The Journal Newsletter

The Journal’s newsletter is no longer sent out. Previous issues are still available, though.

 

Newsletter Archives

  • The Journal Newsletter – December 2010
    Happy Holidays, everyone! I'm working on a minor (free) update of The Journal 5.1. So if you have any bugs you haven't reported because you were waiting for Christmas, now is a good time to let me know. 🙂 I had hoped to have this update done before Christmas, but it might not be available until after the New Year. If I get it done before then, I'll announce it on the email discussion list. This month's tips show you how to copy and paste entries from the entry tree, and how to select more than one entry to create a batch for copying, pasting, etc. Finally, I describe how I used The Journal to write my newly released young adult novel, The Girl Who Ran With Horses.
  • The Journal Newsletter – October 2010
    Welcome to the last week of October! An update of The Journal 5.1 is now available. See "The Journal News" below for more information. October means that NaNoWriMo is next month (next *week*)! If you're participating in Nano this year, feel free to look me up. I'm "DavidRM" (as I usually am). Also, make a point to stop by The Journal's promotional thread in the forums and tell how you use The Journal. Here's a link: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3713968 If you're not familiar with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), check it out at their Web page: http://www.nanowrimo.org This month's tips tell you how to repair and optimize your Journal Volume(s).
  • The Journal Newsletter – September 2010
    It's autumn! (My favorite time of year.) A new writing prompts add-on is in the works, as is a new minor update of The Journal 5.1. I expect to have more news about both of those in next month's newsletter. The Journal is now on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/DavidRM-Softwares-The-Journal/138124756233010 If you're on Facebook, please drop by. And Like us. We can't get enough Like. This months tips describe how to drag-and-drop entries between categories and how to get detailed information about your entries.
  • The Journal Newsletter – August 2010
    Welcome to August 2010! For those of you interested in anniversaries: 10 years ago this month I sent out the first newsletter for The Journal. You can check out that first issue here: The Journal Newsletter - August 2000 According to the "How I Use The Journal" article that I wrote back then, I had 29 total categories, 11 of those active. Today, I have 97 total categories, 61 of them active. Which seems like a lot all of a sudden. I was pleased to see that the first Tip in that first newsletter ("Faster Daily Entry Browsing") is still valid, even though I was writing for The Journal 2 at that time. How to change the default category font, though, is different (easier) today than it was then (click on the "Category" menu and choose "Change Default Font for ..."). In that spirit, this month's Tip updates the old tip "Adjusting the Security Level of The Journal" for The Journal 5.
  • The Journal Newsletter – July 2010
    Welcome to July 2010! (Yes, I know, it's almost August. Summer seems to be cruising along, non-stop, forcing me to catch up.) This month history blogger Laura Donaldson gives us some pointers on how to keep a journal for future historians, and we have a tip about inserting media files in your entries.
  • The Journal Newsletter – June 2010
    Today, 18 June, is The Journal's 14th birthday. In "software years", this qualifies as "mature", I think. Possibly even older than me. =) The Journal has worked on every version of Windows since Windows 95, and now works on Windows 7. A lot has changed in the software world since 1996, including The Journal. And yet, quite a bit remains the same. In The Journal, there are still category tabs, and a calendar with an entry tree automatically organized for you by date, and you can still format your text (this has always been important to me) pretty much any way you like. I tried to find an old screen shot of The Journal 1, but I seem to have misplaced them all. That's probably just as well. It was quite ugly, in a Windows 95/Visual Basic kind of way. 😉 This month's tips are about The Journal's default folder paths, and how to rename a Journal Volume. Plus, we have a new set of writing prompts.
  • The Journal Newsletter – May 2010
    May always seems to be a busy month. Especially this year, as my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. We threw them "a bit of a do". Very fun, and great to see all the siblings and most of the grandkids and great-grandkids (my parents's grandkids and great-grandkids, I mean; I have neither; so far). I hope your May has been full of family and fun, as well. =) I also released an update of The Journal 5.1 this month. See "The Journal News" below for more information. We have a new set of writing exercises, and in the tips section I discuss the difference between "Save Journal" and "Backup The Journal" and "Save Entry As..."
  • The Journal Newsletter – April 2010
    Welcome to April 2010! (Off topic: Weren't we supposed to have spaceships on the way to Jupiter about now? 2010 and all? No? I read too much science fiction as a kid? Ok...) This month Jono Martin shares some handy auto-replace strings, and, as always, we have a new set of writing exercises.
  • The Journal Newsletter – March 2010
    March 2010. Already. And now nearly gone... An update of The Journal 5.1 (Build #417) was released the beginning of this month. See "The Journal News" below for more information. This month's tips talk about a new HTML export option and point out that there is no "Right Way" to use The Journal. Plus, we have a new set of writing prompts.
  • The Journal Newsletter – February 2010
    I hope everyone had a happy St. Valentines Day. =) The Journal's Web page got a makeover in the past few weeks. Feel free to drop by and look it over. My thanks to Beth Gardner of Show Presence Design for her help with the new Web page. This month's tips explore using The Journal over a network and options for sharing categories between users. Plus, we have a new set of writing prompts.
  • The Journal Newsletter – January 2010
    Happy (Slightly Belated) New Year! =) This month's tips describe how to use (or not use) the new day planner view for reminders, and how to see your MS Outlook calendar reminders in The Journal. Plus, we have a new set of writing prompts.
  • The Journal Newsletter – December 2009
    This month's tips describe how to use the new ability to wrap text around images in your entries, plus how to recover a category from a backup. And, of course, we have a new set of writing exercises.