Hello,
First off, I want to say how much I like this app already, and how I hope it will make my life easier as a digital content creator who always seems to be looking for files. I'm trying to understand a few things about how this app works, so please excuse me if my questions are lame.
1) If I understand correctly, the tags created are actually embedded within each file... so if I copy a file to my friend's Mac, Spotlight will pick up on the tags embedded within that file even if he doesn't have Punakea. Is that correct?
2) If the above is true, then what is the huge folder structure that's starting to appear beneath the Tags folder doing/why is it being created? What happens if this folder were to get deleted by accident? What information is residing within it?
3) I have 2 Macs: an iMac at my office, and a Macbook Pro that I take home every night. I also have a Dropbox account that I use to keep critical files insync at both location. Do I want to place my "Tags" folder within my Dropbox and have it sync across both machines, or do I want to keep the "Tags" folder on each machine separate, and why would you do either?
Thanks in advance.
Jacob
One More Question... 4) What
One More Question...
4) What is the "Rebuild Tag Database" functionality? Do I want to do that on some sort of regular basis as a maintenance routine, or is it only for emergencies?
Hi Jacob 1) If I understand
Hi Jacob
1) If I understand correctly, the tags created are actually embedded within each file... so if I copy a file to my friend's Mac, Spotlight will pick up on the tags embedded within that file even if he doesn't have Punakea. Is that correct?
Tags are not directly embedded in the file, but attached to it using file system extended attributes - for a more detailed explanation, see our FAQ. Still, if you copy the files using Apple file sharing, the tags should be copied. If you transfer them using e.g. a USB stick, they will get delted if you are using FAT32 formatting on the USB stick (which most USB sticks are set to in their original form). Only hfs+ supports the extended attributes.
2) If the above is true, then what is the huge folder structure that's starting to appear beneath the Tags folder doing/why is it being created? What happens if this folder were to get deleted by accident? What information is residing within it?
The tags folder is only a means of quickly accessing your tagged files from the Finder (e.g. in an "Open File" dialog). There is no information residing in them, they are generated automatically from the tags on your files (and you can recreate the tags folder at any time in Punakea's preferences).
3) I have 2 Macs: an iMac at my office, and a Macbook Pro that I take home every night. I also have a Dropbox account that I use to keep critical files insync at both location. Do I want to place my "Tags" folder within my Dropbox and have it sync across both machines, or do I want to keep the "Tags" folder on each machine separate, and why would you do either?
As mentioned above, the tags folder doesn't contain any real information. The current development version of Dropbox supports syncing extended attributes - so if you let Punakea manage your files, and put the folder on Dropbox, it will sync the tag information. But I would wait until this Dropbox version is released officially before doing so.
4) What is the "Rebuild Tag Database" functionality? Do I want to do that on some sort of regular basis as a maintenance routine, or is it only for emergencies?
It's only for cases when your Punakea tag database is out of sync with the real tags on files. This would happen e.g. if you sync the files between different computers, and add tags on one computer but not on others, or when copying tagged files from your friends. Punakea then re-reads all tags from the extended attributes in all tagged files and sets the tag database accordingly.
I hope that helped, if you have any other questions, please feel free to ask :)
Cheers
Johannes