MacJournal for Mac 6.2.1 has been released

MacJournal is the world's most popular journaling software for the Mac. MacJournal 6 adds a calendar mode that show entries from any journal, geolocation, word count, and progress tracking, as well as additional blogging support. A Timeline mode has been added to give the journaler the ability to see their writing activity in chronological order. MacJournal 6 even introduces a feature for creating books from journals specially formatted for publishing. Add any kind of content, not just text. Drag PDFs, QuickTime movies, images, audio, and more. Record audio and video, even publish to a blog account on Blogger, WordPress, LiveJournal, Posterous, and Tumblr. Dropbox support added as well. 

What's New

Version 6.2.1:

• Fixed an issue where closing a separate entry editing window would open a blank window
• Fixed an issue where keeping both entries in a conflict when syncing with an iOS device would cause one entry to be blank
• Fixed "Select Other" item in the Advanced Preferences main document selection list
• The document list for the main document in the Advanced Preferences will now update as documents open and close
• Fixed a potential crasher for syncing
• Improved performance for Dropbox documents
• Fixed hangs when exporting large entries to PDF
• Fixed an issue where changing the Entries List side to the same side it's already on would hide the list but it would still return upon relaunch. Now it doesn't hide
• Made saving the data file safer in odd circumstances
• Improved behavior when opening documents missing a critical subcomponent for describing the entries
• Made the Media toolbar item open the built-in image browser if available
• Fixed an issue preventing the 'A' key from being used in a Quick Note shortcut combination
• Improved recovery from failed syncs with iOS devices
• Fixed a potential crash launching with mulitple entries selected
• Fixed a crash when exporting multiple entries to PDF
• Added a way to fetch updated information for the support links to web pages in the Help menu
• Fixed a potential crash on launch after editing custom colors
• Improved performance rebuilding the Spotlight search index for very large documents
• Added a word count field to the conflict resolution window during iOS WiFi syncs
• Fixed an issue in macOS Sierra where new entries created from the New Entry service were missing the web browser source URL
• Fixed an issue uploading entries to Blogger
• Fixed an issue duplicating an entry from the Backups browser window

Requirements

• Intel
• OS X 10.7 or later

Putty for Mac

$15.00

Mariner Software StoryMill Review

When I was researching scientific information for my novel, I found that my typical journal technique simply became a mess as I scratched out ideas that won't work and kept jotting ideas around the margins. I like neat notes and I like physically writing my ideas, but writing them quickly became a bigger mess than ever before. That's what happens when you write a complicated, detail-necessary work! How do I get organized? How do I make it easy to find my ideas without a ton of Word files in my research folder? I'm still trying to find a good solution that works for me, and during this process, I've come across quite a few writing tools that sound interesting. The first one on the list: StoryMill.

StoryMill is one of a few software packages by Mariner Software that work to help writers. While StoryMill is dedicated to various aspects of overall novel writing, Persona (character management) and Contour (story outline) are two other options that focus on specific areas of novel development. I'll be honest: Contour is not something I'll try because I am not the type of writer who outlines in any detail whatsoever. I have a general idea, pit stops along the way, and an endgame; however, my characters direct me better than any outline I've ever done. In other words, you won't see a review of it here because it won't be unbiased. With that being said, Persona is on my list because it has what I wished StoryMill did for characters: detail, detail, detail!

Character Screen

This is one of my problems with StoryMill. The most you have under the info block is what you see above: role, height, hair, race, weight, and eyes. You can add photos, tags, links, and blah blah blah, but the majority of your information is going to be typed in a blank word-like document. It's not very organized other than being under the name of the character. This is why I'll be testing out Persona for my characters; however, if I'm going to drop money on software ($40 a pop!), I don't want to have to buy something else I would think should be included.

It does have some simple planning features that make Contour unnecessary for many writers. The main screen for "Scenes" gives you a list of your scenes and the ability to pull up a timeline of your novel's scenes:

Scene Main Screen

In each scene's page, you can write the scene, make notes, add photos, select the chapter, choose the characters in the scene, pick the location, and choose the date and time it starts and ends.

Individual Scenes

When going back and adding the information for my novel, the most helpful parts for me were the chapter, date, and time. I was able to get a timeline going and really think about the amount of time that was passing in each scene and how plausible certain things were in the scheme of that time frame. On the other hand, the timeline feature is only so helpful. Rather than stacking scenes chronologically for each date, everything falls in a line to scroll horizontally no matter how short of a time frame you select.

Timeline

Notice above that the first time shows "The Ex....Dealing". This is because there are multiple scenes in that time period. It would be much more helpful if it was more of a calendar format where each day's scenes stacked in a straight line and then you could scroll right for the following days.

Locations

The locations option is helpful but still basic. You can add pictures, take notes, create tags, save links for files or websites, and see which scenes are related to the location. This is helpful for keeping together information for each location, but there's nothing special about it. The research tabs are similar. The only difference is that the "scenes" tab is missing. You can also create a list of tasks that you want to complete and use tags for them.

There are a lot of small features having to do with formatting, exporting, etc., but they are what you would expect from writing software. A few mop-up features of interest:

• Word Frequency - See how many times you use certain words in each chapter or the novel overall.
• Progress Meter - Set a word count goal and you'll see a meter at the top of the screen that shows your progress to the selected goal. It can be progress for the current session or the whole novel's completion.
• Highlight Cliches - Find possible cliches in your writing.
• Snapshot - Take a snapshot of your work before you make big edits or changes. 

You can use any of these 4 coupons in Mariners online store and save between 5% and 25% off the retail price of new purchases or one of the 5 pack bundles.

Putty for Mac

$15.00