Tagamac

Every so often I get emails asking why the heck I’ve never mentioned HoudahSpot on Tagamac, and the answer has always been the same: it doesn’t offer any easy way to work with tags. Fortunately, those days are at an end. HoudahSpot, one of the few Spotlight enhancements that is still actively developed, was recently updated with support for OpenMeta tags such as those used by Tags and Deep, allowing you to build complex search queries involving tags easily and quickly.

HoudahSpot 2 requires Leopard, and is available for $25 with a 14 day free trial. Like other Spotlight enhancers, HoudahSpot gives you an easy way to construct and save complex searches without needing to rely on Apple’s less-than-ideal tools. If you’ve been as miffed at FileSpot’s apparent abandonment, then HoudahSpot definitely deserves your attention.

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.

Pukka, a Delicious and Ma.gnolia client, was updated today to 1.7.2. This minor update brings no new features, instead focusing on performance and speed. Launch time has been decreased, and Pukka’s performance on background tasks has been optimized to make it much faster. (1.7.1 was also recently released, but it mainly contained minor user experience improvements like better keyboard navigation.)

For more information, see the 1.7.2 blog post.

Together has been updated to version 2.1.7. This minor update includes a number of bug fixes, but no new features. Changes include performance improvements for checking for external file changes, allowing shortcut keys to be set to F-keys without modifiers, making sure Together search works after switching libraries, preventing file imports from failing when the folder being imported needs to be renamed, and more.

For full details or to download, check out the release notes.

MacJournal, the journaling/blogging/kitchen sink application from Mariner Software, has been updated to version 5.1. This update adds a number of localizations (Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish), makes tagging easier by providing a context menu to assign tags, allows the user to customize the three pane view (entry list on top, left, or right), includes the ability to create a droplet to easily import anything from the Finder into a specific journal, and includes numerous other handy new features and bug fixes. The update is free to all current users of MacJournal 5; users upgrading from earlier versions of MacJournal will need to purchase an upgrade license for $19.95.

For more information about the update, check the release notes.

PackRat, the desktop companion to Backpack, has been updated to version 1.7. This update fixes image update issues for all users (including PowerPC folks), and improves page rendering time thanks to a change in the libraries powering the software.

For slightly more information, check out the blog announcement.

For any of those not aware (which is probably a small crowd thanks to this update being noted by Gruber and elsewhere), Things touch (the iPhone/iPod Touch version of the Things task manager) has been updated to 1.1. The big addition to this version is that Things can now sync the Things desktop and touch versions over your local wireless network. At long last, Things on my iPhone isn’t going to be a worthless placeholder! Version 1.1 also includes improvements to task entry, an app icon badge, the ability to customize the automatic logging behavior, and localizations into Spanish, French, and Japanese.

Although I haven’t had a chance to try it yet (thanks to the aforementioned trip to San Francisco), I’m really excited to finally be able to hook up Things on my computer (which I use constantly) and Things on my iPhone (which I have launched once when I downloaded it). Unfortunately, Things touch still does not support tags or areas, but Cultured Code is promising those in the near future. For more information about Things touch 1.1, see the Things touch 1.1 announcement.

Thanks to attending An Event Apart I’ve been in San Francisco the past few days and have fallen slightly behind on updates. There have been three minor updates in the somewhat recent past: Default Folder X is now at version 4.0.8 (some minor bug fixes), Together bumped to 2.1.6 (also minor bug fixes), and Pukka 1.7 was released (minor feature improvements to improve compatibility with the new Delicious).

For more information about the updates see the Default Folder X release notes, Together release notes, or Pukka 1.7 announcement.

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.