The Journal Newsletter
Introduction
Thanksgiving holiday preparations and other projects managed to delay this month’s newsletter by a bit. Sorry about that. I’ll make an effort to have the December newsletter out before Christmas.
The Journal User’s emailing list through eGroups has seen more activity this month. If you haven’t checked it out yet, feel free to do so:
http://www.egroups.com/subscribe/thejournal-users
Thank you for supporting DavidRM Software’s The Journal!
Tips & Tricks
TIP: How to create a new entry category.
The Journal automatically creates two entry categories for new users: “Daily Journal”, a daily category, and “Notebook”, a loose-leaf category. However, The Journal allows you to have many more entry categories than just these two.
Creating a new category is relatively simple:
1. Right-click the category tabs, and select “Category Properties…” from the menu. (Or you choose “Edit Categories…” from the “User” menu). This opens up the “User Categories” form.
2. Below the list of categories, on the left side, there is a “New Category” button. Click this.
3. A new category is created with the name “New Category.” It is a daily category by default, and it uses the font and color settings you have specified in your User Preferences. You can change the name of the category, and any of the other settings.
4. To change the category to be a loose-leaf category (like the “Notebook” category), make sure that “Loose-Leaf Category” is checked in the “Category Type” box.
5. Press “Done”.
You now have a new tab representing a new entry category.
Writing Prompts
by Susan Michael
Writing Exercise: Warm Ups – Before starting your writing use a warm up exercise. You can create a list of questions or phrases such as the following and use the responses in creative writing.
* five things that are the same color
* five descriptive images or phrases for air
* five random objects
* five things that are/ can be “a thin line”
* three things that are desirable
* two things that are undesirable
* five obstacles
* five ways to describe the same object
Writing Exercise: Free Writing – Write for 15 minutes using the following phrase as your first line.
“After the door shuts and the footsteps die…”
About the author: Susan Michael calls herself the “Poetry Enabler” and is active in spoken word poetry. She has facilitated several writing groups, and lead writing & creativity workshops for the Arts & Humanties Council in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
How I Use The Journal
Editor’s Note: The Journal is used by people from all over the world, from many nations, representing a variety of personal, professional, and religious backgrounds. Journaling is by definition an intensely personal undertaking, so it should not be surprising that when someone writes about how or why they keep a journal that they will end up sharing personal information. The Journal Newsletter does not support any particular personal or religious lifestyle, but rather attempts to support anyone who keeps a journal, for whatever reason they do so. Thus, the views and opinions expressed in “How I Use The Journal” are solely those of the submitter and not necessarily the views of DavidRM Software. Whether you agree with the submitter’s views or not, I encourage you to read the article and glean from it the information and techniques that “ring true” for you.
How I Use The Journal
by Jerry Hayden
I work in a Maintenance/Engineering group for an automotive glass manufacturing plant. I have several production lines that I am assigned to and have to maintain. I use a Loose-leaf category for each line. In these categories I keep lists of items that have to be done for the line, thoughts about improvements, and notes about the PLC and Robot programs.
I keep a loose-leaf category for my To-Do lists which are not directly related to any of my lines. This category is my catch-all for all other plant issues. I keep a Daily category to track what I’ve done each day. I also move any items that get completed from my Line categories into my daily so I can track when work is completed and it keeps my Line categories free for just open issues.
I also keep a loose-leaf category for every major project I have. This is a great place to keep notes and progress reports for meetings. After the project is completed I print out all of my notes from it’s category and store them with the project folder for future reference.
This is the first year I have used a software journal. I have become totally dependent on my journal entries for information. It’s handy to search past entries for an item, I used to have to manually page through my planner for information. Plus, I don’t have to store years of planners or even purchase fillers for each new year.
Jerry Hayden
Carlex Glass Company
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.