This is an outstanding update -- I'm surprised how much I like the idea of mixing "managed" documents with those that are simply on my hard drive. The change in philosophy in this version fixes many of the limitation of earlier versions.

The biggest criticism I can give about 1.5.1 is that the update is quite jarring -- it's almost guaranteed to alarm anybody who runs the program for the first time. The programmers would be strongly advised to change the program so that it defaults to the "managed documents" iTunes-like method of earlier versions, and asks users if they would like to also track other folders. It's a great feature, and should be pointed out to users, but I have to say it scared the hell out of me when it spontaneously started importing hundreds of PDFs from all over my hard drive. Was it moving all this into the Yep folder? What the hell was happening??? ACK! Stop!!!! I almost force-quit the program, not realizing that the change would be easily undo-able in Preferences.

That, however, is easily remedied, and after that initial confusion, the new program is simply outstanding. I have it set up to track my Documents folder and Desktop.

Time will tell if the "too many methods" aspect might become confusing, as we can now use tags, organize in folders, AND organize in iTunes-like playlists. You can use the three in combination, however, which could be quite powerful. For example, I can go into folder view, select just the Yep folder, and then flip back to the tag cloud and use it just with the group of files I selected in folder view. Nice.

The "use path elements as tags" feature is also interesting. Basically, the program can auto-assign tags based on the folders in the path of a particular file. So if I have a folder in my documents folder called "receipts", they will all automatically show up under a tag "receipts" in Yep. This feature can be turned on or off if you don't use it, OR you can choose to stifle just certain path tags. Again, _very_ well thought out, and very powerful.

It's unusual to find shareware in which the user interface is as well thought-0out as with Yep. They really designed this thing, with a minimum of "gee wiz" flash (like the clumsy but beautiful "Delicious Monster") and a real eye towards ease of use, flexibility, and power.

A very nice effort.