Journler - 2.5.5

I really like this app, it has all the right tools to where the everyday Joe could easily understand and not a bunch of useless stuff that most will never use, the UI is not bad and seems to be fast. Of course everything needs fine tuning. That's an on going thing though, like fighting for freedom.

One thing I've noticed about all of these data organization applications is that they all are great and capturing data and organizing it within the application.

One thing they all (except one) are terrible at is getting data out. If I have a catalog of data in an application, I generally want to use it in other applications. Only SOHO Notes let's me assign hot keys and contextual menu items to notes. So when I'm in another application and I want to paste some information from SOHO Notes, I can simply press a hot key or right click and select the note from the menu.

SOHO seems to have broken this feature (at least for me) in their Leopard compatible versions, so I went looking around for a competitor. It boggles the mind to think that nobody else has thought of this. I'd be grateful if someone else does, as SOHO's track record with support and bug fixing has been less than stellar.

If you are considering buying and using this App, two things to keep in mind. First, the name is misleading (in my opinion)–it's not mis-descriptive (it handles the "journal" function quite well) rather the scope is far broader. Journler is what Chandler, NoteBook, Outlook, DevonThink, SOHO Notes, Yojimbo, etc., etc. aspire to be. Second, it is "donationware" (like shareware, but on the honor system). When i was new to Mac, that put me off (in the Windows world even upgrades cost >$100). Don't let it. That's just a peculiar feature of the Mac Universe. In fact, some of the finest Mac Apps are distributed this way (or were for a while)–e..g., Quicksilver. Now the Review: PIMs have been around a long time, but even on the Mac Platform, it astonishes me how they all struggle with "essential" tasks or organization. Here's an example. I just want to be able to go to my "file" for "Project X" and once there i ought to be able to browse everything that relates to Project X–web pages, e-mail, images, .pdf files, App-specific documents, clipboard contents. Second, i ought to be able to put all of those things into Project X folder very easily (which means easily tagging it as "Proj. X" data and e..g, having a menu item in the "services" dropdown that lets me quickly put whatever i've got in front of me into the Proj. X file). Journler is the first App I've found that gets this right. Aside from that, Journler has that same "feel" to it that i get when i use Quicksilver, TM, or OO3–it's a lot smarter than me; it has that subtle, gorgeous intuitiveness and aesthetic; and it stays out of my way until i need it to do something,

Ouch! Can't use this upgrade if you want to keep your journal from prying eyes.

what happened?