Together Review: Keep Your Files Together
-Widescreen view
-Tabs support
-MobileMe syncing issues
-Not so simple: advanced file-managing only
The more files you put on your hard drive, the harder it is to keep track of them. If you organize them well it can be much easier, though. But organization takes time, and sometimes that’s something we just don’t have. There is no way around the time issue, but there is a way to make it easier. Instead of acting on your files as soon as you download them, put them in an inbox and organize them when you have the time. Today I will talk about an app that can help you with this, called Together, by Reinvented Software.
Together can be used as a replacement of the Finder or it can be used along with the Finder. Together does not create a database; it really is just a hierarchy of folders, which is why you can use the Finder to view them too. It actually watches its library folder (~/Documents/Together/Default), so if you drop a file in one of the folders in there (e.g. Images, Documents), it will automatically be added to your library. The other easy way to add a file to your library is the sidebar. If you drag a file onto its Shelf, you can add it to any of your groups, or just your library. In this same Shelf, you can also create Quick Notes and Favorite Files. The final way to add files to your library is to click the Add toolbar item in the main window of the application. Here, you can also create things like Bookmarks, Web Archives, and notes from the clipboard. When you first use Together, it will copy the files you import, but you can change this. In the General pane of Together > Preferences, you can choose to either Copy files, Link to files (keep the files where they are), or Move files (moves the files to Together’s library folder).
One feature that has just been added to Together is automatic tagging. Most other apps like Together have tagging, but Together goes a bit further. When this feature is enabled (the Tags pane of Together > Preferences), Together will automatically apply tags to newly imported files based on similar files. This means that if you have two files with names containing ‘MacApper 08,’ similar tags will be applied. Also, if two files’ contents are similar (e.g. have the same header), similar tags will be applied. Since this feature was first implemented, there have been a fair number of bugs, but most of these have been fixed through updates.
Together also has a nice feature for us widescreen users. It has two view modes: Regular and Wide. To switch, just click on one of the toolbar icons in the bottom toolbar next to the [i] button. Wide mode really just puts the file list to the left side of the preview box, but the results are great; it really makes use of widescreen monitors. Users of WideMail will already be familiar with this view. Together also implements tabs, which can be very useful for viewing many files at once. The tabs could be much better, though. When you open a file in a new tab, it does just that — there is no more file list. So to open a new file in a tab, you have to go back to the Library tab. It is nice to have the extra space (from no file list) in tabs, though.
Together does have MobileMe syncing, but it is very buggy. Even since I enabled it, Together will have a memory leak, give me an error, or crash about once a day. At first I thought it was just me, but then I found that others have this problem too. I give them credit for having it — it’s a nice idea — but it really just needs better implementation. It is also hard to enable. Instead of there being a preference or button for it, you have to go to Together > Library Manager and then enable syncing. This may not sound too hard, but try figuring it out on your own.
Together, by Reinvented Software, retails for $39 and you can download a free trial from their site. It is a good tool for advanced file managing, but if you just want a place to put files until you can organize them, it’s not that good. For that, I would go with ShoveBox. And, like any app of its type, it takes some time to get used to. But if an advanced file manager is what you’re looking for, then Together is a pretty good choice.
I have been using Together for quite a while now and just stop using it for a number of reasons. As you say it is pretty much advanced file management, but with some glitches really.
Together becomes kind of slow if really toss all your files into it. Especially larger Office documents such as PowerPoint make the “preview” think for ages which freezes the entire application. Obviously “Quick Look” is not used in all instances of Together and, really bad, you can’t disable the preview in order to use it as a flat finder replacement (sure you can expand the file list and “hide” the preview”, but this does not do the trick when it comes to performance).
Tagging was really the thing why I bought Together and the on-screen panel to drop files or search the file base was something I really liked. But tagging becomes very inefficient if you discover that you are mostly tagging files with keywords that are also part of the file name.
My bottom-line is: Use Together if you store a lot of PDFs, images, notes, text files and especially Web Pages (as Bookmarks, Web Archives or PDFs). It’ll come handy for this – if you look for something that manages your reference files (which can be quite a lot) Together might not be the right thing for you.
Next to the MobileMe syncing there are a few other “bugs”, which I would call rather strange behavior, e.g. if you try to open a file from the sidebar (drop area on the desktop) in its original application, it just won’t do – you can open it in a tab in Together or open Together and perform the request there…
Good program for organization. Was looking for a program like this.
I sync Together across multiple computers by accessing the same library via Dropbox. As long as you don’t have it running on more than 1 computer at a time, it works just fine.
I find the QuickLook feature both a blessing and a curse. It’s great to see the preview in a 3-pane layout, but as Sven mentioned, there’s also a short lag when displaying it.
Overall though, after evaluating the competition, I find Together meets my needs the best. And the developer is responsive and has a good support forum.
Strange that this app got only C+. In this category of info managers and note writers, Together comes on top with Journler. I’d give a slight advantage to Journler just because it has a better usage of the integrated web browser. Other than that Together is somewhere in the “B+ to A” range … means it’s really good.
I am using Together and I think it’s great. I am primarily using it to organize researh for something that I’m writing. One of the most useful features of Together is that it allows you to edit web archives. So you can save a web page as an archive within Together and then whittle it down to only the parts that you need. I also own Devonthink Personal and I found Together much more useful, specifically because of the web archive features.