MacJournal Development Blog

This blog chronicles the development of MacJournal, and other software by Dan Schimpf Software.

Sunday, January 22, 2006

MacJournal 4.0a1

Download here

Welcome to MacJournal 4! This is the first alpha release. MacJournal 4 is now feature complete. All the features that are planned for release are now included in some fashion (although they may be changed a bit before beta). The goal is to get MacJournal 4 out in March and we need to get to localization started in February. Between now and beta there will be a lot of small tweaks to get things ready to be locked down for the release. I doubt I'll be able to resist a few small additions but nothing is for sure.

This release brings a full implementation for audio recording. It seems to only work on Tiger right now but I'm hoping to get it working on Panther before the final release. There is also a new "Quick Note" feature: set a key equivalent in the preferences and then use it in any application to make a quick note in any existing entry or create a new one.

Changes in this release:
- Added Movable Type as a real protocol type. If you have a MT blog, you'll want to reconfigure your blog settings.
- Added a special appearance for checkboxes in Full Screen mode
- Fixed a problem copying an entry URL to someplace only plain text is accepted.
- Added new recording UI, including meters.
- Added exporting of recordings in a journal to a podcast.
- Added importing of existing podcasts into a journal.
- Hold the Option key when clicking a checkbox to entry a "mixed" state.
- Tabbing with the insertion point next to a list item will take that list item with the tab.
- Fixed a bug with time zones when sending an entry to an Atom blog.
- iPod Notes export (essentially just text exporting but with internal links handled in the iPod Notes format)

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
- All-new blogging architecture
- New per-item attributes
• background color
• label
• sorting
• entry template
• editable
• blog server
- A real implementation of tabs
- Audio recording
- Links, smileys, and words are recognized as you type now (not just when you save), including a live word count field.
- AppleScript support
- Improved Full Screen mode

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 that will be weeded out later.


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 new icons are temporary and will be replaced later. I would appreciate comments about the general direction of the release though.



(By the way, the change-made-at-the-last-minute prize this time goes to "drag and drop in the recording bar." Congrats!)

posted by Dan Schimpf @ 5:52 PM  

50 Comments:

  • At 7:02 PM, January 22, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    What happened to .mac syncing? Wasn't that supposed to be part of 4.0?

     

  • At 7:35 PM, January 22, 2006, Blogger Christian said…

    A few notes regarding the recording feature..
    If I record in the same entry twice it automatically overwrites the first record without asking. Not good. Two recordings per entry should be separated. The graphics could look more aqua I think, they look very plain. A toolbar button for the recording bar would also be nice. Other than that sweet release. :)
    The QuickNote feature is pretty sweet. Thanks for that. The only thing missing now is automatic uploading upon change and iPod syncing ;)

     

  • At 7:48 PM, January 22, 2006, Blogger Christian said…

    Two more things... the custom background isn't working for the start window and a hidden option to switch the hotkey for opening tabs and the font menu would be nice. Still not a huge fan of the yellow for the encrypted journals but I can understand your reasoning just think it's not necessary since there are more indicators for that. Thanks again. :)

     

  • At 7:53 PM, January 22, 2006, Blogger Christian said…

    Sorry, but I keep finding things. :)
    In the QuickNote feature I cannot determine the journal to create the new entry in. It always takes the current one. Also if I press cancel it brings the last active app to the foreground or opens a window for that app. When I press the QuickNote hotkey without having a journal open (one that is locked) it gives an exception. It should ask for a pw or open the journal if the pw is saved in the keychain. I promise that's it for today ;)

     

  • At 9:54 PM, January 22, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    .mac syncing and I have fought several times so far. I would like very much to have it in but I can't call it a sure thing. I'm going to take one more wild stab at it before beta.

    Christian: what do you mean by the custom background isn't working for the start window? What is it doing?

    I'll add a way to chose a journal in the Quick Notes panel.

    You can pause a recording and then pick it up later, but stopping it writes it out to disk compressed, which is hard to then open back up and change. It's not impossible, but it may be beyond this release. I'm currently using CoreAudio APIs directly, which are not the most friendly to, well, anyone. So it's a learning experience.

     

  • At 10:07 PM, January 22, 2006, Blogger Christian said…

    The custom background color isn't used when in locked mode but I figured it is only for entries so forget what I said. ;)
    About the opening of the last app when cancelling. It actually opens another finder, safari, etc. window when doing that. Switching back to the app makes sense but actually opening another window does not.

    At least it should warn you before overwriting it. I understand that everything beyond that takes time. :)

    How about the other bugs/request? Are you experiencing the same problems and are the requests feasible?

     

  • At 10:47 PM, January 22, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    I fixed the exception that can happen with locked journals. The reason a new Finder window is opening is that Cocoa doesn't have a good way of activating another application. I know of some other API to try though.

    A warning in front of the recording sounds reasonable. I'm going to add a toolbar item for it too.

     

  • At 10:53 PM, January 23, 2006, Anonymous Eric Smith said…

    .mac syncing, ahh I've been waiting since you said you'd have it in 3.1. Please, please, please. (I have to say it's the only attractive feature of Yojimbo).

    Also, are you ever going to fix PDF handling? The window-inside-the-window bit not only looks horrible, but if you have a multi-page PDF is a nightmare from a user perspective.

    I'm a long-time supporter, so keep up the good work Dan!

     

  • At 1:38 AM, January 24, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    I'm still hopeful for .mac syncing. I'm going to take another jab at it later this week and into the weekend and hopefully it will work out this time.

    The PDF display is actually courtesy of the OS. Tiger added multi-page display I believe. The same effect happens in TextEdit. Not wholly attractive, I'll agree.

    Thanks!

     

  • At 1:54 AM, January 24, 2006, Blogger ephemera said…

    is this just me?
    when i launch a1 it opens but doesn't come to the front !
    and the machine beeps forever even when in another application
    when you bring it to the front it seems to work normally
    10.4.4

     

  • At 2:14 AM, January 24, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    Sounds strange. Is there anything in Console? Does this persist across logins?

     

  • At 2:18 AM, January 24, 2006, Blogger ephemera said…

    there is something really weird going on here with the audio system wide - so the problem is probably unrelated to macjournal :)

     

  • At 10:03 AM, January 24, 2006, Anonymous eric smith said…

    Maybe asking the impossible, but: as far as PDF rendering goes, yes TextEdit displasuch as Mail or any of your competitors manage true inline PDF display. Is there nothing in the Apple API allowing for this?

     

  • At 10:51 AM, January 24, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    So what MacJournal does is have the PDF as part of the text as an attachment. In this way, it is exactly like what TextEdit does. What we can do in the future is have a special "PDF entry," where the content of the entry is just the PDF alone. Then MacJournal would act more like Preview in displaying the PDF with the same scrollers as the text uses.

     

  • At 4:19 PM, January 24, 2006, Blogger webhill said…

    Any plan to put in any iWeb integration? You know, maybe an option to "send entry to iWeb" or something?

     

  • At 4:57 PM, January 24, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    I'm not sure right now how the iLife apps do the integration with iWeb, but it's very possible that it's not in any way that I can utilize from MacJournal. Probable, even.

     

  • At 6:06 PM, January 24, 2006, Blogger Christian said…

    I found another bug. When you click on an uncollapsed journal you don't get to see the overview of entries but some entry of that journal.
    Another thing besides iPod export and .mac sync that we've been talking about since before 3.0 is picture resizing (Not the original file, just the size of the display of the picture in MJ). Would be nice to have. ;)

     

  • At 2:37 AM, January 25, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    I responded back in an email, but this is actually intended behavior. It navigates back to the last entry and you can use the entries drawer to see the entries (which is how it worked in 2.1 essentially). There's a hidden preference to control this though.

    Photo resizing would definitely be nice to have in the future. :-)

     

  • At 6:59 AM, January 25, 2006, Blogger Christian said…

    I wrote you another email regarding that standard and some other things. :)
    What do you mean by "in the future"? Your understanding of "the future" seems to be different than mine, considering that this wish is almost as old as 2.4 ;) (just messing with you)

     

  • At 10:51 AM, January 25, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    :-)

    The problem with picture resizing is that the picture display is handled by the system itself. So I'll have to in and muck about to change it. It's on the list for sure, and it's gotten quite near the top after all the stuff that is in 4.0.

     

  • At 1:17 PM, January 25, 2006, Blogger Christian said…

    Hehe, good to hear. Did you get my email? Because I cannot find it in my sent folder.

     

  • At 3:27 PM, January 25, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    I got one yesterday, but nothing today. Did you get my response?

     

  • At 12:23 AM, January 27, 2006, Blogger Jean-Michel Mermet said…

    Hi,
    two suggestions that would enhance my experience with MacJournal :
    - multiple templates (one for meeting decisions, one for personal thoughts, one for recipes,one for tips, ...) to choose from when I add a new entry
    - a "use as a pasteboard" option for an entry : when activated for an entry, each time I would copy something in the pasteboard from other applications, it would automatically be pasted (added to) in the entry.

    thanks

     

  • At 2:07 AM, January 27, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Dan, thanks for your work. MJ 4 looks better with every new delta/alpha release. One question: Will MacJournal 4 finally support multiple databases? As for me, this would be the most upgrade-worthy feature of all :)

     

  • At 2:14 AM, January 27, 2006, Blogger ephemera said…

    um where is search?

     

  • At 10:08 AM, January 27, 2006, Blogger Christian said…

    Jean-Michael: You can use the new QuickNote function for your 2nd suggestion.

     

  • At 10:15 AM, January 27, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    MacJournal 4 won't explicitly allow multiple databases in the way that I want to in the future, but I may sneak in a way to better manage them.

    joh: Searching is the same as it has been. Toolbar item and/or command-option-F. What are you seeing?

     

  • At 11:47 AM, January 27, 2006, Blogger ephemera said…

    command 3?
    search in the window menu?
    it's gone!

     

  • At 11:55 AM, January 27, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    Oh yeah, that one. The reason I took it out was because it was an entirely different architecture (based on Spotlight) and I didn't get a chance to do everything I wanted with it in terms of separating out search terms. I don't think it provided anything over the built-in searching, other than the fact it was in a different window. I was planning on providing a hidden way to get the menu item back since all I did was remove it; the rest is still there.

     

  • At 7:02 PM, January 28, 2006, Anonymous Martin said…

    I’ve tried 4.0a1 and it seems great so far. I’ve also tried the audio thing, but it's a little bit confusing at the moment.
    If you record something, there's no possibility to see which journal has a recording. You have to enable the audio-toolbar and select every journal to see, if the play button becomes alive. I think there should be a little icon in either the drawer or at the top of a journal, indicating the audio part. It would also be nice, if one could delete the recording within a journal.
    Two more available buttons (for the menu bar) would also be helpful. One should show and hide the audio toolbar, the other should trigger the insert table feature (format > text > table). The latter is not this important, but the first would be nice.
    Maybe there’s also a chance, to give externally stored attachments (such as the audio files) a name, giving a hint to which jornal they belong.(also not really important, but I've wondered about the filename, after I have done my first audio recording)

     

  • At 7:27 PM, January 28, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    MacJournal 2.6.1 is now so full of bugs under OS X Tiger that you really should start calling it the discontinued version instead of the "free" version. Blogger posts upload in a complete mess as far as formatting goes. It never fails to unexpectedly quit during exports. Navigation from title box to main page to sidebar is a mess. I'm sure there are other problems that I haven't found yet.

     

  • At 10:27 PM, January 28, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    Martin: I've done these for a2. There is a little icon in the drawer and there's a toolbar item for toggling the recording bar. Features like this usually take a build or two to spread to all the places that they should in the app. The external audio files are not conveniently named, but they are named in a way that will not change even if you change the entry's topic or anything else. What is lacking is some way to find out what the unique identifier is for a certain entry so you can find that recording if you want it. Exporting the audio recording will find it for you though.

    Anonymous: can you send me some more info on the 2.6 problems? It's true that I don't look at it very often these days. But if you send me the crash logs I can look and see if there is something that can be fixed on your system.

     

  • At 8:16 AM, January 30, 2006, Blogger GV resident said…

    Dan, I was on board using MacJournal from nearly the beginning and loved it--a fellow ADC member--I was impressed with your quickness at understanding Objective-c, since I was working on a journal program myself, I found yours and stopped my development because yours had everything I needed--small, simple, easy, and organized.

    Well, I understand how improvements and technology makes people want to add things to it, but I think MacJournal has gone too far for me in my needs as a journal. I do not need to blog, sync, or most of your new features--especially having to pay $30 + $15 more for a program that I will not use 70% of the features.

    I am still using 2.6.1 to keep my personal journal and when 2.6.1 does not work on any new OS from Apple, I will go back to a text app that I used before or go back to working on my journal project for my use.

    Can there be a light version with just journaling features--not all the fluff?

    And I like the drawers, both of them. It is about looks, but more importantly it's about work flow and things working. to put something in just because it makes the app LOOK good is not good for the user.

     

  • At 11:42 AM, January 30, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    MacJournal is a pretty fair fighter when it comes to the OS (it doesn't pull any dirty tricks to get what it wants done) so I don't think it will break very easily with new OS releases. Apple has to support applications like AppleWorks for a good long time still, and MacJournal is much better. If 2.6.1 ever breaks I can fix it; it will probably be a small matter anyway.

     

  • At 11:46 AM, January 30, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    BTW, I decided to keep the drawers, at least for 4.0. I just couldn't reconcile myself with losing functionality for form's sake. There are cases where losing functionality is actually a good thing if it was too much and too complex in the first place and the change simplifies things and provides a better experience. However, I don't think this is the case here.

     

  • At 3:48 PM, February 01, 2006, Blogger ephemera said…

    so dan how do i access search so i can search the entire database?

     

  • At 4:01 PM, February 01, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    Use the search toolbar item; it will search everything.

     

  • At 4:36 PM, February 01, 2006, Blogger ephemera said…

    :(
    i like to hide the toolbar ...
    ah well
    command 3 will come back?

     

  • At 5:11 PM, February 01, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    Option-Command-F will always work, even if the toolbar is hidden. If it visible it will jump to the search field. If it is hidden, a sheet will pop down.

     

  • At 5:46 PM, February 01, 2006, Blogger ephemera said…

    on another matter would it be possible to get rid of the bit that says "Topic : " in the info bar
    it looks dumb and i might have something else there that is not a "topic" like a date or a title for a story or the name of a list
    :)

     

  • At 1:46 AM, February 02, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    It's like the "Subject:" in a Mail window. It has to have some sort of label to make sense, otherwise it's just floating out there for no reason. I agree that once you're used to the app it's not necessary but it also has to make sense to the first time user.

     

  • At 3:59 PM, February 09, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    how did we go from version 3.2.1 which is apparently an actual release ? I have currently

    to now 4.0a1 ? ? ?

    all these versions gets confusing, there was never a 3.2.2 3.2.3 3.2.4, etc

    why do developers release developmental software vs an actual release ? they should do their own bug testing and by the time it gets to the user it should be 100% ready at least for that version

    If I were a developer I would not be troubling users with beta releases or any developmental (use at your own risk) pre-releases. I'd make every release as stable as it could be then actually post a date for the next release. Plan on new releases every 3 months, how great would that be :-)

    I know it can be done because there are sofware developers that do this. I'm only surpised that not every developer does it this way. Their job is to test and make it as bug free as possible, this is not the responsibility of the user. The user just uses it and provides feedback. I think developers are getting lazy lol (no pun towards you dan) but seriously

    How hard can it be ?

     

  • At 4:36 PM, February 09, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    3.2.1 is indeed the most recent official release. 4.0a1 is a developmental release for those that want to see what is coming and give comments before the actual release. It's a lot easier to change things before the release than after. For this reason, I make these pre-releases available so people can tell me what they want and what would make the app better for them. Alternatively, I could not do the developmental releases and essentially develop new versions in a closed box and just hope that it's actually useful for people. I've done both in the history of MacJournal, but I think this system leads to a better end application. This way you the user can make comments about things that haven't been released yet and I can make it more useful before it ever hits "official" status.

    At the same time, I do as much bug testing as I can between releases. I try to make the developmental releases as solid and usable as I can so people can use it full-time until the next one comes out, which could be weeks or even months. In that way, I think this system helps the final release immensely because it can't ever get too far from releasable state and I fix bugs and regressions that pop up a lot nearer to when I originally work on that area of the code.

    So, you shouldn't look at these releases as "troubling" to you. If you don't want to use them, you shouldn't feel obligated to. They are there for the curious and the interested. 3.2.1 still works fine, and a new, official update to that will be out soon.

     

  • At 7:26 PM, February 09, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I understand what you are saying, makes sense on some levels yet I can still see a perhaps more effective way like this for example :

    you create one version not a b or c but version 1 then version 1.2 or version 2
    - - have an area for users to put submit suggestions, feedback, comments

    - - next version comes out, with new features everybody is happy

    - - - users submit more thoughts, suggestions for the next version and so on

    so simple so incredible a process lol

    so often, some developers feel they have to please everybody all the time, a software such as MJ should be simple and easy with simple features.

    those who are looking for such a vast complexed journal that needs to heat up their food as well should use something like note taker. MJ is an excellent journal for the masses and its high quality the way it is.

    I can see adding improvements, extra features, by keeping it real and simple it will stay MJ the tool everybody loves, on the other end if it keeps growing to complexity it no longer remains the MJ but something else.

    Next time someone wants to add kitchen sink to MJ along with a can of tuna you tell them thank you for the suggestion and toss it in the junk pile :-)

    What makes Dan the MJ creater loveable is that he's not the typical complicated developer he's simple MJ is simple that's what people like about you and MJ don't be like everyone else, you got a cool thing going here, MJ is #1 on the planet (barnone) simple is good.

    my extra 2 cents worth

     

  • At 11:27 AM, February 10, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    Essentially, the system that you outline is the one in effect right now. But there is an added level below that "public" face of MacJournal for those that want it. I would venture to say the vast majority of people don't know the pre-releases exist and go on with their lives no worse for it.

    I get a lot of suggestions over the course of development and not all of them fit in MacJournal. Saying "no" to some suggestions is an essential part of what I have to do. It's also the key part in actually finishing a release. It's not that those suggestions aren't good, but it's that they don't fit in MacJournal at that time. Near the end of a release's development, I have to say no a lot more just because the release has to get out the door and that idea can wait for next time.

    I agree that letting everything in does not make for a good app and it's a shame to see it when it happens. I try very hard not to let that happen to MacJournal.

    I'm glad you like MacJournal; thanks a lot!

     

  • At 4:23 AM, February 11, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    here's a good example of constant updates/improvements

    http://www.yazsoft.com/index.html

    this guy is always coming out with a new release and it keeps getting better.

    note every version is is a full releaset 1 2 3 4, etc no mention of betas no development release just this is it for now stay tuned for the next release BAM!!

    I wish all software was like this :-)

     

  • At 9:24 AM, February 11, 2006, Anonymous gradus said…

    ^^ blog spam from Yazsoft = one more reason to avoid this company like the plague ...

     

  • At 9:05 PM, March 08, 2006, Blogger Laurence Vittes said…

    Dan,

    I'd like to try 4 out, but I can't get it to function because I tried out 3 last year and the program wants me to register. Is there some way I can run it without first purchasing 3 from Mariner?

    Laurence Vittes

     

  • At 12:22 AM, March 09, 2006, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    I haven't gotten around to resetting the demo information. It will definitely happen for 4.0 and I can do it for b2 as well.

     

  • At 12:20 AM, March 15, 2006, Anonymous Dev Benegal said…

    Dan,

    I'd like to second Gerald Martin. I'm still using 2.6 after having tried 3.0. I like the elegance and beauty of it and most of all it allows me to write and make movies.

    I do find one small issue when I use Services (New Entry with Selection). In most cases the first time MJ launches it sends it to the incorrect journal and in some other cases does not name it correctly or overwrites an existing entry.

    In 3.x I found this was not the case.

    In any case MJ is the ONE app I could not live without!!

     

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