The Journal Newsletter
Introduction
Welcome to October 2006!
This month’s tip describes the “Daily/Weekly Entry Report…” and the “Batch Entry Import…” commands from the Tools menu. And, as always, Susan provides a new collection of writing prompts.
A Reminder: NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is next month, November! If you’ve ever wanted to write a novel, join thousands of others from across the USA and around the world as they string words into sentences, sentences into chapters and chapters into a 50,000-word novel–all in just 30 days. You can learn more about NaNoWriMo here:
http://www.nanowrimo.org
Thank you for choosing DavidRM Software’s The Journal!
Tips & Tricks
TIP: The Daily/Weekly Entry Report
Use the “Daily/Weekly Entry Report…” (on the Tools menu) to collect all of the entries made in a given date range: a day, a week, a month, a year, or any range at all.
Though this report is for standard categories (like Daily Journal) only, it still can be very useful.
Example: You have a project-specific standard category called “Project Notes” where you track your daily progress, meeting notes, and so on. On Monday, you want to print out a report of what you did the previous week. So you:
2. Click on the “Tools” menu, choosing “Daily/Weekly Entry Report…”
3. Select “Last Week”.
4. Click on “See Report”.
There are two sets of options for the Daily/Weekly Entry Report:
“Show all Entries from”
There are 6 pre-set date ranges you can use: Today, Yesterday, This Week, Last Week, This Month, and Last Month. You can also choose to Show All Entries.
If you need a specific date range, click on This Date Range and set the From and To dates appropriately.
“Look In”
You can have the report created from the Active Category or All Standard Categories. Or you can choose These Categories and select the specific categories to look in.
The “Batch Entry Import…” command (on the “Tools” menu) can be used to import entries from other journal/diary software, or to import a lot of documents at once.
Many journal software products support exporting your entries in that software to a collection of text (*.TXT), rich text (*.RTF), or HTML (*.HTML) files. With the Batch Entry Import form, you can import those files directly into The Journal.
Importing into a Standard Category
To be imported into a standard category, the entry files must all use a standard naming convention. The date of the entry must be included in the file name. The best date format will use a 4-digit year, a 2-digit month, and a 2-digit day.
Example: 2001-05-01.RTF (entry for 1 May, 2001)
The Batch Entry Import process will calculate the date and import the entry to that date.
Importing into a Loose-Leaf Category
You can also import batches of files, text files, rich text files, HTML files, even MS Word documents (.DOC) and others into your loose-leaf categories.
For example, if you have a collection of documents that you have been using to write a novel, you could pull all of those documents into The Journal. Then you could organize them better and access them more conveniently.
When importing into a loose-leaf category, no special naming convention is required. The name of the imported entry file will be used as the name of the entry.
Writing Prompts
by Susan Michael
Free Writing Prompt – Write for 20 minutes using the following as your starter: “The world is divided into two types of people.”
Poetry Prompt – Write a poem using the title, “You Need to Have a Plan”.
Prose Prompt – Write a short story using the title: “Attention Deficit”.
Journaling Prompt – Write a series of creative entries based on newspaper headlines.
Memoir Prompt – Write about your plan for your “elder years”. Also, what are your wishes about your funeral arrangements?
Opinion Prompt – Do you think that people should have the right to own exotic animals like leopards and monkeys, etc., or should the practice be banned?
About the author: Susan Michael 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.