The Journal Newsletter
Introduction
Welcome to The Journal’s November 2005 newsletter!
In “Tips & Tricks” I describe the new bookmark feature, and Susan provides a new set of writing exercises.
For those of you that are participating in this year’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, http://www.nanowrimo.org/ ): Good luck!
If you’re using The Journal for your NaNoWriMo project, please feel free to write me and tell me about it. I wrote about using The Journal with NaNoWriMo last year ( link here ), but I would like to pull together actual user experiences and put them in the newsletter. So email me: support@davidrm.com
Thank you for choosing DavidRM Software’s The Journal!
Tips & Tricks
TIP: Using Bookmarks in Entries
A recent addition to The Journal are bookmarks. Bookmarks allow you to “mark your place” within entries. You can use bookmarks to quickly return to a particular place in an entry, and you can even link to a bookmark from another entry.
To insert a bookmark:
- Open the entry you want to bookmark.
- Position the editing cursor to the point in the entry where you want to place the bookmark.
- Click on the “Insert” menu and choose “Insert Bookmark”.
- Enter a name for the bookmark.
Bookmarks are displayed as a dashed line (- – – -) just above the paragraph with the bookmark.
Bookmarks can make it easier to navigate long entries. On the “Go” menu, you can open the “Go to Bookmark in Entry” sub-menu to see a list of bookmarks in the currently active entry. Clicking on a bookmark in the sub-menu will take you to that bookmark.
Going to a bookmark is remembered in your navigation history, so you can use the “Back” and “Forward” buttons, as well. (You can learn more about the Back/Forward buttons here)
To link to a bookmark from another entry:
- Click on the “Insert” menu and choose “Insert Link”.
- Click on the “Select an Entry” button.
- Find the entry you want to link to. The bookmarks in that entry will be listed below the entry. Select the bookmark you want and click “OK”.
Writing Prompts
by Susan Michael
Free Writing Exercise – Write for 20 minutes using the starter, “Cardboard Box”.
Poetry Exercise – Write a poem that focuses on sound.
Prose Exercise – Write a story that involves a person who has a compulsive habit. Consider using humor.
Journaling Exercise – Write about your spending budget. What do you find yourself spending your discretionary funds on? Are these things that are meaningful to you?
Memoir Prompt – Write about any unexpected opportunities that came up this year. Are there specific things that you had done prior to the opportunity that made it possible, or allowed for you to act upon it?
Opinion Prompt – What do you think makes a charity organization effective? What needs in your community are meet by charitable organizations?
About the author: Susan Michael currently facilitates the Tulsa Writers Cafe for the Arts & Humanities Council in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ms. Michael has also led writing & creativity workshops for children, teenagers, and adults.
Submission Information
If you would like to contribute to the “How I Use The Journal”, “Writing Exercises”, or “Tips & Tricks” sections, or would like to submit an article about journaling, writing, or another The Journal-related topic, we would love to hear from you.
Submissions for the newsletter should be sent to: support@davidrm.com
If you are submitting for a particular section, please indicate which one. Try to limit your submissions to 500-1000 words. Submissions may be edited for length and content.
If you prefer to remain anonymous, please state this in the email. Otherwise your name (but not your email) will be used in the article heading.
As always, if you have any suggestions for, or bug reports about, The Journal, please feel free to email them. Both are always welcome.