MacJournal’s developer Dan Schimpf has split form his longtime distribution deal (10+ years?) with Mariner Software, and he is offering the update to MacJournal for free from his own site, saying, “MacJournal will be distributed for free, just as it was when it got started almost 18 years ago…MacJournal 7 is free to download and use.”
It supports import of Day One’s database.
The only sync service that MacJournal supports at this time is Dropbox, although they will be adding support for iCloud in an upcoming release.
App offers rich text, Markdown, tagging, templates, “smart” journals (= smart folders), entry (= document/note) aliases, a timeline view, a calendar view, flagging, sorting, hierarchical journal view that includes entries for sub-journals, customizable info bars, word count, attachments, labels, due dates, priorities, status, search that includes saved searches, geolocation, even ratings and mood…
https://danschimpf.com
You can grab the user manual from the previous version from Mariner’s website:
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Thanks for the notice.
The app certainly looks good and has numerous interesting features. I wonder what the business model here is, though?
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Does anyone know if the iOS versions work with the new Mac version?
The versions in the App store here are the Mariner Software versions which I thought the developer said would be deleted.
I assume the dev will later make available additional unlocked features via upgrade, IAP or subscription.
But the app looks pretty interesting as it is right now, for free. On another forum someone posted that they were delighted to see they could directly attach family videos to an entry. And someone else said it’s going to replace note-taking apps for him because of its speed and the QuickNote facility.
The biggest limitation I’ve seen for it so far compared to Day One is that QuickEntry cannot insert into encrypted journals.
I’ve assumed v7 is mainly to change back-end things to get out of the Mariner fold – though things like the link to “About Mariner Software” in the Help menu are a bit odd. Sort of like a divorce but hanging out every day for breakfast at the old house.
MJ’s Quick Note is not new in v7; has been around for a while. It would be great if there was a Share extension too – although there is a “New MacJournal Entry with Selection” service.
No, there’s a lot of work in there from what I’ve read (the Mariner version is basically unchanged since 2016), and the dev has had v.7 in closed beta since the spring of 2018. (Last year you could crash the beta on demand just by changing the icon, lol.)
That’s interesting … I’ve used MacJournal pre- during-Mariner and post- and I don’t experience a lot of significant difference when using v7. (Yes, I’ve seen the very long release notes.)
It’s a great app in any case.
FYI there are many customizations available through Hidden Preferences.
Open Preferences window.
Click on Advanced in the toolbar.
Hold the Control and Command keys on your keyboard.
Click on the “Reveal Hidden Prefs” button.
Select Hidden pane at the far right of the window toolbar.
The developer says, “Keep in mind that one of the reasons that these are not accessible by default is that I’m not guaranteeing that these will work after this version. Some of them (like the date format specifiers) will hopefully make it into UI in the future. Others are conveniences for this version and might be removed in the future if they conflict with something else.”
Very nice.
Thanks for sharing!
I updated to this new version of MacJournal, but now I cannot see any of my previous journals. Every time I try to access them, I get a message telling me I am in the new version.
Does this mean I have lost years of these journal entries? How can that be?
JessieRM
Free doesn’t win me over since I bought Dayone for Mac/iOS/ipad and am using it for free already. It has to do something better than Dayone does it.
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