MacJournal 4.0d1 is here (finally)

Download it from here.

Welcome to MacJournal 4! Or rather what of it there is right now. A lot of stuff works pretty well, some other stuff is missing, and some things are still a little weird. But keep in mind that this is developmental software: there are probably bugs lurking somewhere that could cause crashes and/or data loss. MacJournal 4 has a lot of new data being stored and I can't guarantee the future of that. I may need to change how it is stored and I can't guarantee that everything will work. That being said, it works pretty well for me in normal usage. You should definitely read the Version History to see what is new. Here are the top-tier things:

- New Inspector for manipulating attributes of entries and journals
- New per-object attributes
• background color
• label
• sorting
• entry template
• editable
- A real implementation of tabs
- Links, smileys, and words are recognized as you type now (not just when you save), including a live word count field.
- AppleScript support

But that's just the really top stuff; there is a lot of good stuff (not just bug fixes) in the Version History. It will do you well to read it. The Preferences as been reorganized and split up and will continue to change. I added a few new panes and I think there's one too many now. Expect to see lots of change there.

The good news with all the new data types (like labels and background colors) is that the recently released 3.2 supports them insofar as it won't discard them when saving the data. So you can add labels in 4.0, go back to 3.2 for a while, and when you come back to 4.0 the labels will still be there. The exception here is per-journal sorting: this was added after 3.2 was released and will be lost if you save your data with 3.2.

MacJournal no longer supports Jaguar. At this point, it might not support Panther either. Development is being done on Tiger and there might be some lurking bugs on Panther.

Special Note for Blogging: the blogging areas of the app are next on the list to be overhauled. Lots of functionality will be added, but for now they might work a little differently than in 3.2.

Special Special Note (just for the weblog): I'm using the old icon so you can tell it apart from 3.x.

Reporting Bugs

This is a developmental release so things are still very much in flux. For that reason, reporting bugs isn't as important as normal. There are a lot of areas that are still changing a lot and will continue to change for some time. Some icons are temporary (such as non-editable entries) and will be replaced later. I would appreciate comments about the general direction of the changes though.

Onward and Upward

Now that 3.2 is out, what is next? I will start releasing developmental builds of 4.0 very soon. I think everything is in a reasonably stable state right now that it could work. Keep in mind that 4.0 is still pre-alpha, so a lot of things are still in flux. A lot of features remain on the drawing board at this point and some of the existing ones act a little differently because of new stuff that has been added. But I think it's probably a good time to release it now before I rip something else apart to add functionality. I'll release something this week, we'll say. Probably Thursday night; I'll spend the next two nights tying some looses ends down. I'll also have the complete list of changes so far by then.

See you Thursday, space cowboy.

MacJournal 3.2b4

Get it here

Welcome to MacJournal 3.2b4. This build will most likely be virtually identical to the final release. I expect to wrap that up tomorrow or Wednesday. This release is to make sure everything is okay. Please let me know immediately of any problems you experience.

This build adds a new field in the Entries drawer for annotating entries. This is a new data type in the data file. If you save your data on an older version of MacJournal this new information will be lost.

Fixes in this beta:

- Add annotations
- Added Brazilian Portuguese
- Expanded items in the Journals drawer should be remembered across launches

Other Fixes in 3.2:

- Fixed compatibility with Jaguar.
- Added accessibility fixes for VoiceOver.
- Smart quotes will be left intact when sent to Blogger.
- Canceling the Rename sheet after creating a new journal will also remove the new journal.
- Fixed conversions to and from centimeters in the Page Margin section of the print panel.
- Other assorted small fixes.

Also, please note that the minimum OS requirement is either 10.2.7 or 10.2 with Safari installed. You don’t have to use Safari, you just have to have it installed on your system.

Please let me know of any problems you have with this release.


Reporting Bugs

Please let me know about any bugs you find in this release as soon as possible. Use the "Report A Bug" menu item in the Help menu to see a list of known issues for your current build (as they arise). You can also automatically create a new e-mail.

If MacJournal crashes on you, look for a crash log in ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter and include that in your report. If there's some funny behavior, try looking in the Console (in /Applications/Utilities/) and include any output related to MacJournal in your report. Please be specific about things that you are doing that aren't working out, whether it's a crash or a behavior that you don't like. Also, include in your e-mail what release of MacJournal you are using. I appreciate your feedback!