The Journal Newsletter
Introduction
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).
Thank you for using The Journal!
Tips & Tricks
TIP: How to Force a Repair of Your Journal Volumes
The Journal’s built-in repair feature is primarily used in those rare times when The Journal’s Journal Volume (entry database) gets an error. For example, if your computer (or Windows) crashes while you’re working in The Journal. However it happens, if you start The Journal and get “ElevateDB” errors, then you need to use The Journal’s repair feature.
To force The Journal to repair all of your Journal Volumes, do this:
1. Make sure The Journal is *NOT* running.
2. Click on the Windows “Start” menu (or the Windows “orb”), and choose “All Programs”.
3. Find the “DavidRM Software” program group, and open “The Journal 5”.
4. Click on “The Journal 5 (repair utility)”. When you are prompted to make a backup, click on “No”.
That will run The Journal and force all of your Journal Volumes to be repaired (and optimized, as well, see the next tip). This could take a few minutes.
TIP: How to Optimize Your Journal Volumes
The Journal’s built-in repair feature (described above), in addition to finding and fixing errors in each Journal Volume’s database tables and indexes, also optimizes those tables and indexes. This optimization makes sure the tables and indexes occupy the least amount of space on your hard drive, and that they can be accessed as quickly as possible.
As you use The Journal, adding and organizing entries and categories, your Journal Volume(s) grow and can become slightly less efficient. By doing a repair, you can make sure your Journal Volume is as efficient as possible. This can make loading and saving your entries snappier, and, if you have a *lot* of entries, can also reduce the initial start time of The Journal.
Here is how to do use the repair feature to optimize your Journal Volumes:
1. Click on the File menu, find the Maintenance sub-menu, and choose “Repair The Journal Databases…”
2. Click on “Repair All Journal Volumes”. If you have a large Journal Volume (or two) this could take a few minutes.
3. Click on “Repair System Database”. (Not *as* useful, but while you’re here…)
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.