Yojimbo!
Yojimbo
by Bare Bones
http://www.barebones.com
$39
If you are like me, you probably have a lot of "snippets" of information to keep track of, perhaps small chunks of text you refer to again and again, pesky application serial numbers, file server URLs and of course, those ubiquitous web site passwords. You probably store these things in half a dozen different programs and maybe even "offline" in post-it notes. There are several applications for the Mac which promise to keep track of this kind of minutiae, but these programs often are too feature-stuffed for their own good. Sometimes simple and fast is better, and a new product called Yojimbo, by Bare Bones Software, quickly and easily helps you keep track of all these bits of information.
Yojimbo stores several types of information, including text snippets, serial numbers, web URLs and archives, and passwords. If you choose to store passwords in Yojimbo, it will request that you protect access to the application with a password (which you'll have to remember on your own, obviously!) Yojimbo's fast learning curve is a real asset and getting information into Yojimbo is very easy. You can of course open Yojimbo and manually enter data. However, the real power of Yojimbo is a small, unobtrusive sidebar it places on the right side of your monitor. You can drag any supported data type into this sidebar and it gets automatically entered into Yojimbo. Drag a URL or chunk of text to the sidebar, and it is saved in Yojimbo without making you interrupt your work.
Getting data out of Yojimbo is just as easy. Yojimbo's information is indexed by Tiger's Spotlight function, so Yojimbo items show up in Spotlight searches. You can also hit the "F6" key from any application and instantly be brought into Yojimbo to execute a search. The only thing missing would be a dashboard widget to access Yojimbo; this would seem to be a natural. If you get stuck, Yojimbo's online help is fairly spartan, but it does a good job of explaining the major features of the application.
In day-to-day use, Yojimbo really shines. I use it to keep snippets of "boilerplate" text I use in various applications, as well as notes on how to do various esoteric computer tasks that I don't use enough to remember by heart, such as long and convoluted unix commands and snippets of Applescript (it would be cool if you could actually execute these from Yojimbo via a command-click or something -- how about it in the next version?). Yojimbo is also excellent at storing passwords and serial numbers. The latter is especially nice as I often have to re-install software and hate looking though old emails to find some ancient registration number. Finally, Yojimbo's bookmark storage is handy for storing URLs, especially for non-web locations where using your browser's built-in bookmarking would be pointless.
While Yojimbo is fast and efficient, it does have some annoying limitations. The major shortcoming of this otherwise excellent application is its inability to store graphics. I'm not expecting a replacement for iPhoto, but it would be nice if Yojimbo could at least be the long-sought out replacement in OS X for the late lamented Scrpabook application from the Classic days, where you could quickly access a signature or logo jpeg. Alas, it is not so. Another area Yojimbo could improve on is its .Mac synchronization. Yojimbo makes you travel to the .Mac preference pane to activate this essential feature; it would be nice if it could emulate programs like NetNewsWire and provide the syncing from its own interface.
Don't let these minor complaints dissuade you from giving Yojimbo a try. For a 1.0 version of an application, it is remarkably polished, and the simplicity is actually a virtue. I have tried other "snippet organizers" and by and large, they all had steep learning curves and a feature set to match Microsoft Office. Simple really can be better, and Yojimbo proves it. This is a great app and well worth the $39.00 purchase price.
System requirements: MacOS 10.4.3 or later. PPC or Intel processor.
Pros: Simple and efficient basic information manager well integrated into the OS
Cons: Can't store graphics, .Mac support could be smoother
Rating: 4 dogcows
Yojimbo
by Bare Bones
http://www.barebones.com
$39
If you are like me, you probably have a lot of "snippets" of information to keep track of, perhaps small chunks of text you refer to again and again, pesky application serial numbers, file server URLs and of course, those ubiquitous web site passwords. You probably store these things in half a dozen different programs and maybe even "offline" in post-it notes. There are several applications for the Mac which promise to keep track of this kind of minutiae, but these programs often are too feature-stuffed for their own good. Sometimes simple and fast is better, and a new product called Yojimbo, by Bare Bones Software, quickly and easily helps you keep track of all these bits of information.
Yojimbo stores several types of information, including text snippets, serial numbers, web URLs and archives, and passwords. If you choose to store passwords in Yojimbo, it will request that you protect access to the application with a password (which you'll have to remember on your own, obviously!) Yojimbo's fast learning curve is a real asset and getting information into Yojimbo is very easy. You can of course open Yojimbo and manually enter data. However, the real power of Yojimbo is a small, unobtrusive sidebar it places on the right side of your monitor. You can drag any supported data type into this sidebar and it gets automatically entered into Yojimbo. Drag a URL or chunk of text to the sidebar, and it is saved in Yojimbo without making you interrupt your work.
Getting data out of Yojimbo is just as easy. Yojimbo's information is indexed by Tiger's Spotlight function, so Yojimbo items show up in Spotlight searches. You can also hit the "F6" key from any application and instantly be brought into Yojimbo to execute a search. The only thing missing would be a dashboard widget to access Yojimbo; this would seem to be a natural. If you get stuck, Yojimbo's online help is fairly spartan, but it does a good job of explaining the major features of the application.
In day-to-day use, Yojimbo really shines. I use it to keep snippets of "boilerplate" text I use in various applications, as well as notes on how to do various esoteric computer tasks that I don't use enough to remember by heart, such as long and convoluted unix commands and snippets of Applescript (it would be cool if you could actually execute these from Yojimbo via a command-click or something -- how about it in the next version?). Yojimbo is also excellent at storing passwords and serial numbers. The latter is especially nice as I often have to re-install software and hate looking though old emails to find some ancient registration number. Finally, Yojimbo's bookmark storage is handy for storing URLs, especially for non-web locations where using your browser's built-in bookmarking would be pointless.
While Yojimbo is fast and efficient, it does have some annoying limitations. The major shortcoming of this otherwise excellent application is its inability to store graphics. I'm not expecting a replacement for iPhoto, but it would be nice if Yojimbo could at least be the long-sought out replacement in OS X for the late lamented Scrpabook application from the Classic days, where you could quickly access a signature or logo jpeg. Alas, it is not so. Another area Yojimbo could improve on is its .Mac synchronization. Yojimbo makes you travel to the .Mac preference pane to activate this essential feature; it would be nice if it could emulate programs like NetNewsWire and provide the syncing from its own interface.
Don't let these minor complaints dissuade you from giving Yojimbo a try. For a 1.0 version of an application, it is remarkably polished, and the simplicity is actually a virtue. I have tried other "snippet organizers" and by and large, they all had steep learning curves and a feature set to match Microsoft Office. Simple really can be better, and Yojimbo proves it. This is a great app and well worth the $39.00 purchase price.
System requirements: MacOS 10.4.3 or later. PPC or Intel processor.
Pros: Simple and efficient basic information manager well integrated into the OS
Cons: Can't store graphics, .Mac support could be smoother
Rating: 4 dogcows
posted by Mike at
10:07 PM
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