Guest Blog Post By Sam Lytle
In the market for a solid eJournal for your computer or mobile device? If you have taken the
time to look around, you may have been a little overwhelmed at all of the different options and the features that they advertise.
“This journal has just under a million fonts!”
“This diary will make you more attractive!”
“This app shoots out sparkles when you write a week in a row!”
...or something like that.
Well, not only am I here to clear up all of that confusion, but also to inform you that all features are not created equally. Basically they can be separated into three different categories in this fairly self explanatory list:
1: Essential Features
2: Features that Matter
3: Features that really don’t Matter
This second in the three part series covers the features that matter.
Somewhere between features you can’t live without and those that do little to nothing are the features that matter. As you choose your eJournal, try and get one that has as many of these as possible.
Multiple device support
One advantage of new eReaders such as the Kindle platform is that no matter where you left off in your book you will automatically pick up at the same spot, regardless of the device you use. This multiple device support is also available with certain journals such as Day One (iPhone, iPad and Mac) and will hopefully become more common as the upper level eJournals mature. Online or web based journals tend to have the highest multiple device support since most devices have browsers these days.
PDF export
If a journal has this feature, you can kind of overlook important omissions such as cloud journaling or a printing service because it gives you power over your journal. Once you have a PDF of your journal, you can save it in different places for security and piece of mind.
Multiple journals
This is an underrated ability that I wish more developers would include in journals. Not only do many journalers keep different journals for different purposes, but it is also nice to keep entirely separate journals for young children- something that my own parents did which is priceless to me today.
Attractive interface
If you are serious about journaling, you will hopefully be looking it at a lot, so hopefully you will pick one that looks good to you. Some are sexy out of the box and others might have to be customized a bit to get it more to your liking.
Search
I don’t organize my email anymore. There is no reason since I can just search whenever necessary and quickly find what I am looking for. Similarly, a journal with a search feature is the most organized journal available. Careful practice can even help further optimization of this feature by including keywords in your entries that will help them be
easily found in the future.
Customization
Briefly mentioned when discussing interface, the ability to customize is useful in the beginning to get your journal to your liking and then later on if you want to look at something new. This feature includes changeable themes, backgrounds, fonts and other elements.
Printing service
I only know of ONE journal service that offers this incredible feature (LDS Journal). How sweet is it to have the convenience of keeping a digital journal from any device and then, when you feel like it, push the launch button and have a copy (or more) show up in the mail.
Tags
Any journal with a search feature can technically have tags, but some journals have this functionality built in. That way you can tag a certain entry and then have it organized with all of the other entries that have that tag just like blog posts with tags.
Calendar view
Many journals have this, but it is a nice and easy addition that I hope more developers will include. This gives a quick look at how frequently you have been journaling and also gives an easier way to search for past entries.
Text and email entries
A few journals have a really neat feature where you can simply write an email or text message, send it to a special address and it will add it right into your journal- text, pictures, time stamp and all! Keep an eye out for this.
How are your "hand-held" journaling experiences going?
About the Author
Sam Lytle is the founder of EasyJournaling, a site dedicated to making personal journal and diary keeping easier in our busy lives, especially through mobile and online applications. He works in the civil engineering industry, is an (obviously) avid journaler, and loves spending time with his wife and son.
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