This may be considered inappropriate, as it does not pertain directly to DEVONthink, but Ammonite was first recommended to me here, and there may be users here who can help me.
I just noticed that Ammonite is now describing itself as applicable outside of DEVONthink. If it could be used to apply tags as well as search across them, it would be very helpful to have a tagging system that spans documents across the file system, whether in DEVONthink or not. The following language from the Ammonite website suggests that it can be so used:
In spite of that I’m getting the sense that Ammonite cannot be used to apply tags to documents, only to do searches on tags. Is that right?
If not, could you help me understand how to use Ammonite to apply tags?
The sentence you quoted is just saying that the concept of tags is not limited to DEVONthink. Tags are used for regular files as well. At least this is what I was trying to say. The following sentence (“Ammonite lets you search both DEVONthink and your filesystem with one application.”) is supposed to indicate that Ammonite only supports searching. I’m sorry for the confusion. Maybe I should rephrase this paragraph.
Having said that, applying tags via Ammonite is on the todo list already.
Glad to hear that, Robby. And thanks for the clarification.
I’m impressed with Ammonite’s sophisticated search capabilities. If that could be supplemented with capabilities related to creating and applying tags, it would be a powerful application, especially now that it can be used across the file system.
You might check this post I made to the the DT/DN forum shortly after starting to use DT. It describes my experience with tagging in another application, TiddlyWiki. viewtopic.php?f=4&t=12335
One thing I forgot to mention in that post was hierarchical tagging, or “taggly-tagging,” as it’s known in the TiddlyWiki community. I’ve found it to be a powerful aid in thinking about complex topics, especially because the tagging structure can be revised as your thinking about the topic develops. You can learn more about taggly-tagging here: mptw.tiddlyspot.com/ Click on “Using TagglyTagging to organise your data” in the Welcome tiddler.
Last, are you aware of this app? caseapps.com/tags/ Search capabilities are nowhere near as sophisticated as yours, but it is OpenMeta compliant and can be used to create and apply tags across the file system.
That said, I wanted to follow up regarding “taggly-tagging.” On the site to which I referred you, see especially the topics “Why use TagglyTagging?,” “TagglyTagging history,” and “TagglyTagging tutorial.”
That is, if you’re curious about hierarchical tagging.
Hierarchic tagging is a very nice concept. I’ve seen it implemented in Cultured Code’s “Things”. But currently OpenMeta has no support for tag hierarchies. And while I could come up with a special syntax on top of OpenMeta (tag1>tag2, or something) to store this kind of information, you would be forced to use Ammonite to make use of these “special” tags, which is not a good thing. So don’t expect hierarchic tags in Ammonite anytime soon.
I’ve actually tried caseapp’s “Tags” a few months ago. I was about to buy it when they released version 2, which changed the interface dramatically. I didn’t like where they were heading, and the lack of alternatives made me write Ammonite. For applying tags I use the (now dead, but still working) TagoMan by Onflap.
If anyone who is competent in the area were interested in developing it, I suspect they could learn a LOT from the use of tagging in the TiddlyWiki community, especially the use of TagglyTagging. [Link in my inititial response to Robby.]
But it sounds like that’s probably unlikely. Too bad. As I think I’ve indicated, I’ve found hierarchical tagging to be powerful in writing and thinking about complex topics, especially insofar as the implementation of it allows development of the tagging structure to evolve through use of it.
I’m not a developer, just a user, so I have to go with your assessment. That said, as I’ve said, it’s unfortunate given the powerful support it provides for thinking and writing about complex topics.
I wish I’d seen the original version. Not sure what I think about the current version. Search capabilities don’t compare to Ammonite’s. The primary appeal at the moment is that it can be used to create and apply tags. My thought at the moment is to use Tags for that and Ammonite for searching.
For what it’s worth, Tags is, as you know, OpenMeta compliant, and they say they are working on implementing hierarchical tagging.