This is the third in a series of posts highlighting some of the new features and improvements in Together 2.0 – formerly known as KIT. So far we’ve covered organizing and searching, this post will examine the other major functional area of the application: editing and previews.

Edit in Window

KIT could preview all sorts of files, but only edit its own notes. Double-clicking to edit a KIT note would open a new window and double-clicking any other file would open its default application.

A number of people asked for the ability to edit KIT notes directly in the main window. I could see how this would be beneficial, but it would break the consistency. People would then wonder why they couldn’t edit other files in KIT itself.

So, Together can now edit notes, text documents, bookmarks, web archives and HTML documents in the main window or open them in their original applications as before.

I have no intention of making Together some generic editor of all things but rather provide enough functionality to save opening another application just to make a quick change to some data you’ve added.

Preview Anything

The feature requests for KIT that I would dread the most were those that requested support for a particular file format. I would love for it to happen, but most often the formats were either completely undocumented and / or fiendishly complicated. Excel spreadsheets, Keynote documents, OmniGraffle diagrams. KIT could store and search these, but as for previewing, forget it!

Leopard introduces a technology called Quick Look. This does for previewing files what Spotlight did for searching, so any developer can write a Quick Look preview generator for their own file formats. These generators create the previews you see in the Finder.

Where Together doesn’t already know about a particular file format, it will use Quick Look to generate a preview for the file, if possible. This opens up Together to all sorts of file formats and potentially every document on your Mac.

Web Content

As mentioned above, web archives and HTML documents can be edited in Together. This is WYSIWYG editing intended for trimming and reformatting a page for what you need.

Together’s handling of web archives and bookmarks has been improved in other ways too. Web page bookmarks can now be previewed in the app itself, and you can create bookmarks from web archives and vice versa.

Another benefit of Together’s support for folders is that it can now import and properly display archived sites from browsers such as Firefox and Camino.

The next post will be about importing.

This post continues the series highlighting some of the new features and improvements in Together 2.0 – formerly known as KIT. In this entry, we’ll look at searching in Together.

Spotlight

Together will now use Spotlight for searching the content of files, which means no more indexing.

From the outset, KIT could search for files by their names, contents and KIT’s own metadata such as comments, categories and later, tags, as you typed. Originally developed for Panther, KIT attempted much of what Spotlight would later implement on a systemwide basis. Panther introduced a technology called Search Kit that would later be improved and used by Spotlight; this could index files and text and would return search results fast enough to perform live searching.

The trouble was that everything else was left to the developer. KIT had to detect when files were changed and handle files being renamed, moved or deleted to keep its index updated. The indexing was a pain from a user perspective too; not only did it mean that you couldn’t search for files immediately after importing them, but because indexing occurred in the background, a corrupt document or flaky Spotlight importer (used for indexing the contents of files) could crash the application for no apparent reason.

Spotlight was announced as part of Tiger at WWDC 2004 the day after I finished developing KIT 1.0, and would handle much of the above. Considering all the work I’d just done, my heart sank, but on the bright side that technology would eventually be there for me to use and Tiger’s release was still around 10 months away. So I’m pleased that, finally, Together uses Spotlight for content-searching, and thanks to the improvements in Leopard and the search being limited to Together’s library, you get the results fast.

Search Bar

In KIT, you could select search criteria by choosing items from the search field menu. Together replaces that with the familiar search bar seen in many apps. This makes it much easier to switch between different criteria.

In addition, the search can be restricted to the current group (or tags in the tag browser) or whole library. The search bar only appears once you start typing in the search field and hides itself when you clear the search.

Smart Groups

KIT’s smart groups now have content searching, again using Spotlight. The results are updated live, so changes to files will be reflected immediately.

Also, smart groups can now match on relative dates. So, for example, you can choose to see all files modified today or created in the last 2 months.

In the next post, we’ll look at editing and previews.

Over the next week, I will posting some more details about the new features and improvements in Together 2.0 (formerly KIT) in the hope that it will be useful for those who’ve upgraded and answer questions for those who either haven’t or can’t just yet.

Folders

Since KIT’s initial release in 2004, people have been asking for folders, a hierarchy, sub-groups, etc. I mention the different terms because rather than a compromise, Together now has real folders that can be nested to your heart’s content and are mirrored in the Finder. At the same time, Together retains KIT’s groups, although they now have a different icon to avoid confusion.

The challenge was to add folders while maintaining the existing functionality that was KIT’s appeal. KIT was based on applications like iTunes and iPhoto and doesn’t force a decision about where to store a file or drag some text for safe keeping, making it quick and easy to store files. This model includes groups that work like iTunes playlists, where a file can be in more than one group at a time.

KIT’s playlist-like groups will not work in a hierarchy (and the same applies to groups in Together). Dragging files to groups adds, rather than moves, the files. I contemplated having a file only exist once within a hierarchy or putting groups in pseudo-folders like iTunes these days, but it would only create confusion. Many things depend on a folder structure. A local copy of a web site is one example, lose the hierarchy and links will be broken, images will fail to display, etc.

So, in Together the solution is this: you can use it exactly as you used KIT. Drag to its library and the items will be stored automatically. You can still create groups and smart groups and items can be added to many groups, no matter where they are stored. In addition, you can now create and import folders. Files in folders still appear in the Library group and can still be added to groups, but will be stored in the actual folder. To store an item in the Library, rather than a specific folder, drag it to the Library.

Where

Of course, with folders and multiple groups, you can often find yourself wondering just where an item is stored. In KIT, there was no quick way to see which groups items belonged to. Together introduces the “Where” view, shown as a new section in the Info view. This acts as a cross reference, showing all the groups containing the item.

Selecting a particular group or folder shows its path in the hierarchy and double-clicking selects the group in the source list and highlights the item. The Where view also shows the folder on disk where the original file is stored.

Tag Browser

Another frequent request is a way to browse and manage tags. KIT could only find tagged items through its search field or using smart groups.

Just as you could see a list of groups in KIT, in Together you can switch that view to a list of tags. But there is more: folders, groups, labels and ratings can also be browsed as tags and this turns out to be a very useful alternative view of your entire library.

The list can be sorted by name, item count or kind and searched. Tags can be renamed and removed, dragged to items and vice versa. The system tags (folders, groups, labels, etc) can be hidden and switching between groups and tags is a single click. You can enable the system tags in the View Options panel.

These are just some of the new organization features in Together. Next: Searching.

Before I start posting about some of the features in Together, here are some more details for people upgrading from KIT. Together is my first 2.0 release, and not a free update, so I’ve tried to be very considerate to existing KIT users.

Together costs $39, KIT was $24.95 and an upgrade to Together is $14.95, roughly the difference in price. Anyone who purchased KIT in the three months preceding Together’s release (Aug 15 onwards) is entitled to a free upgrade. To get that, go to purchase Together as normal, choose an Upgrade license and enter your KIT registration code. There’s a form built into the store to email the code to you if you’ve mislaid it. You will then be told if you qualify for a free upgrade.

As Together is a paid upgrade and Leopard-only, KIT users won’t receive the usual Sparkle update notification (incidentally, Sparkle can’t handle name changes). Instead I reworked my pre-Sparkle software update mechanism to show an alert that a major new version is available (but you have to download this manually), a list of new features and the above pricing details. On this alert there is a “Skip Version” button that prevents the alert from being shown again.

Finally, I realise existing KIT users will want to try Together to see if it’s worth upgrading. Together’s library format is completely incompatible with KIT’s, and as it works with real files on disk, things could get seriously out of step if the two apps were used in parallel. So, on first run Together will offer to import your KIT library and will make copies of all the files. Once the import is completed you are given the opportunity to move your old KIT library to the Trash. If you want to keep using KIT or have any problems with the import process, you shouldn’t do that. You can also choose to defer importing until later.

It feels like an eternity since I last wrote any sort of product news on this blog, so today is a long-awaited one for me and judging by some of the emails I receive, some of you too!

I released version 2.0 of KIT today and it’s now called Together. I decided to shorten the name to make it easier for people to find.

Amongst the new features in Together 2.0:

• Folders! Considering the number of emails I’ve received on this subject, a billion people should be cheering right now.
• A new tag browser with special tags for ratings, labels, etc.
• Widescreen mode for editing and previews.
• Edit can now be done directly in the main window and in tabs.
• Editable text documents, web archives, bookmarks, etc.
• Quick Look previews for all kinds of files.
• A new system-wide Shelf for dragging, browsing and making quick notes.
• Spotlight searching and improved smart groups, with content searching and relative dates.
• Encrypted documents.

And much, much more. The release notes tell the full story. Together improves on KIT in every single area.

I have been working almost constantly on Together since February, although the design process began before the release of KIT 1.2 in the summer of 2006. With that version, I intended to revive KIT after its extended break (due to my other app, Feeder, getting sucked into the podcasting whirlwind) to see if there was still interest in the application, because I had a lot of ideas I wanted to try. Thankfully, KIT 1.2 was very well received and I released KIT 1.3 in February of this year to follow that up.

However, while working on 1.3 it became clear that I was reaching the limits of what the app could realistically handle in that form. KIT was originally released for Panther in August 2004 and continued to support Panther for two years afterwards. In the meantime, things had moved on, and with Leopard, would move on again.

Considering KIT’s age and the need to retain my sanity, I decided to start version 2.0 immediately after releasing 1.3. I also decided that it should be rewritten as a Leopard-only application to use the latest technology and everything I have learned in the last three years. My aim was to create a compelling new version that would serve as a solid foundation from which the application can grow.

As such, this has been the biggest single development project I have performed to date. I wanted to blog about Together before its release but, for various reasons, the time vanished. However, I know from the emails I receive that KIT users really care about the app and write very thoughtful suggestions on how it could be improved. Much that is new in this version is the result of that feedback. So, in the next week or so I will post some more in-depth details about the new features in Together 2.0.