Reinvented Software has a replacement for it's Together content management desktop software. Keep It -- now in beta. Features new to Keep It vs. Together:

http://reinventedsoftware.com/keepit/#together

$19.99 upgrade for Together v3 licensees. Higher for new licenses. An iOS app also in beta. Can sync an entire database via iCloud.

I don't see anything significant -- but for content management CRIMPers it might be interesting.

Isn't this the second re-branding of Together? I can't remember its original name, although I have a feeling it was, like Keep It, "double-barrelled". (Was it Keep It Together?)

There was a period for me when for some reason I was not happy with DevonThink (possibly when DTTG 1 was not working as billed), and I switched to Together. It seemed a reasonable alternative, if one did not require DT Pro Office's bells and whistles or its solid performance with very large quantities of data, or if one balked at its cost.

You have a good memory. It was KIT (Keep It Together) before it was Together.

After playing with this new incarnation I have to say it's just a rebranding. The main change is iCloud sync and not worth the price of admission. The rest is the same old Together, as far as I can tell.

Hugh wrote:

Isn't this the second re-branding of Together? I can't remember its
original name, although I have a feeling it was, like Keep It,
"double-barrelled". (Was it Keep It Together?)

Paul,

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

I don't dispute the general accuracy of your comment about Keep It just being a rebranding of Together, but I think the developer has shifted the focus of the app. Where Together was a document manager first and a note manager second, I feel as if Keep It is a note manager first. It just feels that the interface has been streamlined for note taking and managing. It has a clean folder structure in addition to other ways of organizing notes. It has a nice pop up editing window which is a pleasure to write in. If I decide to purchase it, in my mind I won't be upgrading from Together, but just buying a whole new note-taking app for $20.

Steve Z.

Good point. I used Together exclusively before I migrated to DEVONthink, maybe 9 years ago, and thereafter mainly to keep up to date my old libraries -- which I migrated to Keep It. These were about 50/50 original documents / imported documents. It's the documents I've maintained and expanded or edited over the years.

So though I've had regular experience with notes in Together 2 and 3, I haven’t noticed note-centricity in Keep It -- will take a deeper look. The new "Share" features for note collaboration is interesting but I've not tested it. I wonder if the sharee (whatever the person one shares with is called) has to have a fully-paid up license to the app or not.

Steve Zeoli wrote

Where Together was a document manager first and a note manager second, I feel as if Keep It is a note manager first.

Interesting - the new name is very close to "Keep Everything", one of Together's closest competitors.

Actually, the updated Together (sorry, Keep It) looks quite interesting - the list of new features is fairly extensive. I'm delighted it's under active development; Together is one of the better info management apps that sync between macOS and iOS. Others include, of course, Keep Everything, DEVONthink (ToGo) and Notebooks (and, I suppose Scrivener, if you regard that as an info management app as well as an authoring app). Oh, and I suppose you could include Readdle Documents in there as well, in view of its text note-taking function and fantastic file management. Aargh... CRIMP coming on....

I've gained access to the Keep It iOS beta app -- anyone can request access, FWIW.

The older Together Mobile app has been removed from the iOS App Store -- but is still available from your "Purchased" library if you ever had a copy of it previously. Good to look at both for comparison.

The new app interface, so far, looks like the old app with new icons. It can edit plain text, RTF, and markdown notes. Make new notes, import (via iOS Share Sheets) or sync via iCloud with the desktop. Many markdown editors offer a toolbar with common markdown shortcut (headers, lists, etc.). Keep It does not offer that kind of toolbar, as yet. For that matter, neither does DEVONthink. In fact the interface and editing seems similar to DEVONthink's overall. Keep It iOS does not, as yet, offer PDF annotation.

I think the mobile app is more a file hub than a place to do intensive editing or writing or annotation work. Keep It iOS is a file provider in iOS document provider (iOS 9 and above), and will open documents from other document providers. Which I think a better strategy than trying to be a new entrant to the iOS editors feature race. Especially with iOS 11's Files app coming along soon. Probably be able to drag files to / from Keep It iOS from other iOS apps
An advantage (for some) over DEVONthink to Go is Keep It iOS does on-demand sync via iCloud of your database(s).

I emailed Steve at Reinvented Software with a question and I also asked him about the design philosophy behind Keep It. He confirmed that it is intended to be more note-centric. Here is what he said (he gave me permission to reproduce his response here):

"Keep It puts more emphasis on notetaking, and even though it can do everything Together could as far as the document management goes, doesn’t shout about it. This is actually where Together had its roots, but back then people seemed far more interested in the document management, and I went along with it. Over the last few years that seems to have flipped, and doubtless apps like Evernote and even Apple Notes have helped there.

"All that said, a lot of Keep It’s approach is informed by the need to work more consistently across Macs and iOS. On iOS people don’t necessarily think as much in terms of files, so de-emphasizing them and taking more of a notebook approach seems much more appropriate. And really an app like Keep It should be all about looking at stuff in a different way, or you could just use the Finder."

Steve Z.

My complain with this app is again the database. I always want to index my notes (wherevever I edit them) in Devonthink because I want to use the "see also" feature. The Keep IT app stores files as "kptinfo" file. I don't know what these files are: and, not sure if Devonthink would understand them.

Oh, my fault...it can actually a library folder (alias)--and, the notes could be RTF. this is interesting.

It seems that Keep It can only handle one library? In Together there can be multiple libraries.

When I first switched from Windows to Mac, there was a handful of apps that seemed to do similar things: Mori, Together, and DevonThink. There were others (and I can't remember all the names), but it seemed to me that Mori was the most popular of the lot. Hog Bay Software sold off Mori to another company (who did nothing with it and let it die).

With Ulysses going to subscription-ware (I only subscribe to software when I cannot live without the app), perhaps interest will increase. What I DON'T like about DevonThink is that I never can seem to figure out how to sync it and where the hell my files are.

Off topic, but these are simple questions to answer by DEVONthink's documentation, blog, forum, and very helpful support staff. Generally, files are stored in databases -- without any modifications to the documents -- and which can be exported anytime you wish. Or they can be indexed into databases and remain sitting in plain sight in your file system. The DEVONthink owners and customers can help you get started with DEVONthink Sync if you feel like trying again. It does *not* use iCloud -- which IMO is a very good thing to avoid for database syncing, from a reliability perspective. Keep It relies on iCloud for sync -- I've had recurring failures with that but others haven't. YMMV.

Jeffery Smith wrote:

What I DON'T like about DevonThink is that I never can seem to figure
out how to sync it and where the hell my files are.

I love Devonthink for it helps me index them without importing. Indeed, I don't store even a single file inside the database. All of my files are stored in Finder and indexed.

I, however, now discovered that the index system in Keep It has a slight edge over the index system of Devonthink.

- If I create a note inside an indexed folder in Devonthink, the created note is stored in the local database by default. I have tell Devonthink explicitly to move it to the Finder folder. I have to do this process again and again if I am writing notes using Devonthink's Sorter.

In Keep It, I don't have to. What I write inside Keep It is available in the Finder folder in real time. I like this. Indeed, I open the same file with Text Edit and Keep it; edit it side by side; there is no conflict at all (so far as I am hitting CMD+s on the Text Edit side).

Interesting, Dellu, thanks for the info.

Keep It is now out of beta and officially released per the Reinvented Software web site:

http://reinventedsoftware.com/news/

I don't think it is on either of the App Stores yet, but probably will be shortly. The developer is charging an $8 per year subscription for the iOS version.

Steve Z.

Thanks, Steve.

I have mixed thoughts about this. On the one hand, $8 annual is a reasonable price for app rental, compared what we've seen recently for subscriptions -- though for comparison up through it's version 2, DEVONtech has charged nothing for a rather more robust sync technology in DEVONthink to Go, albeit not available with iCloud sync. Keep It's $8 fee encourages the developer to flip the bits to give access to the sync infrastructure that Apple already built into iCloud.

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

Keep It is now out of beta and officially released per the Reinvented
Software web site:

http://reinventedsoftware.com/news/

I don't think it is on either of the App Stores yet, but probably will
be shortly. The developer is charging an $8 per year subscription for
the iOS version.

Steve Z.

I like how it stores the files: so transparent; fluid to use it with other apps like Finder and Textedit.

I am now questioning why I want to buy this application. There is not much it adds over the normal Finder. I can do most things just in Finder(+Curiota)---tagging, labeling, editing, opening etc. "Bundles" are probably the only additional, helpful tool I find myself using.

Furthermore, 40$ is a bit steeper for me.

Hm, yes, I see your point, Dellu, but I think Keep It is a substantial improvement over Together (which I like). I've made the upgrade (half price, because I already have Together), and I'm enjoying the speed and smoothness of the experience. It's even possible that Keep It will displace my note apps of choice (apart from Notes itself, that is), i.e. Bear, Ulysses and Outlinely. But we'll see how it handles the growing volume of information I shall no doubt be storing in it.

Ah well, some disappointment there: just deleted my entire Keep It library after repeated crashing. Reason: I imported ca. 4,500 files from my Curiota store. Okay, a bit brutal, but resulted in two major issues:

- crashes kept happening as I scrolled through and tried to view the files (mostly PDFs, which Keep It handles very well - individually)
- as a result, the iCloud synchronisation was thrown out, causing the app to resync most of the files (so lots of duplicates)

Hm. Bit of a pity. I'm going to try again anyway, but maybe chunking the files into smaller sets...

Chunking is probably the answer. There's a setting in preferences ("advanced") to do verbose iCloud logging, which you might turn on during your migration. If problems come up send the logs and crash reports (accessed via Console) to Steve Harris for evaluation. Often helps make a product better when users in the wild submit real-life problem logs.

FWIW, yesterday was iOS release day and iCloud was probably getting jammed by high volume from the user base.

MadaboutDana wrote:

- crashes kept happening as I scrolled through and tried to view the
files (mostly PDFs, which Keep It handles very well - individually)
- as a result, the iCloud synchronisation was thrown out, causing the
app to resync most of the files (so lots of duplicates)

Hm. Bit of a pity. I'm going to try again anyway, but maybe chunking the
files into smaller sets...

I have to say, Steve Harris has been very responsive to error reports. He's suggested that for very large imports, I simply de-activate the iCloud sync (easily done via Preferences), then do the import, then re-activate iCloud sync. Cool!

Meanwhile he's also dealt with a bug that affected very large syncs, so anyone with Keep It should upgrade to the latest version a.s.a.p. (1.0.1 as at time of writing).