Laptop and Desktop Journals

Journal App Review: Capture 365 for iPad/iPhone (Mac Version Also Available)

Posted on Mar 30, 2013 | 0 comments

Looking for that perfect journal app is just like shopping for any other item. Imagine wanting to buy a new desk and going to an IKEA store. That certain familiar feeling is there; you know what you want and you know you want it now. The only problem is that all of a sudden, all desks seem to look alike. That vision of the perfect desk is gone. What’s left is a room full of possible purchases that leave you catatonic at the very least.

Journal apps tend to be alike in some ways, especially if you have seen as many as I have. The general purpose of being able to help you create daily journals is there but with the number of choices available to you – you end up confused. Are all journal apps created equal?

Sockii’s Capture 365 begs to differ. In a sea of journal and diary apps, Capture 365 seems to go against the tide and forces us to believe that there is such a thing called the “chosen one” among the many.
Although first impressions are nice, it isn’t extremely intuitive and there is no tutorial or introduction video to help you grasp the basics. For example, adding a new entry on a specific date requires you do at least 2 things (including selecting dates and clicking a button). Two buttons might not be much but I bet this is much confusing than the usual + button.

This Free Recommendation Website Is Probably The Best Thing Easy Journaling Has Ever Done

Posted on Mar 19, 2013 | 2 comments

What Is Your Best Journal App?

Visitors come to Easy Journaling for a variety of reasons but the most popular is to find the best journal app for their favorite device. Just type “best android diary” or “best iPhone journal” into any Google search bar and you will probably be directed to this website.

As nice as the ‘best journal app‘ posts are that you will find here, they aren’t really that helpful because each user has such different criteria. The top 5 apps for Jack won’t be the same for Jane. Everyone approaches digital journaling differently and a simple list cannot appropriately serve unique individuals.

I have tried as often as possible to give personal journal app recommendations to those who have bothered to ask. And as much as I enjoy the challenge of taking the differing criteria and using several years of app research to give the best journaling solution, the Easy Journaling community is getting to the point where it isn’t practical to serve everyone in this manner.

There was a solution to this problem all along but it took me over a year to finally pull the trigger and automate my journal recommendation process. Thanks to a paid developer, an online researcher and a skilled friend, we have built an entire journal app recommendation tool from scratch and I am excited to announce that it is now available… and it is free. It will always be free.

The Darker Side of Penzu

Posted on Feb 15, 2013 | 7 comments

Read This If You Use Penzu (Or Have Thought About It)

If you have been a part of the Easy Journaling community for a while you have probably seen a post or two about the most popular online journal, Penzu. Not writing about it would be similar to a tech blog not writing about Apple- possible but not realistic.

This journaling service offers many features for free and even more for $19/year including syncing Penzu on Android and iPhone. Almost a year ago I wrote a personal piece on the subject titled Why I’m Switching to Penzu. In short, I was tired of Wonderful Days for the iPhone and wanted the best option available. I was the digital journaling guru so I should be using the best, right?

It was the right decision at the time and I basked in the magnificence of feature overload for months. I could customize to my hearts desire, write from a keyboard or touchscreen and sleep in the comfort of knowing that my journal was backed up, password protected and encrypted. Maybe overkill, but nice nonetheless!

The 4 Reasons Why Diaro 3 Is the BEST Android Journal

Posted on Feb 5, 2013 | 7 comments

(Pin this on Pinterest by hovering over the icon on the left and clicking on the Pin It button!)

A few months back I documented my transition from the world of Apple to the world of Android. It was surprisingly smooth and I have to say that I haven’t regretted switching to my Galaxy S3 (Verizon) a single day. The iPhone 4 was a great device and I loved it for most of two years, there just came a day when I wanted a bigger screen and more customization. Android offered this and much more.

I didn’t worry too much about my personal journal at the time because I was using Penzu Pro which, as you may know, has apps for iPhone and Android. I knew that I could buy any new phone, log in and pick up where I left off in my journal.

This worked great and was a nice plan until I realized that my infatuation with Penzu was fading. Don’t get me wrong, Penzu has a fantastic web service that I highly recommend. Unfortunately, however, Penzu has an Achilles heel-

Penzu is Android, LDS Journal is iPhone

Posted on Nov 4, 2012 | 0 comments

If anyone comes to me and tells me journaling is so important to them that they just want the best option, regardless of price, I almost always point them in the direction of either Penzu or LDS Journal. These two online journaling services offer more features than most and are available from nearly every platform. Penzu is more widely known and used, but LDS Journal was actually my first eJournal and is a beautiful Penzu alternative. In fact, LDS Journal’s print feature is probably the number one single feature any eJournal has that I am aware of. I even did a video review when I received mine.

Penzu, on the other hand, is a feature-filled monster. From military-grade encryption, multiple journals, prompts and fonts aplenty, this online journal has almost anything you would want along with somethings you didn’t even know you needed. The downside to Penzu- as well as LDS Journal- is the lackluster mobile interface. Sure you can journal from smartphones for either of these, but you probably won’t want to.

Using Evernote As a Journal

Posted on Sep 30, 2012 | 4 comments

To call Evernote a product wouldn’t do it justice. This uber-popular note taking service has expanded to the point where it is an entire platform. Now there are dozens (if not hundreds) of applications that tap into the service for backup and more that enhance it. It is free for limited use and for a small price you can get almost unlimited uploading for notes and pictures.

If you aren’t familiar with Evernote, I will let Wikipedia explain it to you:

“Evernote is a suite of software and services designed for notetaking and archiving. A “note” can be a piece of formatted text, a full webpage or webpage excerpt, a photograph, a voice memo, or a handwritten “ink” note. Notes can also have file attachments. Notes can be sorted into folders, then tagged, annotated, edited, given comments, searched and exported as part of a notebook. Evernote supports a number of operating system platforms (including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Chrome OS, Android, iOS and WebOS), and also offers online synchronization and backup services.”

If you have used Evernote, you may have realized that it could make a splendid digital journal. Not only is it free but also available on almost any platform and very easy to use. Still, I personally would never use it as a daily journal. This is mostly because the service is almost to broad to be used just for journaling. In other words, I wouldn’t want to mix all of my notes with my private journal entries. Most people probably wouldn’t care and I think Evernote is a great option for them.

Getting Started With Online Food Diaries- 3 Resources

Posted on May 27, 2012 | 0 comments

When you are looking to either drop a few pounds or just live a healthier lifestyle, there are a host of calorie tracking websites available to assist you in this endeavor. They are called a variety of things, but most commonly food diaries or food journals and, as with most online diaries, come in a variety of shapes, sizes and flavors.

eI’m not going to toss out any fibs about me knowing something about these food diaries, because I really don’t know much. I’m trying to learn, but can’t call myself an expert in any measure of the term, so I won’t. Instead, I’ve congregated these resources together so that you can learn from those who know. If you have a favorite food diary, please let us know in the comments below.

And yes, this is a blog post about other blog posts that will point you to online food diaries. I call it ‘Blogception’.

Nutrition Calendar: The Top Five Online Food Diaries (dietivity.com)

Not only does guest blogger Jasmine Stephenson give five great options for your food diary needs, but several readers have also chimed in with their own suggestions as well.

Top 5 Journal Apps for the MAC!

Posted on May 7, 2012 | 9 comments

Looking for the best journal app for you? Try our free journal recommendation tool!

If you would rather have your journal on your desktop or laptop instead of smartphone, tablet or browser, there are some amazing options these days. If Mac is your flavor of choice, you now have the ability to browse through (relatively) new Mac App Store and find the journal that looks best for you. Better yet, I’ve browsed through it for you and narrowed them down to the best 5 Mac journals and diaries that your money can buy.

As you read these summaries and research more details in the actual App Store, remember these important features you need to look for in an eJournal that you can settle down with: password lock, picture insert, Dropbox or other cloud integration. There are more, obviously, but these are essential features that I wouldn’t go without.

1. Day One- $9.99

Featured at Easy Journaling several times, Day One is the premier choice for many avid eJournalers. Not only is the powerful Mac version able to do many things including Dropbox and iCloud backup, calendar view and export, but there are equally beautiful iPhone and iPad apps that sync with it.

Why I’m Switching To Penzu

Posted on Apr 4, 2012 | 13 comments

I’ve just gone through a big change in my journaling life. If you will allow me, I want to tell you the reason why and hopefully this experience will help you as you attempt to either find a new or better eJournal or else improve the one you are currently keeping. Think of this as a case study of the most personal kind and as we know, case studies are often one of the best forms of education.

So without further adeau, why I am switching to Penzu, probably for good.

I have spoken glowingly about Wonderful Days on at least 3 occasions here at Easy Journaling. I fell in love with it when I first laid my hands on it and within months was trying it out as my primary personal journal. Not only was the interface beautiful and customizable, but it had Evernote integration and PDF export- perhaps my two most desirable features. I always knew that online journals have more features to offer, but I use my iPhone so much as my journal, a good smartphone experience was essential for me. I had used both LDSJournal and Penzu to some extent and loved many things about them, but the iPhone interface was so clunky that I opted for and took the chance with an application that was mostly stuck on the device.

Journal For Proven Productivity- Guest Post By The Founder Of The Easiest Journal Of Them All, iDoneThis

Posted on Mar 8, 2012 | 2 comments

The purpose of Easy Journaling is simple- make journal and diary keeping easier through modern applications and services for your smartphones, tablets and computers. Today I have a guest post from someone spearheading a movement that is perhaps the easiest way to journal available. How easy you ask? What if all you had to do was respond to an email once a day, explaining what you had accomplished.

I’ve tried it, and it is very easy. Better yet, it is even harder to forget since the emails are always there to remind you. The service is called iDoneThis and so far it is free so I highly recommend checking it out. I have especially found this FAQ to be very informative if you want to learn more about this unique website.

The following is from iDoneThis founder, Walter Chen.

37 Reasons To Use Penzu Pro For 37 Cents A Week

Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 5 comments

As far as advice I give concerning eJournals, the service I recommend above all others is the industry standard for online journaling- Penzu. This solid journal website is what CNET called “the most realistic re-creation of paper I’ve seen on the Web” and what I recently gave the highest recommendation in the ebook Modern Journaling, saying “As far as online journals go, it is a Penzu world and pretty much everyone else is playing catch up.”

Penzu has an incredible free service that allows you to journal from any computer and offers several great features including unlimited storage and the ability to upload pictures (even from Flickr). It is so popular that many of you have probably used it at one time or another. What some don’t know, however, is that for $19 a year you can have access to pretty much every feature known to the digital journaling community by signing up for Penzu Pro. This includes the incredible ability to update it from most smartphones and keep separate journals for separate people. This means that you can use Penzu for a low price which works out to just over 5 pennies per day, 37 cents per week or $1.58 per month. To put this in perspective, you could pay for Penzu 10 times over… and still not pay as much as you would for Netflix. Not bad for the top of the line.

Journal App Review: Sorting Thoughts For Palm Pre/Android/PC/Mac (!)

Posted on Jan 12, 2012 | 2 comments

I’ve just taken Sorting Thoughts for a quick test drive on a Verizon Palm Pre and there are some good things to be said about this app and the platform the developers are building around it. Most notably, the availability of the software not only on WebOS (Palm Pre) AND Android, but Windows and Mac as well.

Recently I spoke of available methods to sync a journal between an iPhone and a computer. Although there are some promising applications, there is still much to be desired. Perhaps this is why I find the discovery of Sorting Thoughts so refreshing- journaling software that syncs between multiple devices (including computers) and has a bunch of good features. (You can see the bottom of this post for a full listing of features of both the free-version and full version)

How Can I Journal From My iPhone AND Computer? (My Most Asked Question)

Posted on Jan 6, 2012 | 2 comments

The longer I have been running Easy Journaling, the more people come to me with questions referring to journaling on their devices. These questions come from readers like you and also the friends and family in my life. The questions vary, but one pops up much more frequently than the others: What can I use that will allow me to journal from my iPhone, but that I can also write entries with on my PC or Mac?

This should be an easy answer. If I were a developer, the first thing I would do (Hint, hint) would be to make a service that works flawlessly from smartphones, tablets and computers. I understand that this is easier said than done, but in the world we live in, consumers expect to use services that sync between devices with the data stored in the cloud. This is the way our email, ebooks, shopping and many other services work.

Why not journals?

If you have this same question, you have some options.  I will be honest that there isn’t yet a perfect solution, but a few are getting closer with each update. All of these options can basically be divided into two categories: iPhone apps that work with computers or online services that work with iPhones.

Penzu Pro Video Review

Posted on Dec 17, 2011 | 0 comments

I’ve spotlighted Penzu, listed it with the best online journals available and even reviewed the iPhone app. But as far as a real review of the features Penzu offers, I kept putting it off…

Until now.

Most people are aware of Penzu’s amazing free service, but there is also a paid service that offers a host of other features including multiple journals, customization and integration with smartphone applications. So that you can see what is on the other side of the $19 a year, I have made a video review of Penzu Pro. Enjoy!

Sign up for Penzu Pro here!

Video: LDSJournal Printed Journal Review

Posted on Dec 11, 2011 | 3 comments

The Easy Journaling YouTube channel is here! To kick it off, I have a quick look at one of the most amazing services LDS Journal offers: a built-in printing service. I have used LDS Journal somewhat over the past several years and just received my first printed journal in the mail and had to show you what it looks like. I know that I don’t show the book very much, but that is because I am trying to keep my personal journal personal

Learn more about LDS Journal’s book printing service here.

Let me know if you have suggestions for future video reviews and make sure and subscribe to the EasyJournaling YouTube channel!