Tags ($29) from Gravity Apps could well be the answer to a lot of peoples prayers, but at the same time it could be ‘yet another’ addiction/distraction that will keep you occupied for hours, but not really achieve that much for you!
I love the idea of Tags, but I hate them at the same time!!! The idea of having every file, photo, email, and folder Tagged is extremely appealing, the thought of having to do them all, or even worse have some Tagged and some not as you start using the application brings me out in a cold sweat. But that is me, and my compusive need to have everything sorted straight away.
Assuming that unlike me you are a calm, patient, rational Mac user then I think that Tags could well be for you. It works with applications that support applescript, so popular applications that you may have that it will work with include: Finder, Address Book, Safari, TextEdit, Rapidweaver, Pages, Quicktime, Mail, iPhoto, Office, Xcode, Omnioutliner and Keynote. Rather significanty Firefox desn’t work with Tags at the moment due to some bug with Firefox, but they have logged a request so ‘wait and see’ on that one.
The spotlight integration (tags: reviews) is very useful indeed, and for many will be the feature that persuades them that Tags is a ‘must have’ application. Fans of smart folders and mailboxes will no doubt argue that is the ‘killer feature’. For me they are both very cool, and very symbolic of the thought that has gone into the application. Being honest it is a little fussy to use at first, which is ironic due to its overall simplicity and clean design, but I think that is more a caseof getting used to having it and using it than anything specific about the design or functionality of the application.
The bottom line though is that you are either into Tags or you aren’t. If you are then I think this is a pretty good solution for Mac users, if you aren’t then ……… why you still reading this????