changes, see the 3.2 forum announcement. StoryMill 3.2 is a free update for owners of StoryMill.

MailTags has been updated to version 2.2.2 (or possibly 2.2.3; the release notes disagree with the rest of the site). This minor release mainly includes enhancements to improve efficiency when working with Mail Act-On and IMAP, but also includes numerous bug fixes and adds seven days to expired trial versions for those who want to try out the new features and fixes.

For full details, check out the release notes.

VoodooPad 4 has at last been released, and although tagging is still something of a sideshow (categories have officially been renamed from tags, but the interface is virtually identical) the update is well worth checking out. VoodooPad is one of those programs that is fantastically easy to learn (open a document, create a link for a new page; just like every wiki on the web) and yet offers so many different ways to configure it that the main limit on how you use it is your imagination.

The big new feature in VoodooPad 4 is the ability to sync documents across multiple computers (and even provide a web interface for iPhones) as long as you have a WebDAV server available (like a MobileMe iDisk). This version also includes a system-wide hotkey to append text to any page in an open document, a reworked (and very slick) interface including a single unified palette, and all of the greatness that was VoodooPad 3 still alive and kicking. I highly recommend VoodooPad for anyone who needs to store and organize just about any text-based information. For full details about the update, see the release notes. VoodooPad 4 comes in three flavors (lite, standard, pro) priced accordingly, and is available for an upgrade fee or, for those who bought version 3 after August 1, 2008, for free.

Although I’ve been using it since its release, I evidently forgot to remark on the fact that Together has been updated to version 2.2 (and soon after bumped to 2.2.1). This version is a major point release that includes a mixture of new features—notably intelligent auto-tagging, the ability to nest tags in bundles, and the ability to nest groups and smart groups in folders—and a large number of minor improvements—which are frankly too numerous to list, but affect everything from groups and tabs to previews and imports and beyond.

This is another great update to an already excellent program, and since most of the big improvements have to do with how you view and use tags Together 2.2 is definitely worth another look for anyone who needs a simple way to tag and track their files. For complete details on the update, see the release notes or the 2.2 blog announcement.

Several programs received minor updates in the tail end of October and the beginning of November. Hazel, a useful utility for automatically handling your files, was updated to version 2.2.3. This update includes minor interface changes, bug fixes, and the ability to use “match/does not match” with “Source URL/Address”. EagleFiler was updated to version 1.4.1, and then soon after to 1.4.2. 1.4.1 included numerous bug fixes and minor feature improvements and 1.4.2 fixed a couple issues that apparently slipped through the cracks. Lastly, PackRat was updated to version 1.7.5, a version which fixes two 10.5 specific problems with Applescript and the Synchronize with Backpack Automator option.

For more information, see the Hazel release notes, EagleFiler’s 1.4.1 and 1.4.2 blog posts, or PackRat’s 1.7.5 blog announcement.

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.