MacJournal 5.1.2

MacJournal 5.1.2 is out now! Get it here now, or from the Help menu's Update item. There are a lot of improvements over 5.1.1 in the areas of text editing, blogging, syncing and more. Over the last beta, there are fixes relating to blogging, some improvements in UI layout, and improvements to the Dutch localization.

MacJournal 5.1.2b6

Get it here.

This release fixes a pasting bug introduced in the last beta and improves the reliability of "Send to iWeb". It also improves the layout of the Info bar and adds a "Save a Copy As" menu item (for English users right now, everyone else when they get updated again).

There is also a new logging facility to collect information about file operations that take place, e.g. importing and exporting entries, saving entries, etc. You can turn this on in the Hidden Preferences in the last tab as "Log document file actions". If you are seeing a problem where your data file gets inordinately large (several GB), please let me know as this will be useful.

MacJournal 5.1.2b5

Get it here.

This beta fixes a crash or two, improves creating an entry in iCal, improves entry templates, and improves printing. My hope is to get the final release out next week, if all goes well.

MacJournal 5.1.2b4

Get it here.

Another round of syncing changes accompanies a few changes for smart journals, discovering links, and recovering entries.

If you are having trouble syncing and a normal reset from the System Preferences does not work, use these steps to perform a complete reset of syncing on your machine:

1. Close all applications.


2. Trash the Library/Application Support/SyncServices folder.


3. Restart your machine.


4. Open MobileMe system preference pane.


5. Re-enable syncing. You will have to pull everything down from the server again.

Please let me know if those that were having trouble have any more success with this release.

MacJournal 5.1.2b3

Get it here.

This beta has a few fixes for editing, importing, and syncing. It also adds back the floating calendar window. Let me know of any problems.

MacJournal 5.1.2b2

Get it here.

This beta has some syncing changes and a crash fix or two. Check it out and let me know if you have any problems.

MacJournal 5.1.2b1

Get it here.

5.1.2 is expected to have a fairly short release cycle (I hope). It's got a few bug fixes for blog posting, data syncing, text editing, and a few other things. Try it out and let me know if you have any problems.

MacJournal 5.1.1

The final version is out. Download it from Mariner. The in-application updates will be updated tomorrow to start offering it there as well if you want to wait for that. There aren't many differences versus the last beta, but there are a few bug fixes, a new Danish localization, and no expiration date.

I'll post more on future plans in the coming days.

MacJournal 5.1.1b5

Get it here.

Beta 4 contained some good bug fixes but it also contained some regressions that caused problems. So, enter beta 5 to fix the regressions. If this works out, this will be the last beta and we will release 5.1.1 to the general public. Let me know of any problems.

MacJournal 5.1.1b4

Get it here.

Here comes beta four of 5.1.1. It has a fix for a bug that I've been chasing for a while, so I hope to get the final 5.1.1 out soon to get the collected bug fixes available to everyone as soon as possible. Let me know of any problems.

MacJournal 5.1.1b3

Get it here.

This is the third beta release of 5.1.1. It's got several fixes in different places, including blogging, syncing, and general app usage. Let me know if you have any issues with it.

MacJournal 5.1.1b2

Download it here.

This release has a few fixes for blogging, Tiger issues, and other assorted problems. There is also some syncing experimentation for Leopard users. If you are on Leopard and use MobileMe syncing, please let me know how it works for you. As this is intended to be a fairly short beta cycle, I hope to get the final release out soon.

MacJournal 5.1.1b1

Download it here.

This release is to fix a few problems that popped up after the release of 5.1. It has a crash fix, a few localization tweaks, and Blogger download improvements. The goal is a fairly short release cycle for this one. If you have any problems with this release, please let me know.

MacJournal 5.1 is here

Download it here.

This is the final release of MacJournal 5.1. If you've been following the betas all along, not much will be new. But if you're coming from 5.0.4, there are some nice new things. I think the three biggest things are the "three-pane view", editable entry windows, and Karelia's Media Browser window. Let me know of any problems you find. I will update the in-application update mechanism soon as well if you just want to wait for that.

Note: If you saw it posted yesterday and downloaded it then, it may have been the incorrect build. A bad disk image was posted yesterday but has been corrected now. It was just beta 9, expiration date and all. Re-download using the link above to get the real 5.1.

MacJournal 5.1b9

Get it now.

While we prepare the final release of 5.1, here is a new beta to extend the expiration date. There are a few bug fixes in this release over beta 8 and it should be very similar to the final release soon.

MacJournal 5.1b8

Get it here.

This is the eighth beta. This contains various bug fixes, localization tweaks (including a new Italian localization), and one UI change in particular: .Mac is now MobileMe. Search is fixed, as are some issues with MetaWeblog servers. There is a fix for a crash when synchronizing Palm devices. There are some various other fixes as well that are detailed in the Version History. There aren't any new features as 5.1 is feature complete already. Providing more localizations is also a goal for this release. Please let me know if you have any problems with this beta.

MacJournal 5.1b7

Get it here.

Here comes the seventh beta, now with French and Spanish localizations. Not all the localizations are complete, but we hope to get things wrapped up soon. There are also more syncing fixes, and a few other fixes in various places.

I haven't mentioned it in a while, but here is the page that lists the current and recent releases, in case you should need them: http://danschimpf.com/dev.html.

MacJournal 5.1b6

Download it here.

Watch out: here comes beta six. This beta has two new localizations: Japanese and Dutch. It also adds some AppleScript properties and a Services menu in the contextual menu. It also fixes a long-standing bug in .Mac syncing regarding resetting data, so that should work better. We're getting late in the process here, but remember: this is still a beta, so remember to back up your data and let me know of any bugs you find.

MacJournal 5.1b5

Download it now.

It's mostly bug fixes, but fixes that will be helpful to most people. There's also a new German localization (more to follow). Let me know how it works out for you.

MacJournal 5.1b4

Get it now.

This is the fourth beta. There are various fixes in a lot of areas. There are some text editing fixes and some fixes for smart journals. There is now native support for importing OPML (outline) files. There are some various other fixes as well that are detailed in the Version History. There aren't any new features as 5.1 is feature complete already. Providing localizations is also a goal for this release, although none are included yet. Please let me know if you have any problems with this beta.

MacJournal 5.1b3

Download it now.

More bug fixes! This fixes some incompatibilities with Tiger, so issues editing text in the separate windows and with new entries, and a few small issues with the sidebar. Try it out and let me know how it works for you.

MacJournal 5.1b2

Download it here.

This fixes a few problems with editing entries in other windows, as well as a few other problems here and there. Please try it out and let me know how it works.

MacJournal 5.1b1 is here

This is the first beta of 5.1. The goal of this release is to provide a few larger features, a few smaller features, and provide localizations. We are currently working on the localizations so there are none in this release, but we will use this as a reference point and update what we have. This release is feature complete, which means I don't plan on adding any new features, largely because of the localization issue.

The big new features in this release is an option to have the entries list display vertically on either side of the entry text, enhancements to the calendar to support non-Gregorian calendars and display more than one month at a time, and editable entry windows. I also added Karelia's Media browser to see pictures and so forth from iLife applications and drag them in easily. There are a few other improvements and bug fixes, so I encourage you to read the Release Notes and the Version History for this release. You can go back and forth between this release and the last public release, 5.0.4, without any trouble. As with anything, it's a good idea to make backups before changing just about anything on your computer though.

Get MacJournal 5.1b1.

MacJournal 5.0.3 and 5.0.4

As most of you already know, MacJournal 5.0.3 is now out. However, due to a silly mistake at the last minute, there was a problem preventing it from launching on Tiger. So, enter 5.0.4 with the fix to that problem. Early reports are good, so it's on to a small feature release with localizations (finally) included. It will have one or two small new features and will be a free update. More on that as it comes. I'll probably wait until it is feature complete to post a beta to avoid the endless stream of betas that 5.0.3 had.

MacJournal 5.0.3b8

Get it here.

This is the eighth, and hopefully final beta of MacJournal 5.0.3. It is intended to fix a long-standing crash on Tiger with the sidebar. There is also a syncing fix, and new check at launch for the minimum required version of QuickTime (7.3.1), a fix f or entry tabs, and a Batch Change fix.

Check out the included Version History for the full details.

MacJournal 5.0.3b7

Get it here.

This is the seventh beta of MacJournal 5.0.3. It should fix a crash on Tiger with expanding journals, as well as improve Picasa support, fix importing podcasts, fix saving Word files, fix the Batch Change sheet, improve support for other calendar types in the Change Date sheet, fix auto backups in some circumstances, and add badges to the entries list.

MacJournal 5.0.3b6

Download it here.

This is the sixth, and likely final beta for 5.0.3. There are fixes in a lot of areas of the application: services, document saving, calendar, blogging, printing on Tiger, custom-sized images, and the separate entry window.

MacJournal 5.0.3b5

Download it here.

This is the fifth beta of MacJournal 5.0.3. There are more fixes to be had, as expected. There are fixes for the smart journal configuration, LiveJournal blogging, SFTP uploading, image uploading in general, and image resizing. Documents open at quit will now be restored when you launch again. And there's some more, smaller things as well. Happy March.

Check out the included Version History for the full details.

MacJournal 5.0.3b4

Get it here.

This is the fourth beta of MacJournal 5.0.3. There are fixes in lots of places, including a few crashers. Printing information should be saved better, downloading entries from blogs should work in more circumstances, image resizing should work better, and the Change Tags sheet should behave more logically when dealing with multiple entries. The entries list should go away after a search more reliably. Fixed some display issues with the sidebar as well.

Check out the included Version History for the full details.

MacJournal 5.0.3b3

Click here to download.

Here comes the third beta of 5.0.3. This includes changes for the backup dilemma that I posed earlier. Daily backups will now wait until the application has been idle for a minute before starting the backup. It also won't cause any disturbances should that happen in the background. This should improve that situation. There are a few other fixes, including a workaround for a crash on Tiger. Let me know of any problems that you have.

On automatic backup vs. annoyances

In MacJournal 5.0.2, I turned on automatic daily backups by default. New in version 5 is the ability to cull the automatic backups older than a certain date so it wouldn't consume unlimited disk space, so I felt it was useful at that point to make it the default. While I don't think anyone would argue that backups are generally good things, the way MacJournal currently handles it could be improved. If you have auto-saving turned on, this will trip the backup mechanism if you haven't saved yet that day, which could force you to pause mid-sentence for a minute while it backs up. That's annoying. Also, if you have MacJournal in the background and it decides to back up then, it will bounce in the dock and jump onscreen to show the sheet. That's annoying. The second item is the default behavior for showing a sheet on a non-visible window, but I'm working to get around that for 5.0.3. I'm also thinking about ways to tackle the first point.

Waiting until quit to do the backup is out because some people (such as myself) never quit MacJournal, instead just closing the window and leaving it open in the background. Disabling the automatic backup and having a "Backup" option in the UI somewhere is also not favorable because remembering to back up is not always successful. This could still be added, but it is outside of the automatic backup issue.

Viable option #1 for me is to wait until the system is sufficiently idle to start the backup. Perhaps after 5 minutes of no activity in the application, it would do the backup. The same mechanism is already used to determine when to lock journals automatically after an idle period. Option #2 is to wait until you switch entries before starting the backup since that could represent a mental break anyway. I'm currently wrestling between these two options for 5.0.3. The hybrid option #3 is to just do both option #1 and option #2 and do the backup for whichever event comes first.

Leave a comment if you have any strong feelings one way or the other. It should also be noted that this progress sheet only comes up when the backup takes more than a trivial amount of time, so some users won't see it at all.

MacJournal 5.0.3b2

It's the second beta of 5.0.3 and you can download it here. It's got some more various fixes over beta one in blogging, printing, and a few other areas. Let me know of any problems.

I'm getting down to the end of my email backlog. I will try to get the rest out by the end of the weekend.

Happy Valentines Day, everyone!

MacJournal 5.0.3b1

The first beta of 5.0.3 is out now. You can download it here. It's got fixes for syncing, sending to blogs, adding tags, automatic lists, and a few UI-related areas. There are plenty of small fixes across the app. Let me know of any problems you have with this build.

Please note that this is a beta build, not a final release. Beta builds have an expiration date to make sure they aren't used forever, while final builds do not have such an expiration date.

MacJournal 5.0.2 is out!

Today brings the release of 5.0.2. This release contains several critical fixes for users of 5.0 and 5.0.1. You can get it at Mariner's site, from the Help menu's Update item inside MacJournal, or direct download here. There are several fixes over the last beta as well, so be sure to update.

This release is still English-only, but I'm going to start the localization process soon and hopefully get some more languages released soon.

This version has a tweaked application icon as well. It's a cross between the icon from 5.0 and the original blue MacJournal icon.

I'll be working on my other website, http://danschimpf.com/, over the next few days to update it for 5.0, in case you have been wondering what is the deal with that. I'm also going to really attack my backlogged email now that 5.0.2 is out. I suspect that will be the answer for most of the questions I have received.

MacJournal 5.0.2b5

Hot off the heels of beta 4 comes beta 5, available here for download. It has some fixes for recording and .mac syncing. It should hopefully unblock people that were having trouble in those areas. The final release should be out next week, so let me know of any problems as soon as possible.

MacJournal 5.0.2b4

Download it here or use the Help menu's Update item in 5.0.2b2 or later to get it automatically.

Here comes the fourth beta to 5.0.2. This will probably be the last beta for this release as I want to get fixes for some of the problems of 5.0.1 out there with as little delay as possible. The two problems areas are still .mac syncing and recording. If you're having trouble with the audio recording, please try trashing your preferences and then make sure the audio devices are set up in the System Preferences' Sound pane (not the one in MacJournal). I've had success doing that when it was giving me trouble. I'm going to work on the MJ prefs a bit in that area to work more like QuickTime Player's (when you have the Pro mode enabled) to make this easier.

Here's the full list of changes:

• Fixed a case where the font color would be used as the background color when formatting HTML.
  


• Fixed a problem where a bad blog from MJ4 could cause the MJ5 data not to load.
  


• When creating a journal with a journal selected, the new journal will be placed inside that journal.
  


• Opening a separate viewer window for non-text entries will no longer show jibberish.
  


• Add UUID properties to entries and journals in AppleScript.
  


• When sending an image that has been resized to a blog, the custom size will be honored.
  


• Fixed a problem exporting a journal to PDF with one file per entry.
  


• Fixed the Status searching from smart journals.
  


• Fixed a problem with launching could show an entry from a locked journal.
  


• Fixed individual files backup.
  


• Fixed a crash right-clicking at the end of the text.
  


• Fixed an error when editing lists on Leopard.
  


• Added the "add tag" AppleScript command.
  


• Now correctly encrypting the entry template along with the journal.
  

MacJournal 5.0.2b3

Here comes the third beta of 5.0.2. It's got some crash fixes, .mac uploading fixes, a few behavioral fixes, and a new addition to the Info bar. Download it here:

MacJournal 5.0.2b3

Let me know of any problems that you have.

MacJournal 5.0.2b2

Here's the second beta of 5.0.2. It's got a number of fixes in a lot of different areas. There are exporting fixes, Full Screen changes, .mac syncing fixes, crash fixes, and more. Download it here:

MacJournal 5.0.2b2.

Unfortunately, you won't see an in-app update this time. I'm still getting a handle on the new system (the third-party open source Sparkle system) so the first beta or any 5.0.1 release won't get notified automatically. This shouldn't be a problem in the future.

Please download it and let me know how it works for you. I'm still very behind on all the email that has come in since the release, so apologies in advance if I don't get back to you in a timely manner. But I have read your mail and hopefully this build helps.

MacJournal 5.0.2b1

Well, Macworld is over, 5.0.1 is out, and now the first beta of 5.0.2 is out. 5.0.2 will fix a lot of problems here in there in the 5.0 release and should hopefully get those that were having trouble up and running with MacJournal 5. Here is the download:

MacJournal 5.0.2b1

This should fix issues with migrating locked journals from MacJournal 4, exporting entire journals to one file, scrolling problems, editing in Full Screen, and several crashes. Check out the included version history to see the full list of changes. The goal is to get this release out by the end of the month. If you've emailed me in the past few days and haven't received a response yet, I'm working through a lot of email right now and will try to get a lot out today. Please let me know if 5.0.2b1 solves your problem.

The cat is out of the bag

Earlier today, we posted a public beta of MacJournal 5. This is the biggest update since probably ever for MacJournal and I'm really excited about it. I'll have more about it later, but if you want to check it out, you can get it here:

http://www.marinersoftware.com/MacJournal.dmg

I expect to have a new beta out tonight to fix a crash some people have been seeing. If you install the linked build, you should see the update automatically.

Here are some of the high-level new features:

• All new interface, built for Mac OS X Leopard.


• Add any kind of content, not just text. Drag PDFs, QuickTime movies, images, and more into the Sidebar to create an entry with anything on your computer.


• Open more than one MacJournal document at a time and save them wherever you want, or just use the default document and never worry about saving.


• Create Smart Journals from searches you perform.


• Create aliases to entries that you can store in other journals.


• Assign each entry a rating, status, and priority, and sort any journal by those values.


• Record video from your iSight and attach it to any entry.


• Performance enhancements for working with large amounts of entries.