Note: This is the third in a series of posts that compares Journler, Together and Evernote in a PIM faceoff for Macs. The first post can be found here.
Together is a beautiful program with intuitive tagging options and quite a bit of customizability.
I discovered Together while exploring my options to Journler, which I reviewed here as a part of this series.
Where Together shines
Here’s some of Together’s more powerful features:
- Developer and community. Like Journler, Together has a strong online community. It also has a responsive developer in Steve Harris. Steve monitors his forums, and he is quick to not only answer but to follow up later when issues are resolved or requests added to Together.
- Storage structure. Together does not use a database to store information but instead a regular folder system that can be navigated from the Finder. This ensures your data is safe and not kept in some proprietary format.
- File handling. You can add any file type to Together, but past that Together can render and read most of the common file types. You also launch files in their native app from Together.
- Adding content. Together uses and omnipresent shelf that resides on the side of your screen. It is hidden until you slide to it. Content added through here can be renamed, tagged, placed in a category, etc. Content can also be added using system-wide shortcuts.
- Organization. Together automatically organizes everything you add to it in a series of categories, such as Documents, Notes, Images, Video, etc. This makes it easy to find files or notes by type. You can also color code by categories, file types or just with individual items.
- Syncing. Together is able to sync across multiple computers with .Mac. This is invaluable to me, considering I use at least two computers. Steve has spent a bit of time over two updates to improve the syncing abilities. I find it works well now.
Shortcomings of Together
As I said, Together is a beautiful app. It’s one that I really want to use as my PIM, but it has a few shortcomings that force me to keep looking elsewhere.
That said, most of the shortcomings are based on how I prefer to work and will not bother others.
Here’s where I think Together needs to improve:
- Nested Smart Folders. Together offers Smart Folders, but you cannot nest Smart Folders into each other like you can in Journler. Therefore, you get a long list of folders with names like: PROJECT:CATEGORY:SMART FOLDER. That’s just not intuitive for me. What Together does allow are Smart Folders and Groups to be nested inside Folders and other Groups. This, however, is just a filing hierarchy and not nested Smart Folders.
- iPhone app. There is no iPhone app and no plans for one on the horizon. Increasingly I’m needing the ability to add data or review data from my phone. While this is not a deal-breaker by any means, all things being equal I would prefer a PIM with an iPhone app.
- iPhone app. There is no iPhone app and no plans for one on the horizon. Increasingly I’m needing the ability to add data or review data from my phone. While this is not a deal-breaker by any means, all things being equal I would prefer a PIM with an iPhone app.
Recapping the review
Together is a splended piece of software and probably the most powerful desktop PIM available. It’s native file structure, easy drag-and-drop abilities and intuitive organizational system make it a powerful tool.
Where Together falls behind is the ability to structure a filing system based on smart folders. And while you can easily sync Together across multiple computers, adding information on the go via iPhone is not possible (or even planned).
Together costs $39 for a single license, $14.95 for an upgrade and $29 for a student license.
Note: You can find the review of Journler here.
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