Before Apple released the Macintosh, computers were a lot harder to use. Instead of the friendly office-based layout of files, folders, and desktops; you'd end up using DOS or a similar command-line interface. Not that I have anything *against* command-line interfaces, it's just that the Mac OS is a lot friendlier.

I think MacJournal did a similar thing for simple data management. Just like the "Office" theme makes computers a lot easier to use, MacJournal's "Journal" theme makes organizing some files a lot easier.

Everyone has a collection of "scrap" files lying around... for me, it was the "Jokes" folder, the "Passwords" folder, and the "Bass Tabs" folder in Safari's bookmarks. These were things I wanted to keep but didn't need cluttering up my Documents folder; so I made "journals" for them in MacJournal. This works *so* much better because I can search the contents seamlessly, and add to the journal when I find something new by just pressing Command-Shift-M in any other app.

Now, for the 3.0 review... Personally, I think it's worth the money. 3.0 adds the following highly useful features:

* NESTED JOURNALS. This feature is *so* useful for anyone who uses MacJournal for anything more than a simple diary. For example, it's a lot easier to sort my Bass Tabs file by artist than just willy-nilly in a journal.

* WIKI LINKS. This feature is good for people who are working on full-fledged research projects in MacJournal. With them, you can link on-the-fly to another entry, just by typing in CamelCase. (For example, you could say "sudo is used instead of su (see SudoOrSu) where "Sudo Or Su" is a different entry.) Save, and it turns into a link.

* FULL SCREEN MODE. This is another handy feature... if you tend to get distracted when you write, you can make MacJournal take over the whole screen, so there's no UI elements to get on your nerves. It's also nice if you read music from MacJournal, as not only can you make that full-screen, but you can make it automatically scroll, which is great if you use it while playing an instrument.

There are also hundreds of small improvements and probably more to come, so I'd say that it's worth the steep $30 price. Also, remember that people who used MacJournal in the past can buy it for only $15. If you're just using it for a simple journal, you could just download 2.6 for free, but I'd suggest buying it to support the author.