Tao called Tao is not Tao.
Names can name no lasting name.
-- Lao-Tzu
Welcome to Journler!
Version 1.1.3
To skip this tutorial and begin writing your own entries, select New Entry from the File menu or click the New Entry button in the window's toolbar. When you want to delete an entry, select it in the Browse Table and hit the delete key or press the delete toolbar button:
The New Entry and Delete Buttons
If you would like to change the name of your journal, click once on the text in the header. Enter a more appropriate title and press return.
The Basics
Journler is a daily notebook that provides access to your entries from multiple perspectives. The traditional notebook organizes entries by date, but entries can also be organized by topic as in a wiki collection. Journler attempts to give you as many points of access to your thoughts as possible.
When you create an entry, it is added to the date currently selected in the Calendar. Entries are always attached to a date. Like a traditional notebook, the date forms the most basic point of access. However, Journler also offers collections. Collections allow you to group your entries in a number of ways: by title, category or keywords, by a range of dates or times, and by other entry properties.
Whether using a collection or a date as a source to access your entries, when you change the source, Journler displays the associated entries in the Browse Table. Further organize your entries there by clicking on the appropriate column header. Then when you select an entry in the table, Journler displays it here.
Using the Calendar
When Journler launches it opens your notebook to the current date. To view previous entries, navigate to the year and month using the calendar's buttons. The circle brings you to the current date while the arrowed buttons send you either a day or a month into the present and past. When you have reached the correct month, click once on the desired day. You can also quickly change the date by clicking once on the month or year and entering a new value.
Navigate the Calendar with These Buttons
The calendar highlights individual dates to signify the presence of entries and the currently selected date. Lighter days have no entries while darker days do. The circled day is currently selected. When working on a date other than today, today's date is shown in orange. The calendar updates its display whenever you create or delete entries.
The Calendar with Variously Colored Dates
Collections
Journler includes three kinds of collections: the journal, smart collections and regular collections. You can take advantage of smart collections only if you are running MacOS 10.4 Tiger.
The Journal
The Journal is the first collection. It is like your library in iTunes. To see all of your entries in one location, select the Journal in your collections list.
Smart Collections
Smart collections work like their intelligent counterparts in iTunes, iPhoto, and Mail. To create a smart collection select New Smart Folder from the File menu or from the Worktool under the collections list. Title your collection and set the collection's parameters. Decide first if your collection will include entries that match any or all of your criteria. Then specify the criteria themselves. Once you have created the collection, Journler will gather entries into it. Whenever you create, delete, or modify an entry, Journler will automatically update the appropriate collections.
Create, Delete and Modify your Collections
Regular Collections
Regular collections allow you to group entries any way you like. Create a regular collection with the New Folder menu item. Add and remove entries when you want and where you want. To add an entry to a collection, drag the entry from the Browse Table to the collection in the Collections Table, just like in iTunes. To remove an entry from a collection without actually deleting it, select the entry in the Browse Table and drag it to an arbitrary location in the Journler window.
Writing Entries
Entering your thoughts into Journler is as easy as creating a new entry or selecting one you've already begun. Journler displays the text here, where you can immediately begin typing. When you select another entry or quit the program, Journler automatically saves the changes you've made to the current entry. It is not necessary to explicitly save your entries.
Formating an Entry
To format an entry, Journler provides immediate access to the standard Colors and Fonts panels as well as the Ruler view. Select your text by holding down the mouse and dragging it across the words and sentences you would like to change. Click once on the Colors or Fonts toolbar button. From here you can alter the color and style of your entry's text.
The Colors, Fonts and Ruler Toolbar Buttons
To make other changes to the format of your entry's text, click on the Format menu and select either the Font or Text submenu. You can do everything from underlining or italicizing text to changing the alignment of a paragraph. These menu options function as you would expect them to in any word processing program.
Journler uses the same text technology as TextEdit and as such is a fully featured text editor. If for example you would like to apply more specific alignment settings to your entry's text, you may use the built-in Ruler. From the Format menu go to Text and select Show Ruler. Journler will display the ruler at the top of the entry's text just below the header. From here you can modify the text's style, alignment and tab as well as paragraph spacing. The ruler is a useful addition to Journler, allowing you to detail the appearance of your entries until they look just right.
Lists, Tables and Spacing
If you're running MacOS 10.4 Tiger and need to add more specific formatting to your text, trying using a list, table, or detailed spacing. From the Edit > Insert Special menu select Insert Table or Insert List. Journler will display the appropriate panel. To customize the text's spacing, select Spacing from the Format > Text menu.
The Spelling and Find Panels
Spell checking is built into Journler. To ensure that spell checking is active, go to the Spelling item in the Edit menu. From here select Check Spelling as You Type or Check Spelling. You can even change the preferred language and see a more detailed spell check by selecting Spelling... While you type, Journler will underline incorrectly spelled words in red. To see a list of spelling suggestion, control click on the word, that is, hold down the control key (ctrl) and press the mouse button once.
Searching the current entry for a word or phrase is also easy. From the Edit menu select Find... and enter the word or phrase you require.
Changing an Entry's Title, Category, Keywords or Date
It's simple. Hold your mouse over the entry's title at the top of the window: "Journler Default Entry." Notice that the mouse cursor does not change to an arrow but continues to indicate that you can insert text. Click and type. Double click to select the entire word. When you are finished typing, press the return key.
If you did not include a category or keywords when you first created an entry, you can still change them in this manner. Hold the mouse over the apparently empty space. Notice the text insertion cursor. As you would with the entry's title, click and begin typing. When you finish, press return. If you aren't exactly sure where to click, hold the mouse still for a moment. Help will appear.
If you've chosen to hide the header, you can still edit an entry's properties. In the Browse Table double-click on the property you would like to alter. Make your changes and press return. When you edit a date, make sure you use the YYYY-MM-DD format. For time use the HH:MM format. You can also edit an entry's properties in the Information panel. From the File menu select Information.
Music, Photos, and More
Sometimes text alone cannot adequately express an idea. The wonder on a child's face when she takes her first steps, the view from an Alpine summit after a four hour tour with friends, or the song that plays as lovers first kiss. Words can only say so much.
At the bottom right of the entry's editing view, you will find four buttons:
The Integration Rack
Journler connects to iTunes and iPhoto. Click on the iTunes button to see what I mean. Journler can read your iTunes and iPhoto libraries at your whim. With a click of the mouse you can access songs or pictures and insert them into your Journler entries. When you add a picture, Journler sets it to an optimum size and places it in the text. When you select a song, Journler creates a link to it and sets the link in the text. If you click on the link, Journler will load the song into iTunes and play it.
An iTunes Song Link
Journler can also import movies and other files. Like their song counterparts, Journler creates a link to the movie or file. Clicking the associated link will either play the movie in Quicktime or launch the appropriate application and display the file. Not only can you include songs, pictures, and movies in your entries, but you can also reference a pdf or Word version of that important document you need for tomorrow's conference.
A Movie Link and an Important Word Document
Alternately, you may also drag files into Journler. Hold your mouse down on the file you would like to include and move it here. Journler determines what kind of file you are importing and reacts appropriately, displaying either a picture or an icon link.
Address Book
Jourler includes address book support. Via the Address Book integration button or the Address Book menu item under Window you have immediate access to everyone in your address book. Select a name from the list and click insert. Journler will add the address to your entry's text as an email or webpage link. Click on it to write your friends an email or view their webpages. If you've associated a picture with the address, Journler will include it as well.
Linking to Entries
Integration does not stop at other Mac programs. Journler also integrates with itself. If you need to reference an entry from the entry you're currently working on, find that entry in your journal and then drag it from the Browse Table to this area. Journler will link to the entry as if it were a web page. Clicking the link immediately opens it.
iIntegration Requirements
iTunes integration requires iTunes 4.7 and is 5.0 compatible. iPhoto integration requires iPhoto 4.0 and is also 5.0 compatible. To find out which version of these programs you're running, select them in the Finder and choose Get Info from the File menu.
File Size
Journler stores pictures in your entries. Including a large number of pictures will significantly increase the size of your journal and may slow Journler down. A picture is after all worth a thousand words. By default the image import quality is set at medium. One image is equal to about ten entries of disk space. Under most circumstances, the medium quality should be acceptable and is the recommended choice. You may select a higher import quality from the Edit menu for those images that need it. One image at this setting is worth about thirty entries of hard disk space.
Linked Files
On the other hand, songs, movies and files of every other kind are only referenced. Journler simply notes their location. This does not require much space, but if you move a file Journler will not know where to find it. If you are running Tiger, you may change the location referred to by the link. Control click on the link and select Edit Link.
Recording
Journler was created largely because Phil can move his hands over the keyboard with a nimble lightness that cannot be matched by paper and pen. For many, the native voice is an even better alternative. At the bottom right of this window next to the integration rack you will find a small red button.
The Audio Record Button
If you have any a microphone or other input device attached to your computer, you can add audio recordings to your entries. If you own an iBook or Powerbook, you already have a microphone. Other Macs may also have built-in microphones. To find out if you have a mic, open your System Preferences and choose Sound then Input.
When you press the Audio Record button Journler launches the Audio Center. Set your input gain under input settings. Somewhere between 0.75 and 1.0 is recommended for the built-in mic. To begin recording, press the red circle Record/Stop button. To stop recording, press the same button which now shows the stop square. If you would like to listen to your recording, press the Play button on the Quicktime miniplayer. You may pause by pressing the same button again.
To add your new recording to the currently selected entry, press the Save button with the iTunes icon. Journler will encode the newly recorded entry into an mp3 using the LAME encoding engine and Quicktime component. Using the artist, title, and album you have provided, Journler then saves this mp3 into the iTunes Journler playlist. You may choose to save the entry outside of iTunes. Finally, a link to the mp3 is added to the current entry. If you chose to add the recording to iTunes, the next time you plug your iPod in, the recording will be available in the Journler playlist.
Audio recording is a complicated subject. Just look at that recording panel! For more information about Audio recording, see the Journler help files.
Searching
Searching allows you to query all of your entries for specific words. Type the words you would like to find in the Search Collection search field. Journler applies the search only to the currently selected collection. If no collection is selected because you are viewing a date, Journler will automatically select the Journal.
The Search Toolbar Field
As you type, Journler uses relevance ranked searching to display the entries that match your request. No matter how many entries you've written, searching performs quickly and accurately, returning with blazing speed the 200 most relevant entries. Journler searching works exactly like Mail searching and will perform the way you expect it to.
If you are using Tiger, you may limit your search to the title, category, or keywords of the entry. From the Search Bar, select the appropriate option. Journler will filter the results according to your selection.
Exporting and Printing
When you need access to your entries outside of Journler, export or print them.
Exporting
To save an entry as an external file, click Export in the toolbar. You may choose from five file formats: rich text (text or text with images), word document (text), pdf document (text with images), or html document (text only).
The Export Toolbar Button
You can also export a selected range of entries. Choose Export Journal... from the File menu. Set the format along with the from and to dates. If you would just like to export the entries that are currently displayed in the Browse Table, choose Export Browsed Entries instead.
Printing
When you need a hard copy of an entry, press Print in the toolbar. Journler uses the standard print panel. Make adjustments as you would in any application. Before you print your entry, you can modify what Journler will include in the print job. From the File menu select Page Setup and then Journler under Settings. Decide what properties will be included and, if you're running Tiger, add a header or footer to the printed page.
The Print Toolbar Button
If you require a range of daily entries or your entire journal, select Print Journal... from the File menu. Once you have set the range and other options, Journler will build a single print job and send it to the printer. Be patient if you have requested a large number of entries! Journler can do the same for the entries in the Browse Table. Just select Print Browsed Entries.
Tip: If you need a digital copy of all your entries in one document, use the Print Journal feature of Journler. Select a range of entries and then from the print panel, select Save as PDF rather than Print.
Mailing and Blogging
You can share your entries with friends using Journler's mail feature. Click E-Mail in the toolbar. Journler will start your preferred mail client and create a new message with the title and content set to those of the current entry. All you need to do is choose the recipients and send it off!
The E-Mail Toolbar Button
Journler makes it easy to post your entries to the web. You can select which entry and which blog when you want. Journler notes which entries have been posted where so you don't lose track of your writings or double post an entry. To launch Journler's blog center, press Blog in the toolbar.
The Blog Toolbar Button
Journler's blog center is your blog control room. You begin with a plain text version of the entry and then add style and other web markup as you need it. Most blogs support a subset of the web markup standard. Journler makes it easy to take advantage of these additions. Bold or underline words, add images and links or create line and paragraph distinctions. Then immediately see what your changes will look like online.
Blogging is a many sided topic. For more information on blogging, see Emailing & Blogging in Journler's help files.
Importing
It's fine to create new entries whenever you need to remember a thought, but what do you do with all those other notes scattered across your computer and in other journaling programs? Import them. To begin an import, select Import Files from the File Menu and select a single file, multiple files, or a directory. Journler will present you with the your import options. Decide what category and keywords will apply to the new entries, choose how Journler will date the new items, and then specify a regular collection to which the entries will be added.
Importing is a beast. Journler will look at the files you've provided, subdirectories and all, and import any text, rich text, word, html, webarchive, or image files it is able to. For example, if you're a photographer and you've saved your digital images as dated, highly quality jpegs, Journler can import each photo as its own entry, dated to when you took the picture and added to a collection so you can easily keep track of the roll. Then, because the images will probably be too large for the Journler window, you can resize them using the included Size Images to Fit plugin in the Plugins menu. All your thoughts and media in one place. Fast.
Tabs and Windows
By default any time you select an entry it is displayed here. If you would like immediate access to more than one entry at a time, use tabbed or multiple window editing.
Tabbed Editing
Tabbed editing works like tabbed browsing. Create a new tab via File > New Tab. Load another entry into this tab and then, when you need to, switch back to the original tab using the Tab Bar. To open an entry into a new tab without first creating the tab, hold down the ? key and click the entry once in the Browse Table. To immediately select that new tab, hold down the shift key as well. There is no limit to the number of tabs you can use at any one time.
Multiple Windows
If tabs aren't your thing, you can use a separate window to edit an entry. To load an entry into its own window, hold down ? and the option key when you select the entry. To immediately go to the new window, hold down the shift key as well. You can also default to a separate window whenever you create a new entry. See Appearance from File > Preferences.
Preferences
Journler supports a robust set of preferences. Select Preferences from the File menu, you may change a range of general and appearance settings, add blog accounts to the Blog Center, personalize the way your entries look, enable password protection and encryption, and set defaults for audio recording. You can even make a paypal or book donation to Phil, the nice guy who wrote this program for ya.
About the Program and its Creator
Journler was developed in the Objective-C programming language using Apple's Xcode development environment. Because Journler takes advantage of recent Apple technologies, you must be running version 10.3.9 or higher of the Mac OS. Journler is 10.4 Tiger compatible and includes Spotlight support as well as support for many Tiger specific technologies.
Donations are Encouraged.
Phil will never charge money for Journler. He required an elegant, powerful journaling program and figured he could create one himself. Then he figured, why not share it? Although Journler is free, Phil does encourage donations. Good, independent software deserves your support. You can make a donation right now or select Make a Donation... from the Journler menu at any time.
A Word about the Developer.
Journler was created by Philip Dow. Phil currently lives in Imst, Austria, where he works as an English teaching assistant. His interests include mountains, music, philosophy, religion, literature, language, and strangely enough computer science. If you would like to email Phil, you may reach him at phil@phildow.net. Bug reports, suggestions and a short word are all appreciated.
- http://phildow.net.
- http://journler.phildow.net.
Composed in Journler
The Corner Place, Philip Dow
September 21st 2005
