I found this really great software while doing my usual goofing off endless searching to find the best software to bring to the attention of MorninPaper readers called The Journal.

 

 

 

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The (really) Good

The Journal does pretty much what it says, it's a journaling application that is the electronic equivalent of all those diaries you had while you were growing up, except this one isn't pink, doesn't have hearts and cute little clasp ties. No, The Journal is for the grown-up who still wants to be able to write down their daily thoughts and keep them for all posterity.

Okay, being a guy, the whole journaling thing kinda goes over my head, but once I installed the small application, I could see where it would be real benefit.

Remember those little heart locks on your diary? Yeah, I thought so. Gone. Replaced by a password so you don't have to worry about anyone reading your most intimate thoughts on how you really want to get back with your ex-boyfriend.

Once The Journal is started, you are taken straight to a predated Journal screen.

There you can write to your heart's content, include pictures, search past entries, create appointments, reminders, To-Do lists, write notes to yourself in the future, web links, e-mails, an address book, essentially do what that paper diary could never do.

But the real deal for me was how is it as a writer's tool? I already have a writer's-only word processor that I was really happy with, so why switch?

Honestly, I didn't really do it for the journal part, I did it because of the Notebook section. The Journal has a tabbed interface that you can set up pretty much however you want. The main part of The Journal is the Journal, but the rest of the application is so flexible for writer's that it quickly won me over.

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The Notebook section will allow you to create as many "Categories" and then "documents" (folders) as you like under each "parent" name. It's like a super simple tree-type organizers for writers to keep track of all of their projects or works in progress either in the default Notebook or by creating your own custom Notebooks with unlimited "parent" and "child" files.

And, when your done writing your opus, blog rant or Great American Novel, you can send it directly to your blog or merge to print that novel, article, story to go to your printer.

For a word-slinger, it doesn't get any easier or better than that. Live spell check? Check. Built in Thesaurus? Check. Word count? Check. Import / Export? Check. Check. Search? Check. All of the bells and whistles of Word without the bloat and many of the things you'll never, ever need unless you write annual sales reports.

The developer even describes how he used his own software to complete a novel in National Write A Novel in a Month competition that seemed super easy using The Journal's Notebook features.

For a creative writer, I found The Journal to be super flexible and very easy to use. Any writer looking for a real alternative to Microsoft Word would be hard pressed to find a better contender.

The Not So Great (mostly really minor stuff)

I did have a few niggles, however.

I wish the UI was a little more customizable, the choice and ability to add skins would have been great. The stock UI is sooo Windows 2000.

I also think the whole package, although already pretty lean, could have been slimmed down even more by dropping some of the Microsoft Word features (tables, graphs, etc.) and going for the jugular as a straight journal, writing application.

My other favorite writers-only app, PageFour eschews everything like tables and graphs for a less cluttered interface. (I promise, a review is forthcoming.)

And the templates could be more, er, gender neutral as opposed to the "daisy with pink border" page template. Skins would solve that I think.

But, that was really about it I could find lacking in this application, I think it's that good.

You can keep the entire application on a USB thumb drive if you move from desktop to laptop/tablet pc or keep everything in sync from your desktop to laptop/tablet pc via the thumb drive. All password protected as mentioned above.

There's a full 45 day trial period for The Journal available here. And, if you end up liking The Journal as much as I did, it won't break your bank at $39.95.

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