Tagamac

Apologies to folks for the dead RSS feed that’s been hanging around for the past month; I switched hosts at the beginning of January, and the transition has been more rocky than I expected (thanks to the host not doing some standard things like providing easy emailing via PHP or standard server variables, but not notifying customers adequately). I’ve fixed the problems that were interfering with the Tagamac feed, though, and since things have been slow recently you haven’t missed much.

While I’m on the topic of the site itself, I’d like to let folks know that I’m aware Tagamac is languishing a bit. I’ve got a reimplementation and redesign of the site in the works, but it’s taking a while to get it up and running thanks to external distractions. In the meantime, things are likely to continue to be slow here for a while; I’ll still publish notable software updates and any articles that I’m inspired to write, but I’ll be letting some of the minor updates slip by unmentioned.

I’ve been a fan of MarsEdit since the second version was released recently, but I was never able to use it for Tagamac for two reasons: 1) terrible tagging support, and 2) no access to the shareware icon images that I use so often in news updates. The first issue was addressed by version 2.1, which implemented a standard tagging interface. The second was a bit more difficult. Daniel Jalkut, the developer, has said that he’s planning on providing some migration mechanism to get images from a weblog into MarsEdit’s media manager, but currently if you need this you’re out of luck.

I don’t give up easily, though, and ever since I relaunched Beckism.com (which as of the relaunch is completely authored in MarsEdit) I’ve been noticing that I’m updating Beckism.com more often than Tagamac because it’s easier. It was time to do something about this, particularly because Tagamac is far more popular, so I hacked away at MarsEdit’s plist and will from here on will be authoring Tagamac using MarsEdit instead of WordPress’s web interface. For those in a similar predicament, I’ve written up a guide on migrating images into MarsEdit, published over at Beckism.com.

This has nothing to do with tagging. Sorry. I’m in the process of writing a couple awesome articles, if you care, but they aren’t ready for public consumption. Anyway, while I may write about tagging a lot here on Tagamac, I also have another place on the web where I write stuff called Beckism.com. I tend to write about web design, Mac software, fiction, and occasionally me. Basically the stuff in my life that I care about that isn’t tagging.

Check out the new design or read the redesign announcement for yourself! If you’ve visited before, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Gene Smith, a consultant specializing in information architecture, just published Tagging: People-Powered Metadata for the Social Web. Although the book appears to focus primarily on how to design a collaborative tagging system online, it may well be of interest if you just want to know more about the current thoughts on tagging as a social phenomenon.

I’ve ordered my copy and will post more about it when it arrives. For more information about the book, check out the Tagging companion website. The book is currently for sale through Amazon.com (I’m not sure whether or not you can find it in brick and mortar stores).

Mariner Software today released StoryMill 3.0 at MacWorld. StoryMill (previously called Avenir) adds a new timeline view for tracking scenes in chronological time as well as narrative order, provides vastly improved customizable export templates for exporting text from anywhere in the project, integrates scene text and chapter text, and like Avenir before it still uses tags and smart views for powerful and simple organization. If you are a writer, I strongly recommend StoryMill; although its structure is most conducive for fiction and creative non-fiction, it is an excellent piece of software and provides powerful features that can help with any writing project (not to mention that as of its release, no other creative writing software on the market for Mac has anything like its timeline view). StoryMill is available as a download version for $44.95, and owners of Avenir can upgrade for $14.95. A boxed version is forthcoming, and will cost $49.95.

In related news, if you’ve been wondering why there haven’t been many updates to Tagamac over the last week or two, feel free to blame StoryMill; I was contracted by Mariner to write the all-new documentation for the program and as the deadline approached it ate up the free time that would otherwise have gone towards a new article or two. (Plus there weren’t any tagging software updates, so I haven’t had any news to post.) Now that sweet freedom beckons, however, I’m hoping to bring you some more articles on tagging to start the year off right and help you meet that New Year’s resolution to tag more. You made that resolution, right?

Public preview invitations for the alpha version of Things, the tag-based GTD app from Cultured Code, have begun to be distributed. If you’re already on the preview list you should already have received your invite or be receiving it soon-ish (I’m not sure whether invitations are being sent out in bulk or in waves).

Things is still not feature-complete, but particularly since the last alpha version (which you can see in my Things screencast) making Things my primary task manager has been a no-brainer thanks to the inclusion of a bug-free Quick Entry window and the ability to link to just about anything in the file system in the notes area of a task. Synching is still MIA and the team features aren’t fully implemented, but if you’re on the preview list, you’re in for a treat (although for many people, it will probably need to mature before you can use it full time).

As a major upgrade to KIT (and a worthy upgrade it is), Together 2.0 has increased slightly in price from $24.95 to $39. People who bought a KIT license in the last three months (after Aug. 15, 2007) will get a free upgrade; just go to the Reinvented Store, choose the “upgrade” option for Together, and enter your old serial. Other KIT owners will need to upgrade for $14.95, roughly the difference in price.

The developer has stated that he wants to make the upgrade as smooth as possible, and because KIT and Together have incompatible file libraries Together’s library now lives in a new home (your documents folder) and it will offer to import your KIT library the first time you run the program if it finds it. If you just want to try Together but may still use KIT for a while, then just refuse the import; you can always do it later from the File menu.

Although this has nothing to do with tagging, Hawk Wings, a blog dedicated to Mail.app and all things email, has returned after a long absence with a steady stream of articles and links to handy Leopard-friendly Mail.app plugins. I strongly recommend Hawk Wings; it’s a great resource if you use email a lot (particularly if you’re into Apple’s Mail.app), and besides that it was a big inspiration behind my creation of Tagamac.

Although Hawk Wings is usually focused on Mail.app, it also often provides information about productivity software more generally, so even if you’re not a Mail.app fan, check it out!

I just wanted to apologize to everyone who reads Tagamac for not having gotten a real article out the door in a while (software updates are alright, but they can’t substitute for an actual article). I very recently switched from freelance web design to a salaried web design, so my time has become marginally less my own, and I’m also working on a software review.

I’ve got a number of articles in various stages of draft, though, so once the review is out the door you can look forward to more interesting reading than a stream of version numbers and summarized release notes.

Like tagging, but uninterested in Mac software updates? Like software updates, but hate my opinions/advice on tagging? Only interested in software reviews? We’ve got you covered!

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