14 DAY TRIAL // When it comes to information managers and clipping storage programs, there are a bunch of them out there, and many of them are great pieces of software, so you have plenty to choose from. These programs that have a wide range of uses and practical applications can be used for many things and usually fall into the "Getting Things Done" category. Mori is one such program that can help you get things done. This program is in fact the reincarnation of "Hog Bay Notebook", which was quite popular and respected. This means that Mori is a complete rewrite, but, although it has many of the features that were present in Hog Bay Notebook, it is still missing some of them.
First Impressions Mori has stuck true to the clean, supple application that Hog Bay Notebook was. It is written in Cocoa and looks, feels and acts as if it were one of the bundled programs that come with the system from Apple. The program itself is a cross over between Mail and Text Edit. All the information handled by the program is neatly organized in order to give as much space where you need it and everything behaves as you would expect it to. So much so that upon first opening it and parsing through the menus I was left with the impression that this was a poor, simplistic program.
Working with it Mori is designed to keep your information structured, accessible, easily editable. Everything in Mori is kept in the Sources column which is identical to a Finder List View. Every entry can be stored in a folder, you can have as many levels of subfolders as you wish, not to mention aliases and smart folders.
Selecting any source will display the contents of that source in the entries view. Entries View is another list view, but, unlike the Sources, which you can order any way you like, the Entries can be sorted using the predefined columns, and you can customize which columns you want to make visible and even create your own new ones. Of the columns that are not shown by default, the State is particularly useful, since it displays a little check box next to each entry or folder that you can use to indicate which tasks or ideas have been handled and which are still pending. The program will automatically update any enclosing entry with a not done, done or partially done status based on the statuses of the entries inside. The only shortcoming that I noticed is that you cannot see the status in the sources display. Another great thing that I have noted is that clicking repeatedly on a column header will cycle through order ascending, order descending and order none. This is great because you can quickly sort using one criteria and then just click again to stop sorting and go back to the way the list was before.
Interestingly enough, in Mori, there is little difference between an entry (note) and a folder. This is because notes can house notes, and those housed notes can house sub-notes. The only thing that an entry cannot store is a Folder, and this is why folders are still useful. The entire approach is quite mind-boggling, because, not only can you have notes inside notes inside notes, you can also have aliases. Thing is, although the Finder name is used, and the Finder functionality is implied, these are not aliases, but instances. Those who have worked with 3D applications will know what I am referring to... an instance is not merely a link to the "original" file, it is the "original" file, and the "original" file is the instance, in that no matter where you make any change, either in the in "original" entry or the instance, it will be reflected in all instances. Once a entry has been instanced, there is no more "original" entry, both of them from that point on are the original, and Mori reflects this well by adding the little alias arrow even to the file that was instanced. Arguably, the use of the familiar term 'alias' to describe an instance can lead to confusion and the use of the the word 'instance' might not be such a bad idea.
Labels provide all the color you could possibly need while smart folders are an excellent way to aggregate information. Both these methods, although great for the visually inclined, fall very short when compared to the humble search field. Mori supports wildcards anywhere in the name as well as boolean operators, complete with parenthesis grouping to quickly and intuitively formulate complex searches such as "cat AND (dog OR newt) NOT (cat AND donkey)". Another great thing about searching through Mori contents is how you can do it from Spotlight, even when Mori is not open.
The Good A great 'Get Things Done' program, with incredible freeform organizing capabilities. The alias/instance really blows my mind and opens up an entire new way of working with the information. Everything is very customizable, but very clean and simple. There is no bloat, it's all just the important things you really need.
The Bad Still many features that need to get here, but as for what is present in the program at this moment, none of it is bad. It's all good.
The Truth This is a deceptive little application, it looks as if it doesn't do anything much, but if you spend 10 minutes messing about in it you get hooked. It's just too good.
Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge:
