Journler is my ‘killer app’

There is no short supply of blog posts and online articles either looking for or claiming to have found “the killer app” for a Mac.

In truth, when it comes to using a Mac, I agree with posters at this ArsTechnica forum thread that say it is the entire experience of using a Mac that is the “killer app”, not just a single application.

But were I to choose that one app that is most pivotal to my workflow, it would have to be Journler, by developer Philip Dow.

Journler has been part of my workflow system since shortly after I switched back to using Macs in 2004. Prior to the switch, I was using Microsoft’s OneNote as a PIM, and I really enjoyed it. But the lack of a Mac version sent me in search of the application that would be my heart-and-soul on the computer.

After dual trials with Notebook by Circus Ponies and NoteTaker by AquaMinds, I settled on Notebook. It is an extraordinary app that more than met my needs. But the interface never felt intuitive enough to the way I worked. I always felt as if I struggled to get things out of it the way I should.

So my search continued, and I settled on Journler. I’ve never left.

For those like me who enjoy seeing how others use their favorite software, what follows is an overview of how I use Journler in my daily work.

Journler in brief

On his Web site, developer Philip Dow describes Journler this way:

Journler is a daily notebook and entry based information manager. Scholars, teachers, students, professors, scientists, thinkers, the business minded and writers of every persuasion use it on a daily basis to connect the written word with the media most important to them.

Journler is different from most PIMs in that it is organized according to date and not topic. But do not let that paradigm disturb you. With tags and smart folders, you can quickly and easily have a topic-based drawer from which to pull all your needed information. Furthermore, Journler allows arranging posts according to projects, which gives it a more familiar approach to managing information.

But it is the ability to integrate with the rest of your Mac applications that makes Journler so powerful. You can add contacts from Address Book, photos from iPhoto and save Web Archives by dragging sites straight from Safari. Too, you can add video, audio and still photography directly into Journler entries.

If you import a photo file created in Pixelmator or a text file created in TextMate, Journler will either display the file in its interface or allow you to open it in its original program with one simple click.

Plus, Journler is fully searchable. Users can search entries, tags, projects and most files stored in the database. It makes it great as an archival system for email or invoices. Add to it the power of a ScanSnap scanner, and you can begin the migration to a paperless life.

Research assistant

Journler makes a great research assistant, whether your project is large or small. When I begin working on a blog post, I start a new entry in Journler. Then I switch to Safari and begin my research, dragging Web sites I’ll either cite or use in my post into Journler. If I just need a snippet, simply highlight the text and use the Services menu to clip to the entry you have active.

If I am using external (paper) documents, I’ll scan them, save them onto my desktop and then import them into the entry (I delete the original file after importing it).

Once my research is complete, I select all of my bookmarked sites from the side drawer and open them in Safari. That allows me to flip through tabs and collect any information I need. If I have pdf documents, I open them in a separate Journler window for use as well.

Then, all that is left to do is write. (I use TextMate to apply Markdown and upload my post.)

Project management

When I start a new project, I create a new project category in Journler. Then, I create a smart folder that finds all entries with that project name.

Next, I outline a few generic tags that I know I will use in the project. For instance, if I’m customizing a Web site for someone, I know I’ll use tags such as “site_ideas”, “content_needs” and “issues”. Then, I create nested smart folders that find each one of those tags.

Right now, I’m managing a Supreme Court campaign. I’ve got a project in Journler for it, with several smart folders nested under that project. I track everything from phone calls and meetings to messaging and fund-raising within Journler. Since this is a relatively new project, I only have a few entries. By the time election day arrives, I’ll have hundreds, if not thousands, of entries.

Once a project is completed, I simply delete the smart folders. The entries remain, and I can always search them later if I need to reference something for whatever reason.

Journal and archival

One thing I started this year was to write a daily journal. There is nothing scientific about this. It’s a free-flow of thoughts. At times its personal, sometimes its about a project on which I’m working and sometimes its more of an outline of things that I want to do. That’s the simplest use of this program.

In addition to a written journal, I keep an archive of invoices, home files, tax documents and just about any other type of written correspondence that needs filing for future use. I simply scan the documents and save them to Journler. If I must keep the hard copies — say tax documents — then my wife files them away. If I don’t need the hard copies, I shred them and move along toward a paperless life.

If I purchase something online, I either save the receipt page as a webarchive or print the page to a pdf and save it in Journler.

Adding tags to all of these entries allows me to sort them according to my needs. So when tax time rolls around, I can easily sort my archives by business deductions or health care deductions or whatever I need.

Conclusion

Journler is an Everyapp. Its usefulness is limited only by the user’s imagination. It is scriptable, and you can find a plethora of scripts for various tasks. Furthermore, Journler is backed by an active community of users.

Journler’s pricing structure has evolved over the years. It started as freeware, then moved to freeware for personal use and shareware for non-personal use. Today, Journler is fully shareware with a price tag of $34.95. (Dow struggled with this decision, which you can read about here.)

For me, there is not a more important program on my MacBook Pro. Without it, my entire workflow would be thrown into chaos.