Journal software

[German_LDS]

Hi,

first of all: If my question should rather belong to another section of this forum please move it. Thanks.

I'd like to start my own journal. This is something the church is encouraging us to do. I know I could simply use a traditional paper journal. But I'd like to to it electronically. Any kind of an office software should do the job.

But I was also investigating some more advanced options, especially online. I found at leas two services that look promising: Penzu and LDSJournal.

Both services offer both a free and paid version and let you add pictures, videos and other multimedia objects to your journal.

I was wondering if anybody has any experience with an electronic journal. How do you do it? Have you tried different alternatives? What do you think is most important when doing a journal electronically? I'm grateful for any advice and help with this issue.

I might add that the most important thing for me is to have a journal that is protected - both against anyone spying on its content and protected against loss after I'm gone from this world (I know you can submit journals to the church). An online service could go bankrupt. All of my journal entries (maybe decades or more) will be gone in such a case. Of course I can do local backups (both services I mentioned let you download your entries as pdf, doc or some other format). If I keep a journal using a locally installed office software I'll be responsible for frequent backups as well.

So these are just some of the points I'm considering.

[Iggy]

I finally found an electronic journal that has everything I was looking for. It is Personal Historian - Personal Historian - Personal and Family History Writing Software

I had tried another one that was free- it was lacking a lot and was not able to back up to a disc or flash drive.

[German_LDS]

Thanks. I've seen this software before but was not really impressed with it. I know you can add pictures to your journal entry. But what about little videos and other multimedia stuff? What especially do you like or dislike about this software?

[anatess]

I'm interested in this stuff. I have an iPad app that I used but quit using it because it was not as versatile as I needed it to be so I'm also looking for something better.

[tubaloth]

I use to have some type of Jornal Software, but in the end I realized it was just storing everything in a Rich Text Format. So I just started it with Word. In Word you can password portect the file. (So anytime you go to open it, it asks for the password). I only store it local right now. But with Skydrive (Microsoft) and Google both having Cloud storage I'm in the process of have it be backed up online.

Meaning I'll always keep the main copy on my computer. Then like once a week have it backed up to the cloud.

The reason I use word is because the format is always going to be around. Even Open Office can read it. (Even with the password). And you can do pretty much anything in Word.

[German_LDS]

I was thinking about just using Word as well. But it didn't seem very appealing to me. Do you use some kind of template or anything else to give your entries a more appealing format? Do you add pictures or videos (yes, that's possible in Word but not very convenient)?

[Dravin]

Word 2010 has some journal/diary templates, though it'd be fairly easy to set-up your own template.

[anatess]

Waaa. I don't want to install Word on my iPad. I guess I can use something out of iWorks. Maybe Pages.

[Dravin]

Originally Posted by anatess

Waaa. I don't want to install Word on my iPad. I guess I can use something out of iWorks. Maybe Pages.

They have an app for that: Amazing iPad Journal Apps -- AppAdvice

[anatess]

Originally Posted by Dravin

They have an app for that: Amazing iPad Journal Apps -- AppAdvice

Yeah, I have Max Journal and Chronicle. I was hoping for something better - one that combines the journal with the scrapbook...