Product Reviews

Yojimbo is a brand-new information storage application from the same company that brought you BBEdit and Mailsmith. Unlike them, though, this is an ultra-modern, completely up-to-date Cocoa application with a clear interface and some clever new ideas.

Yojimbo's first important feature is the ease with which you can add data to it. Drag stuff in, use the built-in import, or make use of two special data-trappers called the Drop Dock and the Quick Input Panel. Whatever means you employ, Yojimbo makes grabbing data a quick and simple affair. As with iTunes or iPhoto, your data is stored in a library, within which you can create as many sub-folders (Yojimbo calls them Collections) as you like.

Clear implementation of advanced features is what marks it out from its rivals. You can securely store any item in Yojimbo using encryption. You're asked to set up a password that you'll need to view any encrypted data from then on. As well as encrypting secret text notes (which, like any OS X rich text document, can also include pictures), Yojimbo encourages you to store really sensitive stuff such as website passwords and software serial numbers. Each is treated as a different data set and can be accessed quickly using a Smart Collection. Other Smart Collections include items you've flagged and those

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you've recently used. However, you're limited to the supplied Smart Collections and can't create your own.

Yojimbo's Drop Dock lurks at the side of your screen, and is reminiscent of one of OS 9's tabbed folders. If you're the dragging sort, you can use it to quickly add new data: simply drag anything onto the tab, and it will expand to let you drop it in to the Library. With the Drop Dock enabled, you can leave Yojimbo hidden or minimised and continue to add to it without interrupting your workflow.

The Quick Input Panel works in the same way. You call it up with a keyboard shortcut, and it will automatically insert whatever you last copied to the Clipboard, ready for you to add to Yojimbo. The benefit of using this over the Drop Dock is that you can add additional metadata and notes of your own.

Yojimbo shines as a web research tool. It will download any web page as a saved web archive, which becomes just as searchable as your text notes and can be categorised into any of your personal folders or Collections. It will also store all your bookmarks, leaving you free to flit from browser to browser, but doesn't offer a simple way to import your existing bookmarks collection from a web browser.

It also includes seamless .Mac synchronisation: if you have .Mac installed, you'll see 'Yojimbo items' appears under your .Mac settings in System Preferences. All your Yojimbo data will be automatically backed up the next time you sync.

Yojimbo is a radical new departure for Bare Bones, but could easily be as successful as its older cousin, BBEdit. The information management market for OS X is very crowded - applications such as VoodooPad, Mori, DEVONthink and StickyBrain are well established - but Yojimbo makes a virtue of simplicity, while still boasting some unique features. Even this crowded market will have to shuffle up and make space for the newcomer.