The new version features improvements to the app’s blogging and clipboard features as well as a raft of bugfixes, including a fix for handling URLs from Firefox.

Users will benefit most from the new clipboard functions in the DockNote.

Clippings can now be opened, edited and deleted from the clipboard recorder.

A clipping can be saved into Notes as a new note or be replaced with a selection from the current application.

In addition, when the clipboard recorder is turned off, it now stays off.

This means the the DockNote now contains a viable clipboard recorder, which could potentially replace apps like JumpCut or CuteClips.

Other improvements include the option to specify which folder the “Print to PDF” service will save to, better remembering of column width and position between launches (still a problem for me), better explanation of the SOHO sync service, and imrpvoements to Sync’s tolerance of sync faults.

Blogging features have also been improved. A bug preventing notes from being published to TypePad accounts has been fixed.

The app’s Preferences now include a new pane for its blogging features.

It can handle multiple blogging accounts and authentications:

SOHO Notes is shareware (USD 39.99) and is available from the Chronos web site .StickyBrain, productivity, SOHO Notes, information manager, clipboard, blogging, PIM, not Apple MailSimilar Posts:

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SOHO Notes is built from the same code base as StickyBrain but features three additional functions:

• SOHO Notes can synchronize notes between multiple computers using a .Mac account.
• SOHO Notes can access multiple note databases simultaneously.
• SOHO Notes is multi-user capable which means users can share notes with others over a network using the product’s client/server technology.

The two apps cost the same (USD 39.99) and Chronos is offering free transition to existing StickyBrain users.

According to the Vice President of Sales at Chronos, Jerry Halls, the move streamlines the company’s software catalogue:

SOHO Notes is like a big brother to StickyBrain—it does everything StickyBrain does plus more. In order to simplify our product line and bring more focus to our SOHO Series of products, we feel that now is a good time to move our users from StickyBrain to the more powerful SOHO Notes.

Earlier this year Hawk Wings was very impressed with Yojimbo, Bare Bones’ new information manager, and switched from StickyBrain.

It then watched with interest as Chronos appeared to incorporate many of Yojimbo’s features in a subsequent release of StickyBrain.

As a result of today’s change, Chronos now offers an information manager at almost the same price as Yojimbo, but with stronger multi-user and network features. yojimbo, stickybrain, information management, productivity, PIM, notes, snippets Similar Posts:

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A new StickyBrain beta (4.1b3) released today introduces at least three new features found in Yojimbo and offers a number of other significant new functions including a full-screen view, a post to blog option and new “Daily Notes” and “Journal” formats.

You can find screenshots and more after the jump…

StickyBrain’s DockNote: StickyBrain has added a side-drawer to the edge of the screen like Yojimbo’s Drop Dock:

It allows you to drag and drop content in a wide variety of formats into StickyBrain. It also offers the ability to paste notes from the side-drawer directly into the current application.

Labels: StickyBrain now has labels very much after the fashion of Yojimbo’s labels:

The labels consist of a name and a colour, both of which can be edited. You can also search by label (as you can in Yojimbo), which gives labels a basic “tagging” function.

Print to PDF: The new beta adds an option to the Print dialog that enables printing directly into StickyBrain as a PDF. You can see it in this screenshot directly under Yojimbo’s print to PDF option:

This new version also adds audio recording capabilities to Audio notes, the ability to post notes to any blog that supports the Atom protocol and new Daily Notes and Journal folders which automatically insert a date stamp into the notes title.

A full screen option for viewing and editing notes is nice and will please those who like to work in full screen mode to reduce distracitons.

Printing improvements also include support for printing Bookmark, Web Archive, Image, and PDF notes.

Even a die-hard Yojimbo convert like me has to admit that StickyBrain now leads the pack. It makes me look forward to what Bare Bones will do to raise the bar again.

StickyBrain is shareware (USD 39.99) and is available from the developer’s web site .

I found the beta on MacUpdate . stickybrain, yojimbo, information manager, productivitySimilar Posts:

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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
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Peter Maurer has released an updated version.

The new version is smarter at detecting duplicated Services entries, works with StickyBrain‘s unusual way of specifiying its Services (hooray!), and fixes a visual glitch under 10.3.9.

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StickyBrain, my organiser of choice, has just been updated to 4.0. There’s a swagload of new features and a new look for the app’s interface.

The Rise and Rise of the Mail-like look continues among note and information organisers. First, iOrganize got it. Now StickyBrain gets the Mail-like makeover:

Users of 3.x will also notice that the Panther-like folder drawer is gone, replaced by Mail.app‘s Baby Blue integrated Folder Drawer on the left.

The new version features many improvements to existing features, and new things like Spotlight support, new PDF, Movie, Bookmark, Audio, Web Archive and File notes, a 300-1000% speed improvements through the software (very welcome, I must admit) and a much smarter FlashNote menubar utility.

StickyBrain costs money (USD 39.99 — or 25 for the upgrade from 3.x) and is available from the developer’s web site.Similar Posts:

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