Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Productivity
Tags takes organization to a new level
The idea of tagging files as an organization and project management method has been around for some time now, and we've mentioned applications in the past (FileSpot, TagBot, Punakea ... ) which touched on some useful applications for the tagging method. A truly seamless, system-wide implementation, however, has been hard to find. Back at WWDC, Gravity applications gave me a taste of a new application which takes the concept to a new level. Tags, finally released yesterday, provides a hotkey-triggered HUD which allows tagging and searching from a wide range of applications, including:
- Finder and Path Finder
- Address Book
- iPhoto
- Safari
- Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.)
- Adobe Photoshop
- Xcode
- Rapidweaver
- Omnioutliner
- Pages and Keynote
- Quicktime
Tags uses Spotlight metadata instead of the old Spotlight comments method. Files tagged with Tags are immediately indexed in Spotlight, allowing for searches and Smart Folders outside of Tags, as well as integration with other Spotlight-enabled applications. Its keyword storage method is directly compatible with Ironic Software's Deep, and the same method is planned for use in Leap, eventually. Ironic has actually just announced OpenMeta, an open source library for accessing and modifying this kind of metadata (more on that coming soon).
Read on for more on the concepts behind Tags.
Tags also has a little bit of AppleScript-fu. A simple "apply" command lets you tag files from a script (or the command line), allowing Tags to be implemented in otherwise incompatible applications. This can be taken even further, if you're OC enough to hack away at it (I am). For example, I currently have a setup which allows me to tag web pages as I'm browsing, marking them for archiving in Together. When the script is run, it finds all of the marked files, which also have tags specifying their import format (PDF, Archive, Bookmark), and archives them into Together, removing the import markers upon successful import. This is the beginning of a Midnight Inbox-style system-wide inbox.
If you have a tagging system in place, Tags can import your current tags from Spotlight comments and keywords. The AppleScript command also makes it easy to convert any set of tags which AppleScript can collect. You can even use Folder Actions to auto-tag files, if you like.
Tags is priced at $29US. Gravity Apps has graciously offered a 15% discount ($24.65US) to TUAW readers, just use the coupon code TUAW at checkout. The coupon is valid until 1/31/2009. A full overview (with excellent screencasts) and a free trial download are available at Gravity's site.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jeff Garbers said 1:06PM on 1-19-2009
This looks very cool - downloading the eval now. It sure looks like something that should be built into OS X. Maybe Apple will do a CoverFlow-like acquisition...?
Odd that the default hotkey is Ctrl-Space, which is also Quicksilver's default. You'd think that a lot of folks interested in Tags would also be Quicksilver users...
Reply
Brett Terpstra said 1:52PM on 1-19-2009
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I brought the ctrl-space issue up during beta testing, but it's so simple to change your shortcut that I didn't push the issue. It's a valid point, though; we'll have to see if Gravity jumps in here with a response to that...
Tom Andersen said 1:27PM on 1-19-2009
Tags looks nice. It uses a new open source tagging, rating, and other metadata tool set called 'OpenMeta'. Please see http://www.ironicsoftware.com and the google code page:
http://code.google.com/p/openmeta/
Also - we have released a new free tagging application, 'Tagger'.
--Tom
Reply
Brett Terpstra said 1:43PM on 1-19-2009
Actually, it's not using the OpenMeta tool set, yet (I did link OpenMeta above). The keys Tags uses were changed prior to release to work with the standard, and the toolkit will probably be incorporated in the future, according to the developers.
I was just playing around with your CLI tool, it's an excellent addition!
Claudio said 1:37PM on 1-19-2009
Can't you just use the Spotlight Comments that is available in get Info to embed keywords and or descriptions?
Reply
Brett Terpstra said 1:50PM on 1-19-2009
1. Comments are stored in .DS_Store files, and disaster is always possible when files are moved, especially over networks.
2. DefaultFolderX and apps like Leap make such tagging fluid, but it's not easily usable from applications like Safari, Mail and Address Book.
3. If the OpenMeta standard mentioned above is well-accepted, prefixed Spotlight Comments will quickly be replaced by something everyone can agree is a more suitable solution, and tags will be readable across a variety of applications and interfaces (like Leap, Deep, Finder, etc.)
jln said 1:37PM on 1-19-2009
This looks just great. Really excited to give it a try !
Reply
Tom Andersen said 1:53PM on 1-19-2009
Spotlight comments for tagging have a number of serious drawbacks:
Spotlight often gets confused and refuses to index tags in the comments section.
There is no standard for tagging in the comments. A few conventions, but nothing useful for 'the big time'.
Spotlight comments are supposed to be for comments!
I have spent days trying to get truly reliable performance from spotlight comments. They are a messy crutch. Plus don't forget that this OpenMeta thing supports ratings, authors, etc, etc...
--Tom
Reply
BLUEFROG said 4:14PM on 1-19-2009
Paul Kim at Noodlesoft (Hazel) is looking at OpenMeta support and hopefully we can get Philip Dow (Journler) to join in.
We are really looking forward to the knowledge, support, and contributions of other developers in the Mac community for fine-tuning OpenMeta.
Reply
Jono said 4:33PM on 1-19-2009
This looks great.
For adding tags it's the best thing I've seen :)
For searching tagged content doesn't seem quite so good (e.g. if a tag returns a lot of results scrolling though all those results in that small window isn't ideal). But saying that this is a 1.0 release so maybe things will be improved in the future?
Using this to tag files & Leap to search/manage them (once the OpenMeta version is released) looks like it could be a great system.
Reply
Scott Morrison said 7:36PM on 1-19-2009
OpenMeta does look nice and I will definitely look at OpenMeta support in MailTags.
Can anyone speak to the resiliency of xattr data when restoring from backups?
One cautionary note about tagging mail messages with Tags: When you move messages to different folders, Mail doesn't simply move the cache file (emlx file) as a file system move. Rather, it reads in the contents of the cache file and writes out a new cache file in the new location. Consequently tags stored in the xattr data are NOT moved with the message because Mail is unaware of them.
Likewise, when you rebuild a mailbox or import messages (often from a backup) the xattr (tag) data is not preserved because it involves creating new cache files, not merely moving or copying files (with their xattr data)
Reply
Foodfreak said 11:19AM on 2-02-2009
you might want to have a look at punakea :-)
Reply
Patrick said 10:27AM on 2-10-2009
Hi Brett,
I wonder if you could share your hacky AppleScrips?
Thanks in advance
Reply