v4.1.0.253

New Features

• Added support for cedilla (Ç, ç) in International Character hot-keys.
• Upgraded to latest DBISAM database software.

Bugs Fixed

• Repair utility not handling the case of an interrupted database upgrade.
• Re-installing after the end of the trial period sometimes not seeing existing Journal Volume and not allowing a restore.
• Deleting a category sometimes causing an access violation.
• Wordpress, Blogger, LiveJournal and TypePad blog profiles should default to HTML export.
• F9/F10 hot-keys looping when running The Journal under Wine.
• When creating a new category, Master Category list doesn't show nesting of sub-categories.
• Hot-key for topics, Ctrl+Shift+6, messed up the Ctrl+Shift+^ hot-key for circumflex letters: â, ê, ... (NOTE: hot-keys for topics are now limited to Ctrl+Shift+1 to Ctrl+Shift+5 and Ctrl+Shift+7 to Ctrl+Shift+0)
• Upgrading from a The Journal 2.x database isn't deciphering all old entries properly, and can have problems creating the new Journal Volume properly on a USB installation.

v4.1.0.247

New Features

• Added "Apply Default Style (retain formatting)" command to the Format menu.

Bugs Fixed

• Titles of standard entries not showing up in entry header in RTF export.
• Error is stopping the upgrade of The Journal 2.x database.
• Batch Entry Import process having not importing entries past the 23rd of the month.
• Topics sometimes inserting their name seemingly at random, when clicking in the editor or when changing active entries.

v4.1.0.241

Bugs Fixed

• Applying "No Topic" from the toolbar isn't working.
• Error creating the System database on a new computer.
• Category and entry headers not visible in the "View All Result Entries" when searching by topic.
• When displaying Calendar Charms on the calendar, not always displaying all the entries on a particular date.

v4.1.0.239

New Features

• Upgraded to latest DBISAM database software.
• Upgraded to latest TRichViewEdit component.
• Improved subscript (hot-key: Ctrl+= ) and superscript (hot-key: Ctrl+Shift+= ).

Bugs Fixed

• Clipboard Viewer (on the Edit menu) isn't working properly. Or at all.
• Path browsing and selection in some cases (example: Add Journal Volume) is very sluggish.
• Toggling "Read Only" on an entry should immediately save any changes.
• Repairing database isn't handling some cases where the table index file is corrupted.
• Clicking within a paragraph sometimes forces the caret to the beginning of the paragraph.
• Double-spacing after a paragraph with a topic applied isn't properly resetting the topic to "no topic".

v4.1.0.237

New Features

• "Create New Entry" command (hot-key: F9) now creates a new, time-stamped entry on a calendar date in standard categories (like "Daily Journal").
• Added "Display date/time entry created" to Standard Category Options.
• Added "Display first line of entry in entry tree" to Standard Category Options.
• Added "Minimize when The Journal loses focus" option to User Preferences, on the General tab.
• Added "Go to Random Entry" (hot-key: Ctrl+Shift+F5) to the Go menu.
• Added "Next Search Term" (hot-key: F3) to the Search Results form (when viewing an entry).
• Added "Search recent entries first (for standard categories)" to the Search Entries form.
• Minor improvements to dragging-and-dropping entries between categories.
• "Batch Entry Import" (on Tools menu) now imports entries with a time specified.
• When you hover the mouse over the calendar, the first line of the entry or entries on that day are displayed.

Bugs Fixed

• "Edit Image/Object Description" not always accepting ENTER.
• Minor optimizations when starting and loading.
• Some loose-leaf entries resist being re-ordered.
• Completed reminders report as "missed" when starting The Journal.
• "Missed" reminders no longer use the same icon as skipped/canceled.
• "Missed" reminders with "Display until Completed/Canceled" aren't displaying until completed/canceled.

v4.1.0.231

Bugs Fixed

• Main spell checker dictionary not properly linked. (from #229)
• Some users getting "Journal Volume couldn't be opened or created." (from #229)
• Fixed minor, miscellaneous file system issues.

v4.1.0.229

New Features

• Image descriptions now support multiple lines of text.
• Added "Add date/time to backup file name" option to Backup Settings.
• Added "Export/Import User Preferences..." commands to the User menu.
• Added "Default Image Type" (JPEG or PNG) option to Editor options.

Bugs Fixed

• Fixed some additional Windows Vista compatibility issues.
• Renaming a Journal Volume wouldn't rename the .jvdb marker file.
• Some browse buttons (...) not properly handling a relative path.
• Changed the default Journal Volume name to "Journal" (instead of "Volume").
• Inserting a Calendar Charm in an entry is leaving the cursor in front of the charm.
• Spell checker tab on User Preferences has a display glitch.
• Deleting blog profiles sometimes proving difficult.
• If an expected Journal Volume can't be found, there's no way to create a new one.
• "Delete Journal Volume" can get stuck in a "Did you want to find...?" loop.
• When printing, bullets/numbering sometimes carrying over to the next page's entry header.
• The "new user wizard" can be confusing.

v4.1.0.219

New Features

• Added "Change User Default Font..." to the User menu.
• Added "Edit Left-to-Right" and "Edit Right-to-Left" (hot-key: Ctrl+Shift+R) to the Format menu, and overall better support for right-to-left languages.
• Added "Copy Link" to the Edit menu, and the editor right-click context menu.
• When you hover the mouse over the calendar, the reminders due that day are displayed.

Bugs Fixed

• "Insert URL when pasting from Web Pages" needs to be more discerning.
• "Insert URL when pasting from Web Pages" should default to OFF.
• When using "Change Default Font" for a category, "Reset to Default" wasn't properly resetting the font.
• Importing a JNX export file with a lot of categories/entries is very slow.
• "Copy" command is disabled when a part of a table is selected.

v4.1.0.213

New Features

• Added "Insert URL when pasting HTML from Web pages" to User Preferences, Editor options.
• Added "-repair" command line option to force database repair.
• Added "Change Default Font" to the Format and Category menus.
• Some menu re-organization.

Bugs Fixed

• Auto-save timer remains active when minimized.
• Pasting from Firefox defaulting to unformatted text.
• The Journal isn't closing properly during Windows shutdown when minimized.
• Viewing highlighted search results in Search Entries sometimes getting an "Index out of bounds" error.
• Installing/uninstalling packages sometimes causing errors.
• Deleting a category sometimes causing an error.
• Changed the default backup path (possible Vista issue).
• Pasting an image into an entry with topics causing an error.
• "The Journal FAQ" on the Help menu isn't working.
• Animated GIF's pasted into an entry are becoming inanimate.
• In Search Results, not all instances of the search text are being highlighted.

v4.1.0.207

New Features

• Added GLOBALVARSPACE attribute to the <template> tag.
• Add-on packages can now automatically create toolbars for inserting templates.
• Exporting to HTML now converts entry links to links that will function properly in the exported HTML files.
• Added some more "new user tips", including a "How to Make Your Own Templates" entry to the Templates category.
• Now using HTML Help (instead of WinHelp).
• Get Web Page and Post to Blog now support HTTPS servers.
• Added blog support for MSN Spaces.
• Extended blog support for Blogger (to support Google's changes).
• Searching by topic now displays excerpt text for the topics (for new and edited entries with topics).

Bugs Fixed

• <select /> enhanced template tag not working in a table cell.
• <select ... method="id" /> not working.
• Post to Blog's export to HTML including too much font information, overriding the blog's text styles/templates.
• Setting Entry Calendar Charm not always remembering the last charm selected.
• The forced database repair isn't fixing some index problems.
• Backup progress bar displays on top of everything.
• Spell checker configuration file sometimes not being created due to characters in the user's login name.
• In some circumstances a password-protected category can be searched when the category is inactive.
• Printing the indented entry index isn't working.
• Link styles are applying incorrectly in some cases.
• Users with no C:\ drive getting "Invalid image size" error.
• Applying the HTML pass-thru style can cause unexpected formatting.
• Option "Auto-Highlight Links" is being ignored (always on).
• Displaying topics in the drop down list sometimes choosing white text on too bright a background.

v4.1.0.195

New Features

• Batch Entry Import now supports long (December) and short (Dec) month names in the entry file name.
• Updated the included American English spell checker dictionary, and autocorrect dictionary.

Bugs Fixed

• When pasting text with links from word processors, the links aren't being handled properly.
• Empty bullets at the end of an entry cause problems with daily/weekly entry report and exporting.
• Windows Registry issues requiring admin privileges.

v4.1.0.189

New Features

• Added "Sort Category Entries" to the entry tree context menu.
• Added "Minimize on Close" option (User Preferences: Global tab).
• Category's with passwords now must be re-confirmed after The Journal is locked when hidden or minimized.
• Added export options to include (or not) the category and entry headers.
• Added support for exporting to (and re-importing from) XML.

Bugs Fixed

• Post to blog doesn't support encoding Unicode characters as &#999;.
• "Word Count Selection" isn't counting words if selected text is in a table cell.
• Pasting some HTML is causing an error.
• Edit/New Task doesn't have an "other" option on the "Every" day/weekday setting.
• Father's Day is the 3rd Sunday of June, not the 2nd.
• "Paragraph Borders & Background" form doesn't use the global custom colors.
• Exporting or "Save Entry As..." of categories/entries with invalid filename characters is failing.
• Thread error happens after inserting an animated GIF, and then bringing up another entry.
• "Blank" entries (that have only a CR in them) are generating an error in the daily/weekly entry report.
• Task reminders not always showing up when clicking on past entries.
• Backups to large removable media requesting "Disk #1".
• No description of bookmarks in the online help.
• Extended security's login auto-failure is sometimes going a bit overboard.
• Reminder "Notes" editor doesn't have a context menu.

v4.1.0.181

New Features

• Added support for reminders that happen "every other" day/weekday.

Bugs Fixed

• Pasting HTML into an entry is causing a lockup in some cases.
• Deleting reminders sometimes causing errors.
• Re-arranging sub-categories sometimes causing errors.
• In "View All Reminders", reminders with an effective date sometimes reporting an incorrect next due date.
• When editing an all-day event reminder, the time setting is being shown incorrectly.
• Minor display bug of the entry date/name (above the category tabs) when applying User Preferences.
• In some cases, Ctrl+Delete (delete word) behaving oddly.
• Changed Redo hot-key to: Ctrl+Y (more standard).
• When using Insert Date, the highlight color of the date format is sticking.

v4.1.0.177

New Features

• Added "View Reminder Notes" to the Reminder menu (and the right-click menu for reminders).

Bugs Fixed

• Default calendar, entry tree, and category tab font doesn't work well for non-English language versions of Windows nor under Linux Wine (Windows emulator).
• Exporting multiple entries to TXT, RTF or HTML formats is failing.
• When running under Linux Wine, the entry date/name display (above the category tabs) sometimes gets garbled.
• Clicking "Apply" in User Preferences over and over (for instance, while updating topics) could lead to extremely slow response time.

The Journal 4.1

March 2006: Though not a major upgrade like the one from v3 to v4, The Journal 4.1 is still a significant step forward. Reminders & Tasks have now been added to The Journal, supplying whole new ways you can use The Journal to organize your life and life's work. Set reminders for daily tasks, monthly appointments, special days and anniversaries, and more! And with the new entry locking features for shared categories, The Journal edges closer to becoming a true multiuser, maybe even a collaborative, platform. I look forward to building on all of the 4.1 additions and changes as The Journal continues to grow.

v4.1.0.175

New Features

• Added Reminders & Tasks features, including:
  • Create new Appointments, Events, Tasks, Special Days.
  • Options for displaying reminders, see Advanced Reminder Options and User Preferences: Reminders.
  • A new report for seeing completed, skipped, missed, and canceled reminders.
  • Reminders can be exported to, or imported from, other scheduling/planning software.
• Added "Lock Entries on Edit" and "Prompt for Lock Message" options to Category Properties, under "Sharing".
• Added hot-key Ctrl+Delete to delete the next word.
• Added "Insert Topic Name" and "Topic Name Format" options for Topics.
• Added the ability to apply overlapping topics.
• Added "Hide Highlight" command to Search Results.
• Added "Save to File" command to Search Results and Daily/Weekly Entry Report.
• Added "New Report" command to Daily/Weekly Entry Report.
• Added a hot-key for "Insert Line" (Ctrl+Shift+)
• Added GOFileMenuOverride Journal.INI option.
• Added icon (*.ico) image file support to User Images.
• Insert Calendar Charm form now remembers last charm selected.
• Added "Insert Page Break" to Insert menu.
• Countdown timer now defaults to the last duration set.
• Added "Edit Category Tab/Entry Tree Font" option to User Preferences.
• Updated the backup file format (now compatible with WinZip).
• Updated the JNX file format (now compatible with WinZip).
• Added a marker file to make it easier to identify a Journal Volume.
• You can now kickoff a restore by double-clicking on your .JBK backup file from Windows Explorer.
• You can now kickoff an import by double-clicking on your .JNX export file from Windows Explorer.
• Added "Save HTML with CSS information in .htm(l) file" to Export options in User Preferences.
• Added "Show All Entries" option to the Daily/Weekly Entry Report.
• Reorganized menus:
  • The "Options" menu is now the "User" menu.
  • The "Tools" menu is now to the right of the "User" menu.
  • Global options like "Minimize to System Tray" have been moved to the "Tools" menu.
  • The "Table" menu is now to the right of the "Format" menu.
  • The "Go" menu is now to the right of the "Entry" menu.
  • The "Reminder" menu has been added to the right of the "Topic" menu.

Bugs Fixed

• Sometimes getting an error when trying to load the icon for an external object.
• System tray icon sometimes behaving oddly.
• Some menu commands are missing shortcut keys.
• Export Entries doesn't confirm password when exporting to JNX format.
• Drop down list of topics is too short.
• Daily/Weekly Entry Report doesn't have a "Deselect All" button for the list of categories.
• Empty tables are showing after a search on topic.
• Trying to a blank entry into an enhanced template hangs The Journal.
• If The Journal isn't "in front" of Windows when the countdown timer reaches 0:00, you can't see the popup reminder.
• The Journal is sometimes crashing when closing after editing category properties or importing entries.
• In some cases it's possible to size the calendar to completely obstruct the entry tree.
• There is no "link to default entry" option for loose-leaf categories.
• Search Entries sometimes not finding text in tables.
• Expanded the palette of built-in Calendar Charms.
• Cannot use the paste hot-key (Ctrl+V) to paste into the entry name/rename form.
• Entries sometimes losing track of the default category background color.
• When setting topics, selected text in tables isn't being properly set.

v4.0.0.163

New Features

• Added "Sort Sub-Entries" when right-clicking loose-leaf entries with sub-entries.
• Added "Go to Entry Bookmark" when right-clicking in entry with bookmarks.

Bugs Fixed

• Exporting/importing a category's default entry template not working.
• Shared (read only) category entries being set to read only when viewed by another user.
• MemoryGrabber Demo is loading for every new user in a Journal Volume.
• OEM fonts aren't available for use in text styles.
• When printing the selection in the active entry, the macro in the page header is not being replaced with the entry's name.

v4.0.0.161

New Features

• More robust handling of situations where the Journal Volume has been moved or cannot be found.
• Enhanced template <INCLUDE> tag now supports URL's.
• Added new positioning options for entry background images.

Bugs Fixed

• Auto-update of packages not always working.
• Loose-leaf entries and bookmarks are being duplicated in Insert Link.
• Link styles aren't using the style override options for typed links.
• Posting to TypePad blogs is getting an error.
• Uppercase HTML tags during causing problems in exports.
• Some file links not opening their applications when clicked.
• Edit Object Description isn't being saved on inserted objects.
• The auto-hide isn't working so long as the mouse is hovering over The Journal.
• "Get Web Page" sometimes failing to fetch images.
• Newly created tables limited to 100 rows.
• Headers/footers not printing when printing selection, even if the options are checked.
• Doing a backup or repair would lose the current session's entry history.
• Pasting rich text format (RTF) sometimes causing performance issues.
• Links to entries with a "#" in the name aren't working.
• Import Entries doesn't default to showing all supported file types.

v4.0.0.157

New Features

• Added "Insert Line" to Insert menu.
• Added "Insert Bookmark" to Insert menu (same command will remove the active bookmark).
• Added "Go to Bookmark in This Entry" to the Go menu.
• Added "Check for Update of The Journal" to the Help menu.
• Added spell checker option: "Ignore Capitalized Words".
• Added spell checker option: "Ignore CamelCase words".
• Added new Topics option: Default to "Show All Topics" in Editor.
• The Journal now becomes read only at the end of the trial period.

Bugs Fixed

• Clicking on "Buy The Journal" on nag screen not bringing up the payment page.
• "Search Entries by Topic" loading list of categories twice.
• No way to create a style with a Type 1 font.
• When editing links, email addresses without a "mailto:" aren't accepted.
• Pasting links bracketed with < > includes the < > in the link.
• Have to manually reload updated add-on packages.
• Entry trees that are taller than the visible area, are not automatically scrolling when dragging entries.
• When editing topics, clicking on "Done" doesn't save any pending topic changes.
• Pasting text with a topic active isn't always applying the topic properly.
• Weekly and monthly category entries are repeating in the daily/weekly entry reports.

v4.0.0.153

New Features

• Updated the American English spell checker dictionary and auto-correction dictionary.
• Added "Default Entry Template" option for categories.
• Added new command line parameter for specifying which Journal Volume to open.

Bugs Fixed

• File links in entries not working properly.
• OnIdle processing sometimes causing too much processor load.
• The Journal is triggering a DNS internet access on startup.
• Dragging an entry over a master category tab will not bring up that category tab.
• Some users seeing "Invalid Image Size" message on startup.
• Search Entries AND/OR functionality sometimes reporting incorrect results.
• When exporting entries to RTF, TXT , or HTM, sometimes getting an "Index (0) out of range" error.
• Setting an entry background color on the current day's entry in a standard category sometimes not "sticking".
• Using Ctrl+Alt+J to hide The Journal when prompted to unlock causes a "stack" of unlock forms.

v4.0.0.147

Bugs Fixed

• Open Link in New Browser doesn't support Firefox.
• Just hitting ENTER on the Print form isn't printing.
• "New Search" on the Search Results form behaving oddly sometimes, and not remembering the "Display only topic text" setting.
• Doing "Search Entries" with OR or AND sometimes giving incorrect (>100%) match percentages.

v4.0.0.145

New Features

• Added the option to automatically resize (and resample) large images when they are inserted into entries.
• Added the option for Internet links to open a new browser when clicked.
• Added "Open Link in New Browser" command to editor context menu.
• Added "Search Entries by Topic..." command to Topic menu.
• Added option for "Search Entries by Topic" to display only the text assigned to the selected topics.
• Topic name is now displayed when the mouse hovers over text with a topic assigned.

Bugs Fixed

• Date/time insert style holdover from TJ3 sometimes causing paragraph spacing problems.
• Right-clicking on text just selected by double-clicking selects the entire paragraph (treated as a triple-click).
• Database corruption issue caused The Journal to fail to open.
• In the Search/Search Entries/Search Topics tab, the software wouldn't allow selection of individual categories.
• On Windows 2000, word breaking sometimes acted oddly.
• Topics in templates are not being preserved when inserted into other entries.
• Image descriptions not becoming ALT text on post to blog.
• Auto-correct DUal capitals sometimes incorrectly applied.
• URL's with commas in them aren't being properly detected.
• When applying a format (bold, italic, etc) to a selection with mixed formats, the new format removes the other formatting.
• No way to hit Ctrl+P and ENTER (to print quickly).
• It's sometimes possible to delete the last entry of a standard category.
• Post to blog progress meter incorrectly displays progress when uploading images.
• Automatic/prompted backup shouldn't wait for the user to click "Start Backup".
• Running The Journal from a USB drive sometimes not using the proper Journal Volume path.

v4.0.0.141

New Features

• New template tag: <ENTRYDATE/> (inserts date of the entry)
• Added "Force Text to Black & White" option to Printing Options.
• Added "Apply Topic" sub-menu to Topic menu.

Bugs Fixed

• System database tables are being accessed unnecessarily between keystrokes.
• Spell checker isn't providing enough suggestions in some cases.
• Exporting entries with embedded objects for which no server was installed any longer would see problems. (the very definition of "obscure bug")
• Applying bullets/numbering is overriding paragraph before/after spacing.
• Duplicate button hot-key on Print form.
• Print collating sometimes not collating.
• Posting to WordPress 1.5 blog isn't working.
• The browse button in backup settings isn't working.
• The timer sound default is hardwired to a particular path/filename.
• Relative paths to Journal Volumes causing an error in "Add Journal Volume".
• B2Evolution blog support is incomplete (no support for categories).
• Categories with the same name sometimes causing problems with entry links.
• Unusual system date format can cause problems with entry links.
• The auto-resizing of images on print/print preview is sometimes not working (stops the printing).

v4.0.0.137

Bugs Fixed

• Importing JNX files (.jnx) is reporting an error.
• Deleting a row or column from a table isn't marking the entry as modified.
• Installation program requires Windows Administrator privileges.
• Sometimes attempting to load another new user tip on shutdown.
• Some newly inserted images can't be clicked on and selected.
• Images in exported HTML files have full file paths instead of just the name of the image file.

v4.0.0.135

New Features

• Most Word Documents (*.DOC) can now be imported with "Import Entries..." and "Batch Entry Import..."
• Added "Do not automatically paste HTML (Paste HTML as Rich Text)" option to User Preferences: Editor.
• Simple templates can now use these enhanced template tags: ,
• Added support for new blogs: B2Evolution, Blog-City, WordPress

Bugs Fixed

• Background color of inserted objects is gray and not the entry background color.
• "Starting Page Number" on Print form is being ignored.
• Posting to a MovableType/TypePad blog with no categories reports "Post to Blog Error" and fails.
• Bringing up "Entry Statistics" could cause loss of recent changes.
• Doing a "Word Count" on an empty entry would report random counts.
• A template with an embedded object reports an error on inserting.
• Sometimes pasting HTML isn't working (nothing pasted).
• Embedded objects are not being exported properly to RTF.
• The "Buy The Journal" commands on the menus aren't working.
• Fixed some typos and duplicate menu short-cut keys.
• Updated/Printed dates on entry statusbar sometimes too big for allocated space.
• The "Keep The Journal On Top" menu command doesn't have a toolbar icon.
• Clipboard Viewer and other forms getting stuck "behind" The Journal if "Keep The Journal on Top" is active.
• The Journal's automatic hide feature is sometimes interrupting editing of open embedded objects.
• "Insert Link" is resetting the paragraph settings for the active paragraph.

v4.0.0.133

New Features

• Added a hot-key for block justify: Ctrl+K.
• Paste and Paste Special now support pasting HTML from the Windows Clipboard.
• Added "Open Object" and "Auto-Size Object" to right-click context menu.

Bugs Fixed

• INS/OVR indicator is lagging.
• Some TXT files not importing properly with Batch Entry Import.
• Deleting a topic could case errors in entries which used that topic.
• Combining live spell check with the normal spell check sometimes causes errors.
• New object inserted with Insert Object cannot be resized.
• Newly inserted object's verb menu not being loaded immediately.
• Formatted text sometimes getting confused about the proper font size and text style.
• A folder-only category with a once-per-session password is requiring the password every time a sub-category is brought up.
• Auto-Login is sometimes being cleared when opening other Journal Volumes.
• Clicking on "Start Backup" more than once causes an error.

v4.0.0.127

Bugs Fixed

• Setting the number of copies to print isn't working.
• Errors are popping up when using inserted objects and switching entries or categories.
• When bringing up entries with the tree, selection and some inserted objects aren't being displayed properly.
• Changing the properties of an inserted object isn't marking the entry as modified.
• There is no default extension/file type on "Save Entry As..."
• Search results when using a date range aren't always sorted by date.
• On older computers, long entries result in slow typing response.
• In some cases, collated printing is not working properly.
• Bug in storing certain entry information.
• Deleting a sub-category sometimes pops up "Cannot delete..." even if it isn't the last category.
• Using CTRL+TAB to change categories is causing an error.
• Links in entries are not always formatted properly when exported/saved to files.

v4.0.0.123

New Features

• Any link of the format "linkType:linkData" can be created with Insert/Edit Link.

Bugs Fixed

• Entering Registration Keys sometimes incorrectly reporting "Invalid Registration Keys".
• Search Entries is not using the entered date range.
• Search Entries sometimes reporting an error and stopping abnormally.
• Inserting templates (esp from Writing Prompts 1) sometimes causing an error.
• In User Preferences, changing "Auto-Save Every" directly is not flagging the "Apply" button.
• Loading some pre-4 entries with images is causing an error.
• Edit Links isn't working.
• Clicking on an Internet link in search results shows a blank page (though it still brings up the link page in the browser).

v4.0

The Journal 4

August 2004: Though the story of The Journal 4 lacks the drama of The Journal 3's grueling development period, it's an important upgrade nonetheless. Built on the foundation created in v3, v4 takes The Journal to new levels of power and ease of use.

Work on The Journal 4 began in December 2003, with early efforts centered on switching from using the Windows Rich Text Common Control to the very powerful TRichView components created by Sergey Tkachenko. This was a huge change, both in source code and in philosophy, because The Journal was originally built around the rich text edit, and probably would not have existed except for that feature of Windows 95. After years spent tweaking and cajoling (and cursing) the rich text edit to get it to do things that Microsoft probably never meant for it to do, I suffered a few withdrawals. However, this one change, by itself, made possible a large portion of The Journal 4's new features, including background images for entries, print preview, tables, and on and on. So I'm past the withdrawals now, and not looking back.

With the new entry editor in place, I shifted to adding numerous other features that users have asked for over the years, such as n-depth category nesting, user-created Calendar Charms, and daily/weekly reporting. Beyond user requests, there were other extensions that I wanted to make, such as the ability to install and run The Journal on read-only CDROM's, that would make The Journal more stable overall and useful in new arenas.

By late August 2004, I had implemented the last of the planned additions and on 1 September I handed The Journal 4 over to a small group of testers. There's nothing like user testing to help smooth out the new interface and add the necessary polish to the new features--and point out the obvious features and extensions you somehow forgot.

The Journal 4 adds:

• A more modern look-and-feel, that tracks Windows XP themes
  
• Improved editing capabilities, including:
  
  
  • Background images for entries
    
  • Improved image handling (faster saving and loading, resizing, and more)
    
  • Tables
    
  • More powerful and more flexible text styles
    
  • Paragraph borders and background colors
    
  • Improved bullets and numbering
    
  • Outline mode
    
  • HTML importing and improved HTML exporting
    
  • Improved auto-replace, supporting both formatted and unformatted text
    
  • Assigning topics to blocks of text within an entry
  
  
• Improved printing, including print preview
  
• Improved searching, with:
  
  
  • Google-like results presentation, with excerpts of found text and links to the found entries
    
  • Search text highlighting in found entries
    
  • Date range limiting for standard categories
    
  • Searching by topic, or by image description
  
  
• Daily/weekly/etc "reporting" for standard categories, with printing
  
• Support for user-created Calendar Charms and entry background images
  
• Improved blog support, with posting of images (if the blog supports posting images)
  
• Web page "archiving" within entries
  
• Improved arranging of loose-leaf entries and categories
  
• Improved category "nesting", so you can have sub-categories of sub-categories of sub-categories of...
  
• New category options likes "Read Only" and "Folder Only"
  
• The ability to install and run The Journal on self-contained, removable media, like a USB flash drive or CDROM
  
• Improved database speed and security

The Journal 3

(From November 2001): The Journal 3 is a complete re-design and re-write of The Journal, incorporating years of accumulated feedback and suggestions. Since The Journal was first released in 1996, users have sent in their suggestions for features and extensions. As much as possible, these suggestions were incorporated. But some suggestions were beyond what the original design of The Journal could tolerate. There was only so far that The Journal's feature set could be stretched without starting over from scratch.

Begun in the summer of 1999, development on The Journal 3 proceeded slower than expected. These initial delays were caused by several factors. I was (and still am) co-owner of another software company (Samu Games, http://www.samugames.com) and other projects came up that stalled the development of The Journal 3. Plus there was the ever-present need to support the current version of The Journal. By the end of 1999, only The Journal 3's new database configuration was completed.

In 2000, two major projects with Samu Games prevented significant work on The Journal 3. The Journal 2.3 was released in early 2000, and The Journal 2.4 was begun in the fall of the year. Though the 2.3 release was a relatively straightforward update of The Journal 2.2. The 2.4 release, however, incorporated some of the features that had been designed for The Journal 3. New word processing features (like numbered lists and multi-level undo), improved image handling, and especially the new export/import format were all from work done for The Journal 3.

Most of the work on The Journal 3 that occurred during 2000 was on the new user interface. There was a lot of experimentation with new layouts, new configurations, and new ways of representing the categories and entries in the database. Some of it worked, and was kept. A lot of it, though, proved "iffy at best" and was discarded (or turned into a "user preference", default off).

In March 2001, following the release of The Journal 2.4, I realized that I had spent too much time on "research and development". If I expected to release The Journal 3 in this lifetime, I was going to have to stop thinking up new features to add and experiment with. So the feature set of The Journal 3 was "frozen", and I began working on getting The Journal 3 done.

Interestingly enough, while The Journal 3 already sported quite a few features that The Journal 2.x would never be able to duplicate, The Journal 2.x had many more features that had not yet been implemented in The Journal 3. So to get The Journal 3 "done" I had to get all of the existing 2.x features working in the new version. Everything from simple options like "minimize to system tray" to more complex features like entry templates had yet to be added to The Journal 3.

This turned out to be the single largest effort in the development of The Journal 3. The Journal had accumulated quite a few features in its 5+ years, and re-doing them for The Journal 3 proved to take more time than I estimated. In August 2001, 6 months later, the last of the 2.x feature set was finally added to The Journal 3.

In September 2001, The Journal 3 was handed over to a small number of volunteers to see how it would stand up. With their help, most of the bugs and issues were found and either fixed or resolved. The last bit of testing and polishing occurred when The Journal 3 "pre-release" was made available in mid-November.

The Journal has already grown beyond my original vision for the project. I'm excited to see what new directions the product will head in the future.

2004 Afternote: The Journal grew significantly after the initial release of v3. Here's a list of the major improvements and features added to The Journal from November 2001 to October 2004:

• Improved printing
• Improved "Search Entries..."
• Improved entry navigation
• Improved entry templates
• Improved initial defaults for new users
• Improved entry export and import
• Improved user interface, including lots of new hot-keys
• Improved entry links and internet links
• Improved database maintenance
• Improved documentation
• Calendar Charms
• Add-on package support
• MemoryGrabber add-on package
• Writing Prompts 1 add-on package
• Blog support

v3.0.0.71 -Released 22 September 2004
v3.0.0.67 -Released 13 July 2004
v3.0.0.65 -Released 13 April 2004
v3.0.0.63 -Released 6 April 2004
v3.0.0.61 -Released 10 February 2004
v3.0.0.59 -Released 29 December 2003
v3.0.0.57 -Released 15 December 2003
v3.0.0.51 -Released 6 October 2003
v3.0.0.49 -Released 15 July 2003
v3.0.0.47 -Released 9 July 2003
v3.0.0.45 -Released 10 April 2003
v3.0.0.43 -Released 24 February 2003
v3.0.0.41 -Released 9 December 2002
v3.0.0.39 -Released 26 August 2002
v3.0.0.35 -Released 2 April 2002
v3.0.0.33 -Released 18 February 2002
v3.0.0.31 -Released 12 February 2002
v3.0.0.27 -Released 6 February 2002
v3.0.0.25 -Released 4 February 2002
v3.0.0.23 -Released 7 January 2002
v3.0.0.21 -Released 17 December 2001
v3.0.0.19 -Released 3 December 2001
v3.0 -Released 28 November 2001

The Journal 2.x (September 1998 - October 2001)

The Journal 2.0, released in late September, 1998, built on the feature set that had been finalized in the 1.51 release. More word-processing and security features were added, and database maintenance and stability was greatly enhanced. Throughout the 2.x series of releases, The Journal continued to mature, though not at the same pace as before. Refinement and extension replaced a headlong rush to add new features. The 2.4 release of The Journal, coming nearly a year after the previous release, was the most significant of the 2.x updates after 2.0.

v2.43 - Released September 28 2001.
v2.42 - Released August 20 2001.
v2.41 - Released April 16 2001.
v2.40 - Released February 9 2001.
v2.30 - Released April 7 2000.
v2.20 - Released December 6 1999.
v2.11 - Released June 21 1999.
v2.10 - Released April 5 1999.
v2.02 - Released February 1 1999.
v2.01 - Released November 11 1998.
v2.00 - Released September 30 1998.

The Journal 1.x (October 1996 - August 1998)

v1.30 was the first shareware release of The Journal, made available in October, 1996. This was a period of expanding features for The Journal. Hardly a month went by without a new release coming out with more features--and bug-fixes for previously added features. This "growth spurt" period went on for nearly a year before finally slowing down.

With the release of The Journal 1.5 in January, 1998, The Journal became a mature software product.

v1.51 - Released February 20 1998.
v1.50 - Released January 30 1998.
v1.44 - Released December 12 1997.
v1.43 - Released September 26 1997
v1.42 - Released July 19 1997
v1.41 - Released July 1 1997
v1.40 - Released June 28 1997
v1.39 - Released June 7 1997
v1.38 - Released March 23 1997
v1.37 - Released February 9 1997
v1.36 - Released January 12 1997
v1.35 - Released December 29 1996
v1.34 - Released December 13 1996
v1.33 - Released November 25 1996
v1.32 - Released November 15 1996
v1.31 - Released October 14 1996
v1.30 - First Shareware Release October 11 1996

The Freeware Days (June-September 1996)

The Journal started out as a quick project, mostly as a way to learn how to use Delphi. Fittingly, most of the original users of The Journal were other Delphi programmers who downloaded it from the various "Made in Delphi" web pages. Feedback from these and other users prompted me to extend The Journal significantly, and release it as shareware.

v1.21 - Released August 12 1996
v1.20 - Released August 9 1996
v1.1 - Released July 8 1996
v1.0 - Initial Release. June 18 1996