Recommendation for reference material: Together 2.0
 

I've tried a whole bunch of different apps for storing reference material (Yojimbo, DevonThink, Notebook, etc.) and have recently settled on [URL="http://reinventedsoftware.com/together/"]Together 2.0[/URL] (I have no relationship with the company that makes it). It's $40 and Leopard only.

For one thing, it's a very Mac-looking app that's a pleasure to use. But the killer feature for me is the ability to preview the contents of all file types that are supported by QuickLook in Leopard so I can quickly see what's in my files without opening the app: txt, pdf, MS Office, iWork, Mail.app's .eml files, web archives, etc.

Even better, there have been recent updates to some of my key apps to support QuickLook: OmniGraffle, OmniPlan, and MindManager.

Sure, I could use the Finder to browse in QuickLook/CoverFlow, but I find Together's iTunes-like interface to be much better for previewing.

It also stores all your documents in a Finder folder structure, not in a giant proprietary database like Yojimbo.

A downside is that it's not quite as snappy and sturdy feeling as DevonThink and Yojimbo. I'm not sure how it'll scale up to really large libraries.

[QUOTE=richlin71;32349]
It also stores all your documents in a Finder folder structure, not in a giant proprietary database like Yojimbo.[/QUOTE]

Just a small correction: Yojimbo does store its a documents in a giant database, but it's not proprietary. It's an [URL="http://www.sqlite.org/"]SQLite[/URL] database. SQLite is as open as can be (it's actually public domain) and you can (if you are so inclined) open the Yojimbo database without Yojimbo, using the Mac OS X command line SQLite client (/usr/bin/sqlite3).

JP

Eagle Filer
 

I'm surprised I haven't heard anyone mention Eagle Filer.

Journler
 

or

[COLOR=Blue][URL]http://www.journler.com[/URL][/COLOR]

Price just went up, but it is still a good value.

It looks like if you did a lot of set up work --- it could serve as a gtd program

active forum --- always a nice asset[COLOR=RoyalBlue](as it is here)[/COLOR]

and people writing applescripts

I went from Yojimbo to KIT (the predecessor of Together) to EagleFiler, and I've been very happy with EagleFiler.

I also like Together. I have been using DevonThink Pro for ages, but it is too easy to fill it with cr@p
Together is so easy to use - a tab at the side of the screen anf a drag and drop later - it's there

I'm looking at both Together and EagleFiler right now - any additional insight would be much appreciated!

Mark

While Together looks nicer than EagleFiler, it's two major downfalls as far as I can tell are:

1. Uses Spotlight for searching which can be slow (EagleFiler maintains it's own index and so is much quicker).
2. No importing or exporting to file's spotlight comments field for tags (although I understand this is planned for v2.1).

The benefit of Together over EagleFiler is that it looks way better, it's tag management within the program is nicer, and it uses Quick Look to display file previews.

About Quicklook and EagleFiler: I found an old thread from November asking about it, and the developer said it would be implemented. I asked when we could expect it and he said it will be in 1.3 (current version is 1.2.7). The thread is here: [url]http://c-command.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4421#post4421[/url]

One other feature I also use a lot in EagleFiler is the importing of mail. I have too much mail for Mail.app, and archiving away in EF is very useful.

[QUOTE]I also like Together. I have been using DevonThink Pro for ages, but it is too easy to fill it with cr@p[/QUOTE]

That makes absolutely no sense. You are in control of what you put in any database. How can you blame that on the software? Should they make it more difficult to add things?

[QUOTE]Together is so easy to use - a tab at the side of the screen anf a drag and drop later - it's there[/QUOTE]

Nothing new. Yojimbo had that first.

[QUOTE=Zoolok;32375]I also like Together. I have been using DevonThink Pro for ages, but it is too easy to fill it with cr@p[/QUOTE]

Not sure what you are trying to say regarding DTP. It certainly can scale as I have one database that is topping 15 GB, and there are others on the devon forums with much bigger databases as I recall. Search is still snappy for me, but I did take pains to classify data into a fairly fine grained hierarchical folder system.

If you just want to throw a ton of unrelated stuff into a few folders, I will agree that DTP is not the product for you. Of course, I'm not sure if any product is going to help with that sort of filing system . . . ;)

I use Devon Think Pro Office for all things needing to be in a filing cabinet (bills, credit card statements, scanned in - DTPO is great for that, and lots of other long term items to be filed away).

I've used Thoughts to store on-the-fly notes, full or part images of web sites, anything else that is "temporary" or needs to be accessed frequently.

I've begun testing Eagle Filer, and while it doesn't seem to be as good for jotting down notes as Together, it does support MetaTags. I use Leap and Tags for tagging files, and it's now important for my filing apps to support these tags. Together and DTPO do not, instead they support their own version of tags. The tags are important for files and other content that don't fit into a folder-like hierarchy, which is why EagleFiler's support of metatags looks attractive. The way I use DTPO, tagging is not important.

Oh, and I use PersonalBrain for thoughts that are interrelated with other thoughts. I use that for information that I may not be able to find if tagged, since I may not be looking for a specific item or I may have forgotten what the item is about (hence I can't do a search).

[QUOTE=pvonk;70362]I've begun testing Eagle Filer, and while it doesn't seem to be as good for jotting down notes as Together, it does support MetaTags. I use Leap and Tags for tagging files, and it's now important for my filing apps to support these tags. Together and DTPO do not, instead they support their own version of tags. The tags are important for files and other content that don't fit into a folder-like hierarchy, which is why EagleFiler's support of metatags looks attractive. The way I use DTPO, tagging is not important.[/QUOTE]

The next beta of DTP (expect it any day now) will include OpenMeta tags.

[QUOTE=Greg Jones;70365]The next beta of DTP (expect it any day now) will include OpenMeta tags.[/QUOTE]

That's great news! However, I do also like the folder structure of data stored in EagleFiler. DTPO stores files in a package (which I'm will to accept, since that's basically a folder), but the folder structure inside the package loses the folder structure given by the interface. All files of the same type are stored in one folder. The interface structure is stored in the database files. EagleFiler maintains the folder structure within the main folder and it corresponds with the interface structure - in other words the folder structure presented by the app is the same structure used when filing files in finder's folders. That's one plus if one is to abandon EagleFiler and want to easily retrieve the files to be stored in another database. I just went through all that with Together.