I’ve tried most of these tools too, and none of them really accomplish what it is I’m after. They all assume that you’ll be using the tool for both the creation and organization of the information you create. But frankly, between OmniOutliner and BBEdit, I don’t need anything helping me make more stuff.

I’m way more interested in self-assigned file system metadata. That is, I’m sick to death of the Save dialog box only asking me where I want to put the file. I’d rather just save a snapshot of the file, fill in some metadata values, and leave it at that. Then, the Finder can help me with views. “Show me the files I worked on last week for project “Intranet” with keywords “Proposals” and “Vendors”.

I hear rumors that 10.4 will include a file system database. I hope so…