Tagamac

Both Yep and Nifty Box received very minor updates late last week. Yep 1.8 adds Italian localization and resets the trial period (even if you’ve run through your free trial before you can try it again). Nifty Box 1.2.1 fixes a bug in 1.2 that would sometimes cause Nifty Box to use 100% CPU on Leopard.

Neither software offers release notes, although if you’re interested in details about the Nifty Box bug you can find those in the 1.2.1 blog announcement.

Leap, possibly the best file system tagging solution around, has been updated to version 1.1. This version introduces an Italian localization, the option to search everywhere (including Library folders), better file name searching, better searching for partial tag matches, speed improvements, improved Spaces support, support for Services (you can select an item in Leap and it will be available to items in the Services menu), a new “Search in Leap” service, a “only show these documents” menu item, better handling for pasting into the tags field, and “other bug fixes”. Ironic Software’s descriptive release notes strike again.

Personally, I’d just as soon take my Services menu out back and put it out of its misery, but hopefully the generically described speed improvements and bug fixes will make Leap that much more useful despite the new features not being all that exciting. For more information about Leap or to download the software, head over to the Leap homepage.

Nifty Box, one of those pieces of software that straddles the line between file system tagging and a file library, has been updated to 1.2. The big addition to 1.2 is Applescript support, allowing you to access items in the Nifty Box library or tag files automatically (there’s even an extremely helpful rundown of examples available; wish other developers were so kind).

Although I haven’t played with Nifty Box much, my impressions of it are that it’s not a terribly robust system, but offers a far superior searching speed to Spotlight when it comes to file system tagging. Nifty Box is in many ways a precursor to Leap, but one with an interface more inspired by file libraries like EagleFiler or Together.

A freeware utility called Tag Folders was released today. Tag Folders, which is essentially a complex Applescript bundled as an application, allows you to create smart folders that apply tags to files that you drop on them based on their rules. So for instance, if you have a “work” tag folder and you drop a file on it, that file gets tagged with “work”. Open the folder, and you’ll find the file you just tagged (along with any others tagged “work”). Tag Folders works with all of the major tagging solutions (including Leap, Punakea, TagBot, and the Quicksilver tagging plugin), and offers a Finder-centric way to both assign and find tagged files.

Although I haven’t played around with it much, the application itself is fairly awkward (thanks in large part to being a complex Applescript), but what’s promising about it is the place that it can play in current tagging workflows. Tag Folders provides an interesting meeting place between something like FileSpot and whatever file system tagging solution you prefer, wrapped in a familiar, Finder-like package. Definitely worth checking out for anyone trying to tag their file system.

Default Folder X, a great piece of software and particularly interesting for its helpfulness in home-grown tagging systems, has been updated to version 4.0.7. This minor update includes a fix to allow Spotlight keyword saving in Word 2008 save dialogs, a fix to make sure the recent folders list works in Word 2008 dialogs, and numerous other small bug fixes.

For more details and to download the new version, see the release notes.

Needless to say, I’ve been a bit remiss in my blog updating the past couple weeks. A four-day weekend spent in the mountains with my girlfriend and new Kindle (and no internet or cell phone access) has had a surprisingly lasting effect on my online habits. I hadn’t realized how much effort I was spending on keeping up to date with the interwebs until I took some time off.

In any case, some great software has received incremental updates in the recent past. Together was updated to version 2.1.2 (release notes), EagleFiler was bumped to 1.3.4 (release notes), Leap is now sitting at 1.0.6 (an update that includes Time Machine support, Danish support, and a couple bug/crash fixes), and Default Folder X is now at 4.0.6 (release notes). Enjoy.

Leap, the promising file system tagging solution from Ironic Software, has been updated to version 1.0.5. This minor version is primarily a bug fix release (including fixes for OmniOutliner documents and other custom file types where Spotlight comments would not be set, a new contextual menu for bookmarks, and a crash that could occur when a tag was removed in certain situations), but it also includes at least one fun new feature: you can now exclude tags and file types by command clicking on them in the sidebar, which will turn them red. One of the big annoyances that I have with tagging software is that it usually makes it easy to do AND boolean searches and difficult to do anything else. The ability to do exclusionary searches in Leap with a simple click is definitely welcome.

For more information, you’ll need to view the in-program auto-update notes as Ironic Software does not supply release notes otherwise.

Default Folder X was updated to 4.0.4 yesterday. This minor update includes a number of different bug fixes, including a crash fix caused by entering accented characters in the Spotlight comments box. For more details and to download, see the Default Folder X release notes.

Aside from being an indispensable tool for file system tagging solutions that use Spotlight comments, Default Folder X is a great all-around enhancement to the file system’s save and open dialogs. This is one of those pieces of software that became an irreplaceable part of my workflow as soon as I launched it; I highly recommend it.

Today the MacUpdate “Parallels” Promo was launched. This bundle is a surprisingly good one, and includes a number of useful tagging applications including Leap, StoryMill, and Hazel. The apps that become unlocked if the bundle does well are also extremely appealing (Sound Studio and Parallels Desktop are both apps that I use myself). And MenuCalendarClock iCal is one of those apps that you’ll install and forget it’s there because its functionality should have been written into the OS.

I highly recommend the MacUpdate promo bundle if only for Leap and StoryMill. Leap in particular is probably the best file system tagging solution available, and StoryMill is my favorite creative writing software (and uses tagging for its primary organization). Assuming the bundle sells well enough to unlock all ten apps, you’ll be getting $474.76 worth of software for $65. Most surprising is that more than 50% of the apps are worth buying (normally with these bundles two or three are worthwhile and the rest are all fluff). FYI: the MacUpdate link in this post is an affiliate link because while I would have recommended this bundle anyway, I’d love it if someday Tagamac at least paid for its hosting costs. Click through from here if you want to show me a little love, or just visit MacUpdate on your own if you hate affiliate links in your soul.

I’m a bit behind on the times, but last week Default Folder X was updated to version 4.0.3. This minor update fixes a memory issue in Carbon applications, adds contextual menus to Open and Save dialogs, and includes numerous other minor bug fixes. Definitely worth a download for Default Folder X users, but not much exciting or new to tempt new folks over.

For more information, see the Default Folder X release notes.