The Journal Newsletter
Introduction
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…”
Thank you for choosing The Journal!
Tips & Tricks
FAQ: What is the difference between “Save Journal” and “Backup The Journal”?
“Save Journal” (on the File menu; hot-key: Ctrl+S) saves all active changes to your open Journal Volume(s). This includes changes/additions to the active entry, as well as all changes to category properties, user preferences, and global options.
By default, The Journal automatically performs “Save Journal” every 15 minutes. You can adjust this interval in User Preferences (on the User menu). In addition, changes to your entries are automatically saved in the following circumstances:
- Every time you open an entry (old or new);
- Every time you bring up a different category tab; and
- Before most menu commands (Print, Category Properties, and so on).
“Backup The Journal” (on the File menu, Journal Volume sub-menu; hot-key: Ctrl+Shift+B) creates a snapshot of your Journal Volume(s) database. That is, it creates a copy of *everything* in The Journal. Creating a backup of The Journal helps to secure your categories and entries against system problems and hardware failures.
Tips for how to make copies of your backups are here:
The Journal Newsletter – November 2009
In summary: “Save Journal” saves all your current changes to your Journal Volume. “Backup The Journal” creates a copy of your Journal Volume.
FAQ: What is the difference between “Save Journal” and “Save Entry As…”?
“Save Journal” is described above.
“Save Entry As…” (on the File menu; hot-key: F12) saves the currently active entry as a document file to your hard drive. An example of when this would be useful is: sending an entry as an attachment to an email.
You can choose to save the entry in a variety of document formats:
- Rich Text Format (.rtf) – All the text of the entry is saved, with full formatting (font, bold, etc). Inserted images and objects are saved into the file. Rich text files can be opened by MS Word, WordPerfect, and almost any other Windows word processor. This is the default format.
- Plain Text (.txt) – All the text of the entry is saved, but without formatting. Inserted images and objects are not saved.
- HTML (.html) – All the text of the entry is saved, with full formatting (font, bold, etc). Inserted images and objects are saved in separate files.
The default location for the saved document file is your “My Documents” folder.
NOTE: You do *not* need to use “Save Entry As…” to save your entries to your Journal Volume. That is handled for your automatically, as talked about above. Only use “Save Entry As…” to create a document file from your entry.
Writing Prompts
Free Writing Prompt – Write for 20 minutes using the following as your starter: “Pancakes”
Journaling Prompt – What is the worst thing about your day? What are you doing to get rid of it?
Memoir Prompt – What is your favorite, “go to” cooking recipe? Is it from a cookbook? How has the recipe evolved over the years you’ve been using it?
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.