Freshly Squeezed Reviews: Yep, It’s Great
Posted by Frank Petrie 
Jun 26, 2007 at 6:39am
In my never ending quest for the paperless office, I have collected a substantial number of PDF files. Manuals, receipts, product literature and so on. That’s where the computer revolution was to lead us. But just as with paper files, they need to be organized, so do PDF files. And that’s where Yep (US$34) from Ironic Software comes in.
“Photos have iPhoto. Music has iTunes. But when it comes to PDFs, you’re on your own. That is, until now. Now there is Yep and there’s no looking back.”
“Now that Yep makes it so easy to keep all your PDF documents in one place, instantly retrievable and searchable, it might just be time to start scanning some of those paper documents into your computer and Yep will help you do it.”
So, I may have found my grail to the paperless office (I can’t wait to find out if there’s a wooden desk under all those mounds of paper).
The Juice
When you launch Yep for the first time, it’ll automatically show you all your PDFs tagged based on where they were found on your hard disk. Then you start adding your own tags and customize your filing system the way you prefer it.
There are eight different preference categories. I found the most auto-tagging the most interesting. Not only can you set Yep to look within documents for names from your address book or keywords from academic papers. You can program Yep to use or not to use specific keywords.
There’s also Loupe. Loupe is basically a magnifier. So, once you have brought up the documents under the keywords that you choose, you can use Loupe to scan your documents to find the one that you’re searching for.
As for support, Yep has a Help Viewer an online FAQ and, naturally, a .pdf manual. All are thorough and should answer any question that you may have.
The Pits
Nada.
The Rind
Nada.
The Pulp
I’m in one trick pony heaven. Yep will help me fulfill my dream – the paperless office. And for all you’re getting, I believe the price to be reasonable. This puppy will save you lots of frustration and searching. Also, the authors encourage feedback, pro and con. I like that in a company.
So now with Yep’s assistance, maybe I can get organized in spite of myself. It’s a long shot but I can still give it a bash.
System requirements: Mac OS X 10.4.0 or later; Yep is Universal Binary so runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs.
Macsimum rating: 10 out of 10
Johnny Says:
I can see where this would be good for archival storage of PDF’s but, what about the case where your PDF files are being updated on a frequent basis? In my particular case I have thousands of PDF documents that are constantly undergoing revision. Any idea which program would help the management of all of them and also do what YEP does?
Posted on June 26, 2007
David Says:
Oh now this I like the look of, think I’ll be trying it
Posted on June 26, 2007
Anthony Pittarelli Says:
isnt this built into leopard to some degree?
Posted on June 26, 2007
Dale Says:
Since one can already add Spotlight keywords to documents and search on those—how much more does YEP add to this capability?
Posted on June 26, 2007
Evan Andersen Says:
The search inside of Yep is mush more persise because
a) It only searches PDFs
b) It as a better search algorithm
c) More documents have tages because Yep Auto-tags.
All in all, eith my setup of 5000 PDFs, i can find any 1 within 30 seconds.
Nice.
Posted on June 26, 2007
Peter Heim Says:
Two Words: Smart Folders.
Posted on June 26, 2007
Tom Andersen of Ironic Software Says:
For Johnny:
Since Yep does not copy or move your PDFs - it does not matter if the PDFs you deal with are constantly moving around, changing, etc - Yep will keep track of them.
For Dale: You can only set tags on one document at a time through the Finder Comments field. Yep allows you to set tags on hundreds of docs in a few seconds. Yep also helps you pick tags that you have used before, etc.
Leopard will not have any way to add tags, etc to documents easily. Finder comments really don’t work all that well when you have to rely on them. Under Leopard, searches in Yep are faster, since spotlight is faster there.
Posted on June 27, 2007
friedmandesigns Says:
When i read the blurb for Yep (something alone lines of ‘iPhoto for your .PDF’s) i chuckled - but a few minutes using entirely hooked me. I’ve got disparate folders (school/academia, e-texts, receipts, manuals, etc etc ad infinitum, nearly) and i’ve always manually finder’d through them, or sometimes tried spotlight - Yep kicks arse all around. The tags is worth the price of admission alone, and as someone above said, searching is quite quick - i’m only around 1,000 documents but it pinpoints what i’m looking for within a couple seconds at most. Not a ‘Yep shill’ but wanted to pass on my .02 cents on something that’s made my mac usage way more efficient. Palabra.
Posted on October 14, 2007
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Frank Petrie
Frank Petrie is a freelance writer, technologies and products specialist and curmudgeon-in-training.
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Don Foy Says:
I agree with Frank. I love this program. I have a slew of product and software manuals in pdf (since almost no one provides actual paper any more), and this program allows me to find those things. Yay, Yep.
Posted on June 26, 2007