Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Best Journal Software?

S

Silverstring

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 30, 2005
466
763
What does everyone use?

Journler seems to fit my needs perfectly, but the application was abandoned in Sept of last year, and I don't want to start with an abandoned application, especially since I am on Snow Leopard. What comes closest?

I will basically be using the program as a daily log, nothing too fancy. The most important thing is for me to be able to start date/time-stamped entries without having to create/save a new file each time.

Some I've heard of that may fit this purpose are Yojimbo, Together, Memoires and MacJournal. Any chance someone has used one or more of these programs and can tell me how they are/how they compare? Thank you.
 
There's no perfect solution like Journlr, unfortunately. Journlr was my Mac solution for the lack of OneNote.


Everybody is different, so I don't know what you want exactly but I can suggest other software.

VoodooPad (wiki-like notepad), Notation Velocity (free keyboard/search based notepad, try it, it's very nice and free), DevonThink, EagleFiler, Notebook (from Circus Ponies) and the web based ones are the Zoho Notebook, Evernote and Google Docs as well as txt files with Dropbox.
 
I really like Journler too and I'd suggest sticking with it. I believe its files can be read by other apps (it's not super simple; but they are just rtf files).

Failing that, check out viJournal. I've been using viJournal Lite and have been very happy (but my needs are slight).

mt
 
I've never used Journler, but have heard good things.

I've used and been quite happy with MacJournal for quite a few years now. Maybe it will fit your needs.

I also own Yojimbo and Together, but for journaling and note-taking, I always use MacJournal. The other two are more of a storage bin for digital data, although both can certainly take notes. I guess in my opinion, MacJournal handles the text entry tasks (including blogging) so much more efficiently.

The other two handle the storage of data (web receipts, images, files, etc).

All can encrypt.

Good luck!
 
Silverstring said:
Journler seems to fit my needs perfectly, but the application was abandoned in Sept of last year, and I don't want to start with an abandoned application, especially since I am on Snow Leopard. What comes closest?

I will basically be using the program as a daily log, nothing too fancy. The most important thing is for me to be able to start date/time-stamped entries without having to create/save a new file each time.

Some I've heard of that may fit this purpose are Yojimbo, Together, Memoires and MacJournal. Any chance someone has used one or more of these programs and can tell me how they are/how they compare? Thank you.
Click to expand...
I also used Journler up until last year when it became clear that it was no longer supported. At that time I decided to switch to MacJournal because I'd been hearing about it for years anyways, and knew that it was well-supported.

Like you, I used Journler (and now MacJournal) for your basic daily diary. It works just fine for that. I think it has more advanced features for blogging and what-not; I've not looked into those at all.

Yojimbo, and I think Together, are more of what I call digital shoeboxes. Good for note taking, and mainly archiving little bits and pieces of information. (I actually use DEVONthink Pro for this purpose.) Not sure if either of those programs would be a good fit for what you're looking for. And I've just never heard of Memoires.
 
Lyle said:
I also used Journler up until last year when it became clear that it was no longer supported. At that time I decided to switch to MacJournal because I'd been hearing about it for years anyways, and knew that it was well-supported.

Like you, I used Journler (and now MacJournal) for your basic daily diary. It works just fine for that. I think it has more advanced features for blogging and what-not; I've not looked into those at all.

Yojimbo, and I think Together, are more of what I call digital shoeboxes. Good for note taking, and mainly archiving little bits and pieces of information. (I actually use DEVONthink Pro for this purpose.) Not sure if either of those programs would be a good fit for what you're looking for. And I've just never heard of Memoires.
Click to expand...

I'm going to give MacJournal a shot, although I don't like that the trial is only 15 days.

I really like Journler and could stick with it, but before I get too deep, I'd rather learn software that has a reasonable change of growing with me instead of having to break all my habits later on (and since I've always been a bleeding edge OS updater, I want to avoid the day when Journler "breaks" for good).

I use free evernote as my digital shoebox, and not even extensively enough to warrant anything I'd have to pay for (like Yojimbo, Together or even a premium evernote subscription). Sounds like those are a bad fit. Thanks for your input. I want something as straight forward for journaling as possible, so w/ a name like MacJOURNAL, I probably can't go wrong.

Memories looks simple and straightforward (which is how I prefer my software), but perhaps TOO simple, particularly for $29 (when MacJournal is only $39).

http://www.codingrobots.com/memoires/

Another thing I'd like to have is syncing between 2 computers (I use a laptop too), even if I have to use something like a dropbox workaround. Does anyone know if MacJournal (or another contender) supports this?
 
Silverstring said:
I really like Journler and could stick with it, but before I get too deep, I'd rather learn software that has a reasonable change of growing with me instead of having to break all my habits later on (and since I've always been a bleeding edge OS updater, I want to avoid the day when Journler "breaks" for good).
Click to expand...
Yep, that was my feeling as well. I really liked Journler and wished he'd open source it or something, to keep it "alive". Oh well.

Silverstring said:
Memories looks simple and straightforward (which is how I prefer my software), but perhaps TOO simple, particularly for $29 (when MacJournal is only $39).
Click to expand...
I am absolutely not trying to influence you either way, but out of curiosity I just downloaded the Memoires trial and attempted to import first my MacJournal, then my old Journler entries. That functionality doesn't seem to work. It claims to have imported the entries, and even pops up a couple of extra windows, but they're empty. It looks like Memoires doesn't support blogging or tags, which may or may not be important to you. On the other hand, they say up-front that their goal is "simplicity", and that may be their way of saying they're intentionally leaving out those kinds of bells and whistles.

Silverstring said:
Another thing I'd like to have is syncing between 2 computers (I use a laptop too), even if I have to use something like a dropbox workaround. Does anyone know if MacJournal (or another contender) supports this?
Click to expand...
You can definitely sync your MacJournal entries to your MobileMe account but based on what I've read this is a little buggy. (It's not something that I have need for so I haven't used that feature.) Likewise it sounds like people have experimenting with putting their MacJournal library in a Dropbox folder, to varying degrees of success. All I recommend on this is Googling for "macjournal dropbox" and "macjournal mobileme" to get a sense of how this pans out for people in practice.
 
Lyle said:
Yep, that was my feeling as well. I really liked Journler and wished he'd open source it or something, to keep it "alive". Oh well.
Click to expand...

If it ever gets brought back from the dead somehow, I will probably go back in a second.

Lyle said:
I am absolutely not trying to influence you either way, but out of curiosity I just downloaded the Memoires trial and attempted to import first my MacJournal, then my old Journler entries. That functionality doesn't seem to work. It claims to have imported the entries, and even pops up a couple of extra windows, but they're empty. It looks like Memoires doesn't support blogging or tags, which may or may not be important to you. On the other hand, they say up-front that their goal is "simplicity", and that may be their way of saying they're intentionally leaving out those kinds of bells and whistles.
Click to expand...

No, go ahead and influence me! It's why I started this thread, after all. Sure, I could try them all out myself, but I had to use leads to narrow it down because I simply don't have time to put each through their proper paces, particularly with only 15 day trials in some cases. Looks like it'll be MacJournal vs. Memoires for me, one taking the simple approach, the other the more complicated (blogging/tagging). Even though I hadn't really gotten into Journler that deep (I could've easily just manually imported what I did there), thanks for the heads up on the importing difficulties. It's certainly important for me to have my information be portable to another service/application if/when the time comes. Not having that is one of my biggest annoyances with evernote, but I put up with it because I don't like web interfaces and Evernote has a windows version (which I have to use for my work PC).

Lyle said:
You can definitely sync your MacJournal entries to your MobileMe account but based on what I've read this is a little buggy. (It's not something that I have need for so I haven't used that feature.) Likewise it sounds like people have experimenting with putting their MacJournal library in a Dropbox folder, to varying degrees of success. All I recommend on this is Googling for "macjournal dropbox" and "macjournal mobileme" to get a sense of how this pans out for people in practice.
Click to expand...

Good to know, thank you!
 
I just received a timely e-mail from Mariner Software (the distributors of MacJournal):
With so many great products, it's not always easy to know which one to pick - so we've decided to make the choices easier and take 25% off - all of them... But don't wait too long, Valentine's Day is just around the corner and our 25% discount will end at midnight February 14. To place your order, use promo code: "heart" in the Mariner eStore.
Click to expand...

So with this discount, the price drops from $39.95 to $29.96.

http://tre.emv3.com/HM?a=DNX7CkW6csxy8SA9MOOaNMjnGHxKRimLLgAN
 
Lyle said:
I just received a timely e-mail from Mariner Software (the distributors of MacJournal):


So with this discount, the price drops from $39.95 to $29.96.

http://tre.emv3.com/HM?a=DNX7CkW6csxy8SA9MOOaNMjnGHxKRimLLgAN
Click to expand...

I took the timing as a sign, and went ahead and took the plunge and purchased it, despite only playing around with it briefly. I was confident in what I did see in that time, and all the recommendations I've gotten.

Thanks for the heads up!
 
Lyle said:
You can definitely sync your MacJournal entries to your MobileMe account but based on what I've read this is a little buggy. (It's not something that I have need for so I haven't used that feature.) Likewise it sounds like people have experimenting with putting their MacJournal library in a Dropbox folder, to varying degrees of success.
Click to expand...

Or lack thereof.

I have now officially lost all my content in MacJournal for the fourth time in under eight months. The third time, was told the culprit was MobileMe, so I stopped using that as a backup. Moved my content to Dropbox as suggested by Mariner.

And have now lost everything yet again. The worst of it is that, based on my justifiable paranoia with the program, I routinely use File > Save a copy as... to create additional backups on my hard drive and a flash drive. Opening those resulted in blank files too--my guess is that something in the program itself is "wiping" pages clean upon opening copies of the data.

I'm trying out Evernote now, but not in love with it since images are saved as little boxes that have preveiw buttons--not the actual full images themselves. Also not sure if I can drop email links into it, which is the single reason I've hung on to MacJournal in spite of the repeated disasters.

There's got to be a better way out there.....that one can count on. :(
 
Day One is the best personal journaling app

For me, I think Day One is the best personal journaling app. It's simple, beautiful, and syncs across multiple platforms via Dropbox and iCloud. I think Apple even selected it as the Best App of the Year in the Mac App Store last year.

Here's a complete Day One app review that my best friend, Ray, has written thoroughly. It covers how he uses the app both on his Mac and on his iPhone.
 
Which of these apps capitalize the first letter of sentences and the I's?

I downloaded the free version of Memories and it doesn't. That's a very important feature for me.

Thanks so much,
Anna
 
AnnaCody said:
Which of these apps capitalize the first letter of sentences and the I's?

I downloaded the free version of Memories and it doesn't. That's a very important feature for me.

Thanks so much,
Anna
Click to expand...

Those are usually built-in because OS X handles this. If Memories app didn't do this, the dev probably forgot to turn it on. Contact them to configure it to use OS X API for the text field.
 
Will do. Thanks!

It sure would be nice if OS X would turn that on in Mail. I really miss that feature coming from Outlook. I did use System Preferences>Language & Text to automtically capitalize the I's and a few other things, like names I use often, days of the week, months. But really, why isn't that a feature of Mail?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back