Friday, March 25, 2011
Up until now, I haven't used an everything bucket (though I have talked about them a bit in contrasting them to Pear Note). I never saw the use for them. Like Alex Payne, the filesystem was plenty for me. Why would I need an application to organize my stuff when that's exactly what the filesystem already does?
The problem
Recently I rethought this position, though it wasn't on purpose. I was struggling keeping track of helpful docs/references I kept finding. Most of these were blog posts, though some were PDFs. Up until this point, I'd just been bookmarking the web pages in Safari and storing the PDFs in a folder on my local drive. This led to some problems:
- Unsearchable bookmarks - I'm a big fan of using search to find things. Searching local bookmarks is not very useful, as you're just searching the title and URL, rather than the contents. Consequently, I usually ended up searching the Internet for something I'd already found and bookmarked.
- Websites go away - Occasionally, a useful resource will go offline temporarily or permanently. Bookmarks don't store content, so I lost that content.
- Two places - Storing resources in multiple places sometimes meant I spent way too much time looking in one place (e.g. my bookmarks) only later to realize that what I was looking for was in a PDF on my local drive all along.
My first thought of how to solve these problems was to stop bookmarking locally and start using a fancy bookmarking site like delicious. Given the recent doubt about delicious's future, I looked at some of its alternatives. Pinboard seemed like the best choice, and they even had an option to archive all the things you bookmark for $25/year (solving #2 above). I was about ready to pull the trigger on this, when I remembered those old everything buckets.
The problem I had with using Pinboard for this was that it could only handle things on the Internet. Anything else that I create, have locally, or get privately, would be unreachable. So, I'd still end up with things in multiple places. If only there were something that could store anything... Perhaps I had a use for an everything bucket after all. And what better way to pick one than a good old bake-off.
The contenders
Pros
- Exists everywhere I care (Mac, iPhone, iPad)
Cons
- I really don't like the UI on any of the devices, especially not the Mac
- Primary means of saving web content is "web clipping" which is clunky and not what I'm looking for
- Free account is very limited in file types, space, file size, and where it will search
- Pro account is still limited in file size
- Pro account costs $45/year, which would add up
I actually didn't look into Shovebox. I make it a policy to only introduce software into my workflow that is actively being developed. Shovebox hasn't been updated in 1.5 years. So, it was out of the running. Too bad, as I already had a license from a bundle they were a part of.
Pros
- Has an iPad app (though it is currently read-only)
- Very polished and put-together. Best of the bunch in this regard.
- Supports archiving URLs
Cons
- Workflow for URL archives is odd, as the original URL is only present in the comments field
- App activates every time you drag something to its dock icon (I have no interest in using the drawer)
Pros
- Well put-together, though not as polished as Yojimbo
- Supports archiving URLs and makes it easy to get to either the page on the web or the archive of it locally
Cons
- No iOS app
The choice
In the end, I chose Together and am quite happy with it. It's very similar to Yojimbo, but I preferred some of its workflows and features. Now, when I want to keep a resource around, I just drag the URL or file icon to the Together icon in my dock. It has a nice interface for searching to find things when I need it, and stays out of my way when I don't. I do occasionally wish it had an iOS or web component for those times when I'm on the go and someone tweets a link to something useful, but I can make do without that.
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