FREN

#FF00AA


27 jan. 2006

@apple@

In my Yojimbo review I wished for a program where I could drop web pages and type notes while writing blog posts; Webstractor can do just that, saving web archives by drag-and-drop or right-click from Safari or NetNewsWire, and letting you manage and edit them as you like, all the while staying linked to the original site, with direct access to the URL and manual or automatic reloading (which means it’s also great for storing links to blog posts you’ve commented and keeping track of replies). The way original material and edited pages are artificially separated is rather annoying, but it would be the perfect blogging companion (and even more valuable for those who do real, productive research work)… if it didn’t cost $79.99. The price difference versus Yojimbo and other apps isn’t justified at all.

 

@apple@

Scrap Book, on the other hand, isn’t nearly as pretty or powerful, but it works fine for managing your random bunch of… scraps — even though it saves web pages as rich text rather than HTML, losing and mangling much of the layout in the process — and it’s only £10 ($17.85). Trouble is, when it comes to GTD and stuff, I really need to have a pleasant interface, to feel at home (or what would be the point of buying a Mac?), and Scrap Book doesn’t fit that at all.

 

@apple@

KIT (Keep It Together) looks most similar to Yojimbo (including the “by kind” smart folders, only it’s up to you to create them) but doesn’t handle web pages at all, which is, come to think of it, amazingly retarded.

 

@apple@

DevonThink, the veteran and leader (and costing in fact only $40 for the Personal Edition, oops, that’ll teach them not emphasizing more on the product prices) remains clearly the most functional, even though the interface is a bit dated and creating web archives is more complicated than needed (instead of having an option to drop a link and make it an archive, you have to display the page in the integrated browser and select “Capture Page” from its contextual menu).

It won’t replace VoodooPad Lite for storing all my more structured data, but it’s just fine for all temporary stuff.

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