Cult of Mac favorite: Yep (Mac OS X app)

20090414-yep

What it is: A PDF manager—think iPhoto for PDF, but with superior tagging, and no weakness for mucking about with file locations.

Why it’s good: Along with being absurdly fast (our copy was ready to rock on a Mac with several thousand PDFs after about two seconds), Yep automatically creates tag keywords based on document locations, and, unlike iLife apps, doesn’t copy documents into its own database—it just leaves them wherever you’ve stored them. User-defined tags and smart collections enable you to rapidly create virtual dynamic groups of PDFs based on your own criteria, and since metadata is written to each file, searches can be performed in Spotlight. The ‘Tracking Locations’ sidebar enables you to navigate in a Finder-like way, but filters the main view to display previews of PDFs in the current folder and nested ones. Also, the succinct manual’s dead good and should get you going if you find the interface a wee bit bewildering to start with.

Where to get it: Yep is available from Ironic Software, costs $34, and requires Mac OS X 10.4.10 or later.

DON'T MISS
Quickly Add Items To The Dock Or Finder Sidebar [OS X Tip]

About the author

Craig Grannell

Craig Grannell is Cult of Mac's designer and an occasional contributor. He also runs iPhoneTiny.com, a Twitter-driven reviews site for iPhone apps and games. Follow Craig on Twitter @CraigGrannell and visit his website, Snub Communications.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by .

Posted in Reviews |

  • dima

    This is just an extremely insufficient version of papers….

    http://mekentosj.com/papers/

  • Addi

    I LOVE Yep. I use it to manage all of my reading for my graduate studies. What your review doesn’t mention is that Yep also writes metadata to the PDF file itself, making your keywords and comments available through Spotlight too.

  • http://www.fitzgeraldshotelandcasino.net FitzgeraldsHotel&Casino

    Cool program, but I still don’t have enough PDFs to make it worthwhile.