Together 3.6 for Mac is available today. This version adds iCloud in the direct version of the app, new library management features, compatibility with macOS Sierra and a variety of other improvements.

iCloud for Everyone

With macOS Sierra, Apple has made iCloud available to apps sold outside the Mac App Store, which means the direct version of Together for Mac can now work with iCloud libraries and use those libraries with Together for iPad and iPhone (available as a separate purchase from the App Store). When you first open a library in the direct version of Together 3.6 you’ll be offered to store the library in iCloud.

Import Text Files as Notes

Together already has separate downloadable importers for Evernote and Yojimbo, but to assist with moving from other apps, Together can now import text files as notes.

While Together’s normal file import will keep the files in their original format, this will convert text files you select or that it finds in any folders you select to Together notes, preserving the folder hierarchy and including any Finder tags. Supported formats include RTF, RTFD, plain text, Word, HTML and web archives.

Updating Smart Groups

Smart groups have been changed for compatibility with iCloud. Currently smart groups that search file content or check for linked files are considered incompatible, because results will differ between devices.

Incompatible smart groups in iCloud libraries will be shown with a warning icon and will not update on either Mac or iOS. You can edit these smart groups on Mac to change the affected rules (which will also be marked with warning icons) or remove them from the library. You will not be able to create new smart groups that use incompatible rules in iCloud libraries. Non-iCloud libraries are unaffected by these changes.

Changes for macOS Sierra

With macOS Sierra, iCloud Drive can now keep your Desktop and Documents folders consistent across Macs and make those files available to iOS devices. However, Together libraries cannot be kept in iCloud Drive without the risk of data loss and unresolvable errors in the case of iCloud libraries.

If you enable the option to store your Documents and Desktop folders in iCloud Drive, Together libraries in those folders will be moved when first opened, and an alias put in their place, so you can still access your folders in the Finder as before. The alias will work across Macs running macOS Sierra.

The same problem affects libraries whose folders have been stored in other file syncing services such as Dropbox. Together 3.6 will prevent iCloud libraries from being stored in Dropbox and Google Drive, and this will be extended to all libraries in future. Other services — indeed, any case where a single Together library file can be accessed by more than one Mac at a time while the app is running — will result in the same problems and should not be used to store Together libraries.

The new location mentioned above is known as the Default Location in the app, which is a folder in your Library folder that can be accessed by the app and extensions such as Together’s Share extension, and will allow those extensions to do more in the future.

And More…

Quick Open has been improved, there’s now a default font for empty rich text files, the Path row in the mini info view now shows the path relative to the library, the name and URL can be edited in the share extension, the Shelf can remember the last import group when import options are enabled, and web page text can be imported as a new notes. See the release notes for a full list of changes.

Availability

Together 3.6 is available from this site and the Mac App Store today and is a free upgrade for all Together 3 users. Together 2 users can upgrade for $24.99 from this site. To Try Together, download the version from this site, which works as a fully functional 15-day trial until you enter your registration details. Together for iPad and iPhone can be purchased from the App Store for $9.99.

Together 1.6 for iPad and iPhone is available today. This update adds Spotlight searching, improved text formatting for notes and rich documents, updating smart groups, an improved Share extension and more.

Search Content

Together can now search file content on iOS 10, both in the app and with the systemwide Spotlight search. All items will be added to the device’s Spotlight index to index their names, comments and tags, along with the content of notes, rich and plain text documents, web archives, HTML files, bookmarks, mail messages and PDFs, making these available to both the systemwide Spotlight search and in the app. In addition, when using Spotlight, you can continue the search in Together.

Together indexes content for downloaded items straight away, and temporarily downloads other indexable items in the background when there is a Wi-Fi connection to extract their content.

Improved Text Editing

When editing notes and rich text documents on iOS, there is now a toolbar for accessing new features to change fonts, styles, alignment and colors, and create bulleted and numbered lists. The toolbar also makes existing features easier to reach such as text highlighting and inserting a photo or video. It’s now also possible to find text in notes, rich text files and plain text files.

Updating Smart Groups

Smart groups will now update on iOS without needing to make the roundtrip to Mac, provided they are compatible with iCloud libraries. Currently smart groups that search file content or check for linked files are considered incompatible, because results can differ between devices.

Share Extension

Together’s Share Extension has been improved on iOS so you can now set tags on the items that get imported, and it will also use iCloud when available, so those changes appear on all devices without needing to open the app on the original device first.

And More…

Previews can now be made full screen on iPad in landscape, the total number of items (or found items) is now shown under the item list. On iPad, the New Item sheet no longer covers the whole screen, and there are VoiceOver improvements for expanding and collapsing folders, along with clearer labelling across the app.

Together 1.6 for iPad and iPhone is a free upgrade for all existing users or $9.99 otherwise, is available now on the App Store and requires iOS 10. For a full list of changes, see the release notes.

Together 1.5 for iPad and iPhone is available today. This version improves the document picker, working with items, and background updates for iCloud libraries, along with various other improvements.

Working with Items

Notes and any editable text stationery (rich text, plain text, etc) are now created in place instead of in a sheet, so you can access all the features you expect, and empty new notes are automatically removed when you navigate away, just like the Mac app.

You can now also create folders, groups and labels when working with those items too, so if you are in the Info popover and need a new label, you can create it there. The same applies when moving items to folders or adding items to groups.

There are a number of other improvements for working with items too. Swiping items in the list will show more options, depending on the group or list being shown, so you can remove items from a group, folder, label or favorites.

You can now also paste unformatted text into notes and rich text documents. When opening item links, Spotlight search results or using handoff, if the item isn’t in the current library, but the library is on your device, Together will offer to switch to that library and then open the item.

Document Picker

In Together 1.5, the document picker has been improved so that you can now see your tags and search for items, as in the app itself.

Together’s document picker extension was introduced in version 1.4 to access Together libraries from within other apps on your iPhone or iPad in the same way you access files on iCloud Drive. Using the document picker you can, for example, open a Pages document stored in Together’s library from within Pages. When Pages saves your changes, they’ll be sent to iCloud and updated in Together on all your Macs and iOS devices, even when Together isn’t running.

iCloud

Together 1.5 will now continue sending updates to iCloud when the app isn’t active. Previously if you switched apps before Together had a chance to complete saving an item to iCloud, the changes couldn’t be saved until you opened the app again. Together can now also process incoming iCloud changes when the app isn’t active, so in most cases they’ll already be in your library by the time you switch back.

The transition to CloudKit in Together 1.4 for iOS and Together 3.5 for Mac back in January has been a huge success. Together users stored over 1 million items on iCloud in the first 60 days alone, including many large libraries (e.g. 20GB, 30GB) working smoothly across Macs and iOS devices. Now the app has control over the process, the iCloud-related issues that plagued earlier versions, such as crashes and corruption have been eliminated. Finally, iCloud is the powerful, robust and secure cloud storage platform it always promised to be.

It’s not possible to mass beta test Mac apps that use iCloud, and testing the iOS app alone wouldn’t be effective, so thanks to everyone for their patience while I’ve ironed out wrinkles and addressed oversights during the first few months.

Availability

Together 1.5 requires iOS 9 or later, costs $9.99 from the App Store and is a free update for all existing users. See the release notes for a full list of changes.

Together 3.5 for Mac is available from the Mac App Store and requires OS X El Capitan. A 15-day trial of Together for Mac is also available from this site, but does not include iCloud, because Apple restricts that to apps sold through the Mac App Store.

Allison Sheridan (of NosillaCast Mac Podcast) has created a combined tutorial for Together 3 for Mac and Together for iPhone and iPad for ScreenCastsOnline.

In the tutorial, Allison covers all the essential getting started steps for using Together, including:

• Together Layout
• Import Files & Folders
• Organize with Folders and Groups
• More Import Options
• Import Using the Shelf
• Creating New Documents
• Create Stationery
• Linking Documents
• Organizing With Metadata
• View Options
• Preferences
• Together for iOS
• Encrypting Items
• Share Sheets

This clear and comprehensive tutorial (along with many others like it) is available to all existing ScreenCastsOnline members, as well as to non-members for purchase in the new ScreenCastsOnline Showcase App for iPad and iPhone.

Links:

• Preview of Together tutorial
• ScreenCastsOnline Showcase App (iPad and iPhone) or search for SCO Showcase App on Apple TV.
• 14 day free trial on the ScreenCastsOnline Website (iOS or Mac)
• ScreenCastsOnline Monthly Magazine (Together will be in the April Issue when published)

Together 3.5 for Mac and Together 1.4 for iPad and iPhone are now available, with completely rewritten iCloud integration. Together 3.5 for Mac also includes swipe-to-delete for items, a new medium size for the portrait list and improvements for auto import, label creation and search, along with various other improvements. Together 1.4 also includes a document picker for accessing Together libraries in other apps.

iCloud

iCloud integration has been completely rewritten to make it more flexible, responsive and reliable.

iCloud libraries are now stored in regular folders rather than on iCloud Drive, and have the same features as local libraries, such as linked files and auto import. You can now see progress for iCloud activity and Together can let you know when there is a problem.

When you open an existing iCloud Drive library you will be offered to upgrade. Upgrading moves the files from iCloud Drive to a folder on your Mac, then uploads them to Together’s new cloud database. The upgrade can be postponed until a convenient time.

Since the release of Together 3 for Mac in 2013, Together used systems based on iCloud Core Data and iCloud Drive to share libraries, where everything was handled by iCloud. Unfortunately, that had no way of showing overall progress or reporting errors in the app, and it was not possible for me to fix iCloud-related bugs and crashes.

Together now communicates with iCloud directly using CloudKit, the same system Apple use in their own apps such as Photos and Notes on iOS 9 and El Capitan. All new iCloud libraries created on Mac and iOS will use the new system.

Together 1.4 for iPad and iPhone

Together for iPad and iPhone 1.4 is required to use the new iCloud libraries on iOS, includes a new document picker extension for accessing Together libraries in other apps, along with some other improvements.

Currently the iCloud library upgrade cannot be initiated on iOS devices. To perform the upgrade, all files need to be downloaded then uploaded again while Together is running, so this is best done on Mac — iCloud Drive on OS X downloads all files automatically, so your Mac will already have them.

The library upgrade will be offered to iOS app users who do not use the Mac version in a later release. In the meantime, if you do not have Together for Mac, you can effectively upgrade an iCloud Drive library on iOS by making the library local then moving it back to iCloud by tapping Libraries above the list and editing the current library.

Auto Import

Together for Mac can now exclude certain files from getting automatically imported with flexible rules that can be specified in its new Auto Import preferences.

Together presents the structure of your Together library in the Finder, and saving a file to one of these folders will import it into the corresponding place in the app. While Together ignores known temporary and hidden files, some more esoteric apps can create temporary and support files that Together wouldn’t recognise as such.

This kind of problem can now be avoided. The rules can exclude files with names that match exactly, start, contain or end with certain terms, along with blocking specific file extensions.

More Improvements

Together 3.5 also includes swipe to delete for items in the portrait and landscape lists, a new medium size for the portrait list, the ability to create labels directly from the toolbar, an option to exclude the Trash when searching, and other minor fixes and improvements.

Getting Help

If you encounter any problems, please check the Together for Mac or the Together for iOS support pages to check for known issues or get in touch for assistance.

Availability

Together 3.5 for Mac requires El Capitan and is a free upgrade for all existing Together 3.x customers. A 15-day trial of Together for Mac is available from this site, but iCloud is only available in the Mac App Store version.

Together 1.4 for iPad and iPhone requires iOS 9 or later, is a free upgrade for existing customers or $9.99 from the App Store.