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· 3 min read

TagSpaces main window

TagSpaces v3.9.5, our most advanced version yet, is now available, building upon and further improving the change introduced in previous releases.

User Interface and UX features and improvements​

Version 3.9.5. has seen its share of UI and UX improvements.

Menus have seen some important additions and changes. The option to “open parent folders internally” was added to the File menu, this is most useful for file and folder entries in search results. When in the Default or KanBan perspective, a right-click on an empty area will bring up the directory menu, and the locations context menu gained a “Close all locations” entry.

· 7 min read

TagSpaces main window

TagSpaces has seen some new releases in the past months, bringing enhancements and upgrades, and many new features. With our latest release, v3.9 becoming available, it’s time we went through some of what came before in versions v3.7 and v3.8, respectively.

User Interface and UX features and improvements​

Version 3.7 has seen some improvements in the UI/UX front. The already extensive and advanced tagging functionality, a key feature of the software, was improved in some small ways. Similarly to other tag groups, the now read-only SmartTag group can now be collapsed in the sidebar. Since TagSpaces can extract macOS tags, an explanation is now provided for Mac users on how the tag extraction works in TagSpaces.

· 10 min read

The article in this blog entry was initially published on 2018-12-07 in artplusmarketing.com. We rediscovered it recently and were under the impression, that the thoughts presented there are more than valid in the current times. So we decided to republish it in our blog (of course with the author's permission). So here the original article:

The problem with Cloud based note-taking apps - and the alternative solution that delivered on its promises​


My quest for a suitable Evernote replacement, after the company decided to restrict access to my own data, proved to be a short one. Soon after publishing Five Evernote alternatives, and how to preserve them in brine (this might not have been the exact title), I have settled on one of the contenders from the same list.

TagSpaces, the application of choice does many things right but surely is unbeatable in one particular: Data access.

· 3 min read
Ilian Sapundshiev

Last week TagSpaces version 3.3 was released. Here you will find the major new features and improvements included in this release.

Reintroducing Perspectives​

One year ago, when we were preparing the major 3.0 release, we decided to postpone the implementation of the perspectives support. Which were a core functionality in version 2.x of TagSpaces. The idea was to migrate one default stable perspective with the two modes for viewing files: grid and list. Now, in this release we reintegrated the perspective support and added on top, two completely new perspectives in the Pro and the Enterprise editions.

· 4 min read
Ilian Sapundshiev

According to a recent announcement from Flickr, the users with the free account may lose some of their photos if they don't update to a paid plan. Luckily Flickr is providing a way to export all of your photos and videos together with some meta data including useful things such as tags and albums. So we decided to write a small script, with the purpose of sorting the files in folders and extracting that meta data in a format, which can be later recognized by TagSpaces. The script iterates through all the media files in the export folder and copies the found files in sub folders. If file is part of album, a folder with the album's name is create and the file is copied there. If this is not the case the script create a folder, which name corresponds to the date when the image was taken, and copies it there. In addition to that it parses the provided JSON file and extract the tags, the description and the comments if available. This information is saved in readable for TagSpaces JSON files, in the .ts sub folder of the folder where the image was copied previously.

· 6 min read
Ivaylo Stanislavov

Our best work to date is based on React.js and features lightning speed, location indexing, dark theme and more​

Screenshot V3 dark and light mode

The great new TagSpaces 3.0 is out now after it has been in the works for the last year. We overhauled the entire concept and remade it from the ground up. But fear not, it is still the smartest way to organize your files and one of the best productivity app out there. The user interface was redesigned to increase the overall usability and speed of the application. We used React.js, which is a JavaScript library for building modern and fast user interfaces.

What’s new:​

· 3 min read

We are done with the re-work of our web clipper browser extension. Yay! We are very excited because now it supports both Chrome and the newest version of Firefox! It is already up, so you can download it now.

TagSpaces Web Clipper is a powerful tool that lets you collect digital artifacts from web pages faster than you can say “Hey, Siri”. It can save whole pages or selected parts. Two clicks and you are done. Everything is safely stored on your computer.

· 3 min read

WE ARE BACK!​

Great new TagSpaces desktop app and other goodies​

Hello, TagSpaces community,

We have been silent for the last 6 months but we are still here! We haven’t gone under! Au contraire, we are working our bottoms off on an extensive overhaul of the TagSpaces desktop and Android app and the accompanying software of the TagSpaces ecosystem.

Here is where we are:

Thanks to your input and buckets of coffee we are now in beta phase for the TagSpaces App. We have integrated your numerous ideas in a symbiotic state with our own vision of how the product should look like. And we can certainly state that it is turning out to be amazing.

Here is why we are drooling over it. We have completely re-implemented the app using the latest web technologies like React and Webpack. We have re-imagined the user interface with many usability improvements.

We know that customization is your thing and that’s why TagSpaces App will now be able to support user interface themes. We are starting with light and dark, but hey, that is just the beginning. More will be added later.

theming screenshot

Not only is TagSpaces community an organized bunch of people but also a creative one and that is why we added support for TIFF and PSD files. You can now access that summer vacation collage, preview it and please, finish it already.

Since we have churned out large amounts of code, some of it was discarded, some of it held and/or added to the existing product. The results were carefully reviewed and we are now in a special state of mind. We can honestly say that there is a general improvement in speed and performance.

We couldn’t have done this without you, so we are still relying on your input. Here are a couple of questions that you might find interesting:

For the browser extension, we were thinking of adding of a screenshot of the currently active tab when you save a page as HTML. The screenshot then can be used as a thumbnail while organizing your snippets of different pages. Should we go on and add that to the TagSpaces Desktop App and TagSpaces Web Clipper?

By the way have prepared a new version of the TagSpaces Web Clipper, supporting again the Firefox browser. Here is a screenshot of the slightly redesigned user interface:

browser extension

We are thinking of adding geo tagging functionality to the web clipper, allowing you to save for example a screenshot of a map together with it's geo information (latitude and longitude).

What do you think of it and how would you use it? Please share your thoughts or comments here, on our dedicated email address: ideas[at]tagspaces.org and our Trello board

Last but not least, we call it TagSpaces Next for now and we are expecting to relaunch it in about 3 months. We will release a testable beta version in 4-6 weeks. In the meantime, you can GET TagSpaces 2.9 to start organizing your files. You will be prompted for an upgrade when the newest version is released.

Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest info plus tips and tricks on using TagSpaces and organizing your files.

· 4 min read

The TagPaces team is happy to announce the release of the 2.8 version. This version has some interesting new features, usability enhancements, and several bug fixes.

Summary​

UI Improvements​

Redesigned List Perspective, with folder support​

The List Perspective has a redesigned, more streamlined interface, that allows easier navigation, and fits more information on one screen.

  • The rows have become narrower, fitting all essential information and elements on a single line
  • An indicator now shows the active sorting mode in the header row

  • Show folders - List perspective can now show subfolders. To use this feature, enable it from the FAB menu of the perspective.

Then just double click the folders to navigate, single click will select a folder. Subfolders are shown on the top of the list, when enabled.

Hint - Folders in grid perspective Folder navigation has been possible form Grid Perspective since TagSpaces 2.6. When enabled from the FAB menu, subfolders show up as the first tiles on the grid list. You can single click a folder to navigate. The addition of folders to in list Perspective compliments, and completes this feature.

Moved folder tags after the subfolders in the folder navigator​

In order to enhance the browsing user experience on folder, we have moved the folder tags after the list of subfolders.

Disabled editing of descriptions on click​

Due to the need to open links, folder and file descriptions can only be edited after explicitly selecting "Edit".

New features​

Restore original tag groups with one click​

This functionality is available in the Settings menu now, and can be useful if you have deleted some of the standard tag groups such as the Smart Tags.

Vietnamese language support​

Thanks to Transifex user dd721411, we have added now a Vietnamese language support.

Firefox webclipper improvements​

The webclipper now generates .url files. This functionality can be started from the new save bookmark button in the Firefox web clipper.

Additional features​

  • Added last changed date to the CSV export
  • Enable content search in webdav edition
  • Export tag groups as JSON with unique id’s, for easy reimporting
  • Removed deprecated nwjs support from the project

Changes in editor and viewer extensions​

Internal links in MD and HTML documents and in file and folder descriptions can now be opened.

This for now means links to headers within the same file. In a MD file, you would reference a header the following way:

# Header title

...

[Link to header](#header-title)

In HTML, this means the usual anchor references, where you'd have to manually add anchor points, but this is not confined to headers. This works much like in any standard HTML document.

<a name="anchor-point"/>

...
To go to the anchor-point, click <a href="#anchor-point">here</>

Note: File and folder descriptions can be formatted with markdown, internal references will therefore follow the markdown style formatting.

New RTF viewer extension​

TagSpaces now opens RTF - rich text format files with the help of the new viewerRTF extension. Rich text documents can be viewed, but not edited or created.

Select or deselect all checkboxes in HTML editor​

A convenient new feature in the HTML editor allows for selecting deselecting all checkboxes at once.

TagSpaces PRO improvements​

  • Added thumbnail generation for text based files such as MD, TXT, JSON, XML, JavaScript and others
  • Fixed the black background of HTML thumbnails

Bug fixes​

  • Fixed issue preventing creating new files
  • Fixed CSV export of the file list in Chrome
  • Fixed issue with handling paths containing % in the name
  • Fixed issue with loading files on startup
  • Fixed issue with removing multiple tags

· 6 min read
Ilian Sapundshiev

Evernote's recent change in its pricing plans, restricting non-paying users to only two machines, have been an eye-opener to many. Even though the cloud-crazed hype is trying to convince us otherwise, with all the marketing tools at its disposal, keeping your private data in the cloud, and especially via vendor-locked solutions such as Evernote, had never been a good idea. With such vendor-locked, proprietary services, you do not own your own data, and have no control over its storage, meaning access to your own notes might be severely limited at any time, as it happened just recently.

TagSpaces had long been offering an alternative, self-hosted note-taking solution. Its capable RichText (HTML) and MarkDown editors and previewers can easily replace proprietary software, the plain, flat-file storage paradigm allows total control, and unrestricted access. With the help of third party cloud storage providers, such as Dropbox or Google Drive, you can also easily keep your notes in sync.

Keeping your own files in your own cloud account is undoubtedly a better solution, but it still does not alleviate the problem of storing plain files on other people's computers (which is what servers, and the whole "cloud" really are.) To be reasonably safe, the best bet is to encrypt your data, before sending it off over the Internet.

Encryption made easy​

Encryption might sound daunting to the everyday user, and rightly so. It is a broad topic, there are many solutions, and implementations, often targeting the advanced user, or even the expert. If you just want to secure your notes, it might seem like a little too much work of work. And of course we all prefer an instant solution. This is where Cryptomator comes into the picture.

cryptomator logo

Cryptomator is a free and open source, transparent, client-side encryption solution, which makes encrypting your cloud hosted files effortless. The cross-platform software is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and as an executable Java .jar. The platform is absolutely service agnostic: Your encrypted files can be used with any cloud storage provider, as the encryption/decryption happens on your local machine, with as password provided by yourself. Cryptomator integrates into your OS's file system, making encryption as easy as a drag and drop operation in your file manager. How much easier could it be?

Your encrypted Evernote alternative​

From a note-taking perspective, the solution to replacing Evernote with its access-limit, vendor lock, proprietary file format, and "cloud only" approach (meaning "no Internet, no work", unless you buy premium, of course), is really simple with TagSpaces, and any cloud service you prefer. Add Cryptomator to the mix, and your notes are also secured.

Setting up your encryption solution​

First you will need to install Cryptomator, which is as easy as downloading the latest version for your platform from the Cryptomator download site, and running the installer. Next, you will need to connect a new vault, which in Cryptomator's terminology, means a folder that you connect to the software to create a virtual drive.

To connect a new vault:

  • Open Cryptomator
  • Click on the "+" icon on the lover left corner, and
  • Select "Create new vault"
  • In the file chooser, navigate to the local folder that is synced with your preferred cloud service
  • And type a name for your vault.

Once you're done, your new vault should show up on the side pane of Cryptomator's main screen. The vault is now there but not functional, until you set up a password. this password will be used to generate the encryption keys, ensuring that you can easily encrypt/decrypt any file in the vault on ,multiple computers.

  • Enter, and confirm a new password
  • And press "Create Vault"

new vault added

Now your new vault is ready to use. To unlock it, you need to enter your password. In the "More options menu underneath, you can change the drive name to whatever you like, and opt to save your password, so that you will not need to enter it on the local machine, each time you want to unlock it. This might be good for single user computers, but you should remember it's always a security risk to store your passwords.

unlock encrypted vault

As you enter your password, your vault should be unlocked and automatically mounted on your system. Your File Browser application will most likely fire up, showing your vault mounted as a new dav network drive. You can just begin to copy or move files and folders onto this drive, and they will be instantly encrypted by Cryptomator, without you noticing anything. To you all the files and folders will appear as if they were stored in their plain for mat on your file system.

You can also lock the vault any time from within Cryptomator by pressing "Lock vault"

lock vault button

This will unmount the drive and make the vault's contents unacceptable to anyone locally. When you unlock the vault, you will have full access again.

If open the folder where your vault is stored, you will only find encrypted data, inaccessible from outside Cryptomator's virtual device.

Adding it to TagSpaces​

To complete your setup, download and install TagSpaces for your platform, if you have not already done so.

You can now easily access your vaulted files from within TagSpaces:

  • Make sure Cryptomator is running and the vault containing your files is unlocked.
  • Mount the drive, if you have to (although this should happen automatically)
  • And connect it as a new location in TagSpaces.

connect-new-location-button

connect-vault-to-tagspaces

Important note: You should not be adding the folder in which the Cryptomator vault is located, but rather the virtual dav network drive, which Cryptomator creates. If you need more information about how to mount a drive, you should consult your operating systems's documentation, although Cryptomator should handle this step for you automatically.

Now you can access all your notes inside your Cryptomator vault from within TagSpaces, wile storing them encrypted for both on- and off-line use. If you now synchronize the folder with your cloud service of choice, you can rest assured that your files are safe, private and always accessible, without having to worry about the next policy change from Evernote, or any other proprietary cloud based note-taking service.