Yojimbo: Bare Bones’ new information manager
I’ve been a happy user of StickyBrain 
, an information manager, as long as I have used a Mac.
When Bare Bones Software launched their new information manager, Yojimbo, last week I decided to give it a go.
I’ve been using it a lot and I like it.
If you are interested in information managers and organising yourself (“productivity”), you can read the full review after the jump.
Looks the business
The first and most surprising thing about Yojimbo is how good it looks. Bare Bones’ flagship products, BBEdit and MailSmith , are not known for their eye-candy.
They have serious, no-nonsense, almost pre-Mac OS X interfaces like this:
Yojimbo, however, is very handsome indeed.
It has a very polished interface that offers yet more evidence of the rise and rise of the Mail.app-like look:
The “Mailbox Drawer” on the left contains pre-made folders and any custom folders you have created. You can give your folders any image that QuickTime understands.
Does the business
Not only does it look good, it has organization muscle too.
Yojimbo can save and manage links to web pages and other online resources, short texts or notes, clips, quotations, instructions, song lyrics like any other information manager.
It also has some neat features that help it stand out from the pack. It can keep your login and password information for web sites and servers, encrypting them for added security. It also stores serial numbers and can save snapshots of entire web pages as Web Archives.
In another clever trick, an option is added to the PDF services menu in your Mac’s Print panel, allowing you print a receipt for an online purchase directly into Yojimbo, where you can store and encrypt it.
Four features in particular have impressed me:
Smart folders: The pre-set folders, called “Smart Collections”, display all your flagged item, the 20 most recently added items, all your web archives and PDFs, passwords, bookmarks and serial numbers, regardless of which custom collection you have stored them in. Another smart folder shows you all the items that are not yet in any custom collection.
It would be even nicer if you could make your own smart collections, but this is still a very useful feature for finding stuff fast.
UPDATE: Founder and CEO of Bare Bones, Rich Siegel, confirms in the comments below that the ability to create your own smart collections is something Bare Bones is working on. Excellent!
Quick Input Panel: Yojimbo lacks the StickyBrain’s Contextual Menu options for clipping without leaving the app you are in. But Yojimbo adds a Quick Input Panel to do the same job. Copy something to the clipboard, then hit a hotkey to bring up the Input Panel:
It is quite clever at auto-inserting the clipboard contents into the relevant field for each kind of note you can create on the fly.
You can also use this (as here) to create a new note, storing a thought for later without interrupting what you are doing at the time.
The Drop Dock: Yojimbo has another way of adding new items. The Drop Dock adds a Drop Drawers-like tab to the edge of your desktop. Selecting something with your mouse and then dragging it over the tab, opens the drawer. You then have the option of dropping the item directly into your Library or a custom collection:
.Mac Syncing: StickBrain uses .Mac to make a backup which you can them restore to the same computer or download to another.
Yojimbo takes .Mac use to a higher level. Using Tiger’s sync engine, it allows you to add all your settings and items to the list of things that are automatically synced between your Macs:
A set-and-forget, always synchronised database of the information you need, whatever computer you are sitting at. Sweet.
Is the business
StickyBrain has been around for longer and has a richer feature-set. Some of those things I will miss (until Bare Bones adds them) — the ability to email a note, linking different items together and linking items with Address Book contacts.
These days no app seems quite complete without a QuickSilver plugin, so I’m looking forward to that too. (Although see the tip posted in the comments below).
But I am impressed enough with Yojimbo to switch. In addition to the things mentioned above, Yojimbo feels faster and seems to suck less energy from my system.
Like all of Bare Bones products, the attention to detail is amazing. The help documentation is beautifully laid out and illustrated. Little things like that speak volumes.
It can only get even better. Bare Bones got my money (USD 39).
Links:
Yojimbo at Bare Bones
What some other bloggers are thinking
StickyBrain and Yojimbo compared
Out goes StickyBrain, in comes Yojimbo
Yojimbo Review
Similar Posts:
- Yojimbo 1.1: Martial your info with power and beauty
- Yojimbo 1.3: Tagging, hyperlinks and more
- StickyBrain is no more
- StickyBrain 4.1b3 gets Yojimboed
- Yojimbo 1.2: Smarter integration
Tags: Address Book, bare bones, bookmarks, contextual menu, information manager, mail.app, organization, passwords, pdf, Productivity, quicksilver, smart folders, stickybrain, sync engine, yojimbo
January 29th, 2006 at 6:27 am
I’ve discovered a nice quick way of inputting data into Yojimbo using Quicksilver. Select the text you want to clip, Cmd-C to copy to the clipboard, invoke QS, hit period to bring up text input, Cmd-V to paste the text in, TAB over to the second pane of QS, hit ‘Y’ and you get “Yojimbo/Import Text” (if you have the Services QS plugin installed), hit return and you have a new note in Yojimbo.
I’m wandering if anbody can take this basic idea and reduce the number of steps?
January 29th, 2006 at 10:01 am
Thanks for that. Very slick indeed!
January 29th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
The normal way seems like less steps than your Quicksilver technique. Select text, cmd-c, F8, click on create. Done. No need to reinvent the wheel if it’s already that fast.
January 29th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Yeah, I know, but I find hitting F8 rather less convenient than invoking QS, but maybe that’s just me.
January 29th, 2006 at 2:57 pm
Horses for courses, I suppose.
But one advantage of the QS method is that it cuts the mouse out of the loop altogether.
The other advantage is that dovetails into the “muscle memory” (isn’t that the phrase?) of habitual QS users, making it easier even if it is a few strokes longer.
January 29th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
Actually I thought that it would cut the mouse out too, but that’s not really the case because you don’t actually have to click “Create”; you can just hit return. But I obviously agree; my QS muscle memory is pretty well developed too. I’m just wondering if there’s some way to cut some of the steps out. I wish you could write some kind of script that would do all this automatically.
January 29th, 2006 at 11:41 pm
Thanks for pointing out that Yojimbo doesn’t allow the user to create his/her own smart collections — that’s just crazy. Even crazier is the fact that it’s really hard to get existing databases from Hog Bay Notebook / Mori or DEVONThink into Yojimbo, because IT CAN’T IMPORT FOLDERS of items. Finally, has anyone put a couple of thousand items into Yojimbo to see how well it performs then?
January 30th, 2006 at 12:48 am
I have been using StickyBrain for years and find it great for storing bits of anything. However, I do find SB slow and choose not to use it for storing frequently needed information like my passwords, serials, credit card info and other personal information. For storing personal information I used a program called Wallet. However, after adding a few hundered records to Wallet it started crashing and the developer couldn’t fix it, so he refunded my money. I believe that Wallet has the best user interface available for storing this type of information. I was pleased to see the release of Yojimbo as a replacement for Wallet. I was a little disappointed to see that the user can not create his own set of collections and that BareBones is not considering this option. BB claims they want to keep the freeform simplicity of Yojimbo. The problem with keeping personal information in this type of database is that when you are copying information from Yojimbo you can easily delete the information without realizing it. Maybe if they added an edit button similar to Apple’s Addressbook. I know I rambled, hope this helps someone.
January 30th, 2006 at 12:53 am
Donald, I think it is only smart collections that users can’t create.
I was hoping, though, that this would be a feature in future developments. You seem to say that Bare Bones has ruled this out. Where did you read that? Could you offer a link?
January 30th, 2006 at 1:47 am
Hi Donald,
Thank you for your suggestions, and we appreciate your interest in Yojimbo.
Apropos of accepting PayPal as a payment method, we have been investigating this, but haven’t yet been able to do so. Per your product comments:
I do have a couple of suggestions for Yojimbo:
1) It would be nice if like the address book you can’t
accidently modify a record unless you hit an edit button
2) How about a convenient way to copy a field to the
clipboard – see picture below of utility Wallet
Thanks; I’ll forward both these suggestions to the product design team for consideration.
3) Allow the user to name or edit the fields of his
collection, for instance in the Serial Numbers container I use the
Organization field to store a url would like to change
Organizationt o home page
We do not plan on making either the arrangement or field structure of items customizable, as this would necessarily add complexity which runs counter to Yojimbo’s design goals of being easy to use.
4) Recognize urls in fields
We are investigating this for future versions.
5) A quick find window similar to the quick input would be really great
Yojimbo supports Spotlight for just this purpose. :-)
6) Consider a name change for the application ;)
Changing the name of a shipping product is somewhat akin jumping from the wing of one airplane to another in flight: best not attempted. :-)
Regards,
Patrick Woolsey / Director of Technical Services
==
Bare Bones Software, Inc.
P.O. Box 1048, Bedford, MA 01730-1048
January 30th, 2006 at 1:49 am
I think it may have been kind of rude of me to suggest a name change. I just can’t get used to the name ;(
January 30th, 2006 at 7:59 am
“Donald” appears to be a little confused as to what you were referring to when you spoke of Smart Collections. The ability to create one’s own Smart Collections is definitely planned; any assertion to the contrary would not have a basis in reality.
January 30th, 2006 at 8:33 am
Rich: That’s good news!
Along with the ability to link items together and to link them with Contacts, this is one of the things I am hoping to see in the future.
I miss the Conextual menu shortcuts as well, but that might be a StickyBrain habit I need to grow out of.
January 30th, 2006 at 8:35 am
I guess maybe I was a bit confused and worded my original question to BareBones software incorrectly. Oh and BTW, I am more than ‘a little confused’. Maybe because I was confused or it appeared like I was criticizing Yojimbo, Rich felt the need to imply that I do not live in reality. I should have kept my $39.00 and continued using StickBrain.
The question I asked Barebones was:
3) Allow the user to name or edit the fields of his
collection, for instance in the Serial Numbers container I use the
Organization field to store a url would like to change
Organizationt o home page
the response I received was:
We do not plan on making either the arrangement or field structure of items customizable, as this would necessarily add complexity which runs counter to Yojimbo?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s design goals of being easy to use.
I guess I interpreted it wrong. I guess that Smart Collections are similar to Smart Folders in the Finder and Smart Playlists in iTunes. Does this mean we will be able to add our own fields to out customized collections?
January 30th, 2006 at 8:43 am
Don, with respect, it sounds like you may have misinterpreted my “basis in reality” comment. I did not imply that you don’t live in reality, nor were my remarks in any way an emotional reaction to any wording or perceived criticism from you — simply an emphatic statement of the way things are and the way they’re intended to be. My apologies if my choice of words led you to conclude otherwise.
To answer your question: Smart Collections are -exactly- like smart playlists in iTunes. The creation of Smart Collections is a separate issue from whether or not you’ll be able to define or customize the database field structure for individual item types. The latter, to reiterate the answer you received from Tech Support, is not something we plan on doing.
Smart Collections are, on the other hand, and as I said, something we _are_ planning.
Hope that clears up any confusion.
January 30th, 2006 at 9:41 am
My apologies if I jumped to conclusions, I guess I am a little bit too sensitive, maybe I really do have a distorted reality ;)
I really like Yojimbo, the more I use it the more I seem to need it and like it.
Enjoy…
February 9th, 2006 at 9:31 am
UPDATE: The more I use YoJimbo the more I find I need it. Been a StickyBrain user for a few years but have only launched StickyBrain a couple of times since purchasing YoJimbo. I am saving everything I may want to remember or need sometime in the future into YoJimbo. I have 190 items already.
YoJimbo is so much faster than SB.
It would be nice if BareBones created a web page that users could list the different uses that they use YoJimbo for. This would give other YoJimbo users new ideas for using YoJimbo. I personally save everything I may someday need into YoJimbo. And for instance I created a folder for saving and editing my blog entries in before I post them.
February 9th, 2006 at 10:09 am
If SB is slow with 190 items, it’s not a serious database. Let us know what Yojimbo is like when it has several thousand items ;-)
February 9th, 2006 at 10:32 am
I am sorry if I didn’t explain myself properly. I have 420 items in StickyBrain and it takes 11 seconds to launch compared to the one second for YoJimbo with 190 items.
February 9th, 2006 at 1:43 pm
Odysseus,
Just wondering if there’s a reason you can’t test YoJimbo yourself with larger number of items.
February 9th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
Yes, Yojimbo’s limited import ability: it can’t import folders of items!
February 10th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
Aw, now, see? I’m a HUGE fan of StickyBrain. I love nested folders. I love being able to link items together. I use these features every day.
But I confess the candy-coated goodness of Yojimbo has an undeniable appeal. I mean, I’ve already tested Yojimbo, compared it to StickyBrain, and set it aside … and yet, your post makes me *want* Yojimbo.
I want it.
So … what to do? I like the robust, more flexible nature of StickyBrain and the bright, clean, shiny surface of Yojimbo. I need Sticky-Jimbo, I guess … or maybe a YoBrain?
Related Bits, for the innately curious:
Yojimbo Review: http://www.madebymark.com/madebymark/2006/01/review_yojimbo_.html
Thanks, Tim, for taking my firm resolution to love StickyBrain more and turning it on its head!!!
February 10th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
I understand how you are torn. There are things about SB that I miss too.
Still, I’m betting it is more likely that Yojimbo will become more Sticky than that StickyBrain will get extra Jimbo.
So I am taking a leap of faith, and hoping for added Yojimbo goodness as Bare Bones get working on what is still a young pup. Fingers crossed.
February 10th, 2006 at 11:36 pm
I have moved to YoJimbo and am trying to leave StickyBrain in the dust. But I do miss some of the StickyBrain features in YoJimbo.
February 17th, 2006 at 7:43 am
I am a switcher, I used to use StickyBrain and have switched to YoJimbo. I have been using YoJimbo for a few weeks and have grown to love this applications powerful simplicity (does that make sense?). YoJimbo makes it so easy to save most any bit of information for quick and easy retrieval or observation at a later date. I now save everything that I MAY need later, it is that simple.
I wish I could easily transfer my StickyBrain information into YoJimbo so that I did not need to open SB anymore.
I anxiously await an upgrade to see what BBS does to improve this awesome application.
February 17th, 2006 at 7:48 am
Hi Donald: What’s stopping you from exporting your notes out of SB and importing them into Yojimbo?
That’s what I did. Worked a charm.
February 18th, 2006 at 7:54 am
I should have been more clear. You can not import StickyBrain bookmarks into YoJimbo. However, you can import StickyBrain web archives into YoJimbo. Unfortunately about one third of my StickyBrain items are bookmarks and therefore I can not import them. I am recreating the bookmarks as web archives so I can import them into YoJimbo but this is a time consuming and slow process.
Did you find another way to import the StickyBrain bookmarks into YoJimbo?
BTW: StickyBrain bookmarks are exported from StickyBrain with the webloc extension and the web archives have the webarchive extension. I did unsuccessfully try changing a bookmark to an webarchive by switching the extension.
My apologies for not being clear in regards to importing into YoJimbo.
February 18th, 2006 at 11:20 am
Getting data out of StickyBrain and into Yojimbo is easy: export from SB, import to Y.
Getting data out of Web Confidential is much harder. I have ~500 passwords and serial numbers. WC can export its entire database to a single comma-delimited text file, but I don’t see any way to get that into Yojimbo as individual encrypted password items.
I could write a script to parse that into 500 individual text files, but there does not appear to be a way to import Password items into Yojimbo — text files show up as normal notes, even when the text file follows the format of exported Password items. (Note: the password export from Yojimbo is whacked, too.)
I like Yojimbo and plan to buy it, but as a replacement for a password database it is not usable due to these import limitations.
February 23rd, 2006 at 5:56 pm
I’m on a trial of Yojimbo now, and while I’d love to buy it, the limitations are just too great. Lacking the ability to import a picture as well as the ability to customize data types, etc, I can’t justify purchasing it.
Until the time comes when it’s more flexible with its contents, I’m going to have to skip it and continue using my old system of folders. :P
March 7th, 2006 at 9:46 am
Why doesn’t anybody use the keychain to manage encrypted notes and passwords? I’ve used it for years and it works great. Fast, searches very well, and builds itself just by using Safari. I gave it its own password separate from my login password, and can choose to lock it or unlock it. By default, the computer boots up with it locked.
March 13th, 2006 at 12:41 am
I’m with Darcy on using the keychain. It also sync using .mac.
March 13th, 2006 at 6:14 am
I’ve been using Yojimbo for a week, and have found it to be a great companion product. I’ll still use keychain for web browser convenience, but for making a list of PDFs that you can quickly scan through (viewing as you go) just using arrow keys? Y does it GREAT!
March 16th, 2006 at 12:25 am
[...] Yojimbo, a great new information manager from the Bare Bones stable, has been updated. All the fine features that first lured me away from StickyBrain are still there, but now there is lost more to like about it. [...]
March 28th, 2006 at 8:22 pm
Hi,
I am thinking to try Y, does it have anything like the Flash note of SB? I find it very useful.
March 28th, 2006 at 9:13 pm
I find that the shortcut key to bring up Yojimbo’s window with the cursor in the search field is as fast as the Flash Note feature in StickyBrain. No problems there.