Today is “Dear Diary Day.” What does this have to do with the Internet or Technology you ask ? Well consider the year we are in. Anyone born within the last 15 years will not know life without technology. Whether that technology has to do with communication, research and even writing.
Gone are the days where you can go to your neighborhood drug store and get an old lock and key diary for small change. They are still available, but at a much higher price.
Are notebooks still used ? Sure, but more often than not, one may turn their pen or quill in for a keyboard and monitor, or a stylus and a tablet, or just a smart phone.
In honor of Dear Diary Day, I invite you to start one, or put an entry in the one you already have. While you can go out and get that hard or soft bound diary and put the ink to work, this is about how to do it electronically. You can choose to do it on one device or many devices. You can make your thoughts private or put them out for the world to see. The choice is up to you.
If it is a true software based diary/journal that sparks your chirography , then here is a list of software based apps that will get you started.
For the OSx user, Mac Journal and MarsEdit are two true Mac based apps. They both offer password encryption for those private thoughts, but will also take any public thoughts, quips and quotes and automatically sync them to most major blogs, i.e.; tumblr , wordpress and blogger . There are plenty of others, however the two aforementioned are the ones used by this writer for his personal and non-personal thoughts. MacJournal also has a sister app in Win Journal which does make for some good cross-platform get togethers.
For iOS users (prefaced by these have been used on all iOS versions including 7), you have a few choices.
· iOS only
· iOS sync to cloud or other blogging sites
What you choose depends on your desirable content and level of privacy you choose. So far, my favorite iOS only app, is MacJournal which may look familiar to you from the last paragraph, as it will sync between it and the OSx version. The functionality is the same. If you are using it on an iPhone, I do suggest a wireless keyboard for speed as well as comfort. The iPad however has a large enough on screen keyboard to make even the larger handed writers happy. It will also (once registered), sync to major blogging sites as its Mac OSx bigger sibling.
Honorable mention goes to our favorite iOS only app called My Wonderful Days. It incorporates not just text, but voice, photos and movies to remind you of your days. It syncs to eye cloud for easy viewing and collaboration with its OSx version and will, via a secure web connection backup to and be restored from ANY computer, whether running OSx, Windows or Linux.
In researching it, there appear to be two apps at the top of the search string when looking for Windows diary/journaling software; Red Notebook and All my Journals . Red Notebook is a true free app. It comes in the Windows Platform and several flavors of Linux. The source code is also available. It is sleek and easy to use and get around.
All My Journals is free, however if you care to have more than one journal, you will have to upgrade. For the one that wants a single topic diary/journal, it is slick and quite user friendly.
Last but certainly not least is for the secret Android user. While there are many “single” platform apps, research is showing only ONE cross-platform (and I mean cross-platform) app; Penzu . Not only does it have an Android and iOS version, but the pro version allows for mobile access and syncing between platforms.
So there you have it. This is your ammunition to write and the pen, the weapon.
“The original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate.” François-René de Chateaubriand
via Examiner National Edition Gadgets & Tech Channel Articles http://www.examiner.com/article/september-22-2013-is-dear-diary-day-exchange-your-pen-for-a-keyboard?cid=roadrunner