The Journal Newsletter
Introduction
Happy Birthday to The Journal!
On June 18, 1996, version 1.0 of The Journal was released.
At 18 years old, The Journal almost qualifies as one of my children. It’s certainly been most of my professional career as a programmer. =)
When I released The Journal in 1996, I had been using Microsoft Word for Windows 2.0 as my journaling tool. I had 3 years of entries in monthly documents, which I had to copy-and-paste one at a time. The Journal’s options for importing have improved quite a bit since then (though, oddly enough, even today I would still have to copy-and-paste to import entries in Word docs; what’s up with that?).
The latest update of The Journal 6 was released earlier this month. You can see the details of this release in “The Journal News” section below.
One of the big changes in this release is in the license agreement. The Journal’s new “household license” allows you to have The Journal installed on any computers you own or are the primary user of–plus on any computers owned by members of your immediate family that live with you. (NOTE: This only applies to individual purchasers, not businesses.)
Thank you for choosing The Journal!
The Journal News
The Journal 7 is the current release.
To see if you have the latest version of The Journal:
- Click on the “Help” menu in The Journal.
- Choose “Check for Update of The Journal”.
If you are using The Journal 6 (or an earlier version):
Tips & Tricks
TIP: Ways to use To-Do Items (Checkboxes) in The Journal
Click on the “Insert” menu and choose “Insert To-Do (Checkbox)” (or use the button on the toolbar). Doing so will insert a blank checkbox into your entry. You can click on the checkbox to “check” it, then click on it again to “un-check” it. And you can check/un-check that box as many times as you like. You can also have as many checkboxes in your entries as you like.
But why would you?
The simplest use of the checkboxes is to create a simple to-do list for the day. When you finish the chore, you check it.
Here are some additional creative ways you can use checkboxes (submitted by a helpful user who wished to remain anonymous):
* Ad Hoc To-Do List – On my main journal entry page, I keep a running account of my activities for the day, both personal and business. As I go along I insert checkboxes in front of things that are important for one reason or another. These are not necessarily to-do lists, but often are items in a sentence or paragraph that I have not separated from the general context of what I am writing. The check boxes serve as flags because they are easy to spot and make it easy to find something I want to remember, maybe just to expand more on that sentence, although they also often remind me of something I need to do. This use of the checkboxes is multipurpose, is what I’m saying.
* Task Reminder Support – One of my standard tasks is to check the oil in my truck on the 18th of every month. I use this together with recurrent reminder function. Household projects, same thing.
* Grocery List Template – My grocery list tends to not change very much from one week to the next, but the use here is slightly enhanced because the list and the check boxes are permanent. As I check my kitchen before I go shopping, I leave the boxes checked before items that I do not need to renew, and clear the boxes before items I need to buy. I print the list out and check off the items at the store as I buy them.
* Writing Project To-Do List – I am also a writer and my writing projects involve a great many small details to be remembered so check boxes are extremely useful for that.
* Supplement Tracking – I have a template for the supplements I take and it is inserted on my main journal page every day and I check the supplements off as I take them, otherwise I would take one supplement six times and others not at all.
Do you have a unique way of using checkboxes (or any other feature of The Journal)? Please feel free to write and tell me all about it! Send to:support@davidrm.com
Writing Prompts
Free Writing Prompt – Write for 20 minutes using the following as your starter/inspiration: “Surviving the Heat”
Free Writing Prompt – Write for 20 minutes using the following as your starter/inspiration: “Rain Falls”
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.