Hello fellow independent creative types. I have long been a fan of TaskPaper. But it wasn’t until recently when I discovered a new app called Freeter that I returned to the TaskPaper fold. To say that I have challenges with organization would be an understatement. Freeter is something that I now rely on. It allows me to set up projects and in those projects I can set up file explorer windows (folder trees with files I am working with on project). I can also put in web links and all sorts of web widgets. Basically it is a way of keeping all the things I am using to work through a project all in a single interface.
And, this is what brought me back to TaskPaper. I have too many projects and I kept using Taskpaer as overkill. Now I have a central organizing system and all my projects are a pull down menu away. On each project I now have a button to launch my TaskPaper task progress and organization page. The TaskPaper file mirrors my Freeter projects. Now for the first time I am getting a grip on which projects I am working on and I can use TaskPaper to keep track of my progress.
Freeter was recently sold and a new developer has his hands on it. What will happen going forward we do not know. But initial feedback from the new developer is positive and there is reason to believe it is still going to be developed. Freeter runs on Mac or Windows. It will do almost everything in it’s free and basic from. That is, you can use it for three projects as a free app. It’s about $30 for the unlimited version. I caught it on sale a few weeks ago so the full version is what I am now using.
I have so many things to attend to. New projects like getting a book written are too far down the line. But now it looks like I finally have a manageable strategy using TaskPaper and Freeter. I wanted to pass it along in case anyone else is interested. And no, I am not selling it nor am I connected with the company. Just passing on something good that worked for me in conjunction with using TaskPaper,
Here is a YouTube video about using Freeter: Freeter video
Here is Freeter’s home page: Freeter Home
Update: The new Freeter developer is now on board and supporting improvements. He has been great at responding to user feedback and it seems this products future will continue. Yippee!
Do you use their text editor widget to edit the taskPaper file that corresponds to that project?
If I understood you correctly, I think that many people use something like Devonthink to accomplish the same. If you have not given Devonthink a look, you should. It add several other important features like Sync, Markdown support, better searching abilities and also their “AI” to help you categorize projects and the files you organize into it. Their tag support is very awesome too, and the app has a very strong following and is super stable. The only disadvantage is that since the program is very mature and full of options, the development is very sluggish and they don’t take suggestions or ideas very well.
I even used Devonthink to help me write a complex manual Devonthink to organize other examples, ideas, and the source files which I had indexed from a Dropbox directory. The source files were in MMD and I use a template to get that done.
You should give it a try if you ever have the chance.
I have a license for Devonthink Pro. It has strong AI capabilities. I don’t think much of their customer service but, the software is still pretty robust. However, it is not the same as Freeter. It is not a question of what is more powerful as DevonThink would win easily. It is about what works effectively and simply. DT wants you to work in it’s environment alone. TaskPaper is not complicated, but it works very well. Freeter is also pretty simple to use. I don’t have to worry about updating an index like DT does and I don’t have to wrap my brain about how DT does things as it likes to use it’s own built in text and browser tools.
I want to support the file structure I already have in place on my drive. And yes, DT will allow indexing too but again, this is not a comparison. Freeter is a dashboard and a pretty handy one at that. DT is great for complex comparisons of content using their AI. But I am merely trying to stay on top of various projects. I posted a link to Freeter, check it out if you like. Without getting married to the whole DT way of doing things, Freeter allows me a lot of freedom, peace of mind, and finally at the end of the day, success.
And no, I am not finding Freeters notes field of too much use yet. You can’t print from them and you have to manually select all the text to copy out of them. I do keep some things in Freeters notes and todos, but I am still learning to do things this way. All my Freeter projects have a file launch button to my TaskPaper document. I find it much better to keep my progress notes in the same place (TaskPaper).
In case it helps, here is a screen shot of what this typically looks like. Freeter is behind my TaskPaper Dark theme document. Clicking on that lower left button in Freeter launched my TaskPaper file. Clicking the one beside it opens the .less file.
Each project is from the pull down menu on the upper left and each project has a TaskPaper launch button in the same place. IT seems to fit quite well for my purposes. I am still trying to track overall progress locally in Freeter but like I was saying, I am still new to all of this.
Thanks for the tip – looks like an interesting product (Freeter). Prompted by the recommendation, above, I’m using the free version but don’t want to commit the money for the full version yet until we know more about the new owner’s roadmap. I think @mylevelbest pointed out that the free version is pretty fully featured anyway. I hope it can stay around and evolve.
