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The easiest journal or diary software for Mac. Saving your memories and returning to them has never been so enjoyable before. Free Download. Without a doubt, Day One is the best journaling app for iOS and Mac. On top of providing a clean place to write your thoughts, it also includes syncing, photo imports, a passcode lock, a public. Note: The Journal is Windows software. You can run The Journal on a Mac with a Windows emulator such as Virtual PC or Parallels, or by using Boot Camp to run Windows on your Mac. You can run The Journal on a Mac with a Windows emulator such as Virtual PC or Parallels, or by using Boot Camp to run Windows on your Mac.
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Microsoft Day One 2
It’s hard to improve upon perfection. The original Day One made keeping a journal on your Mac easy and fun. Day One 2 wants to do even more, but to fulfill those ambitions, it’s partly sacrificed the original’s beautifully simple design.
What’s changed, and what hasn’t
It’s still a snap to start typing a new entry in Day One 2, either from the app itself or its convenient menu bar widget. The latter also provides customizable reminders to write down your thoughts at a given time. Day One 2 tags entries with the date, time, any custom tags you care to create, the current weather, and your GPS-based location.
Don’t want your journal knowing too much about you? You can deactivate location info when crafting a new entry. Don’t want anyone else reading your journal? A password-lock feature will keep it safe from prying eyes.
Day One 2 adds the ability to keep up to ten separate, color-coded journals at once; for example one to serve as your personal diary, another for business notes, and a third to jot down ideas for that novel you’ve been planning. And where its predecessor only allowed a single photo per entry, Day One 2 supports up to ten, dragged and dropped from Photos, Safari, or the Finder. Paste in a YouTube or Vimeo URL to embed that video in your finished entry, as well.
The Mac version adds a Photos view (previously an iOS-only feature) to the existing Map, Timeline, and Calendar views, and now lets you edit multiple entries at once. You can also view and search by additional information gathered by Day One 2’s iOS versions, including motion and step data and the songs you had playing while you composed a given entry. (The Mac app doesn’t include these features, which at least partly makes sense, unless you frequently take long hikes while typing on your laptop.)
To accommodate these new features, Day One 2 sprawls across greater screen space, stuffed with more, smaller icons. While Bloom Built has clearly worked to keep the interface clean and appealing, it’s definitely more cluttered than its predecessor’s. Figuring out each of the many new buttons remains fairly easy, but still not as easy as in the old version. Editing multiple entries particularly threw me, until I spotted a series of related icons that quietly showed up in an unexpected corner of the window.
That syncing feeling
Version 1 relied on Dropbox or iCloud to sync journal entries across its Mac and iOS iterations, but version 2 uses Day One Sync, Bloom Built’s own free, proprietary system. This has alarmed some iCloud-loving users, but Bloom Built argues that the new service works better, faster, and more securely than either of the old solutions.
I had trouble getting Dropbox to work with the original Day One, but I have no such complaints about Day One Sync. Setting up an account took mere minutes, and synching entries between my Mac and iPad happened almost instantly. Though any data you sync via Day One’s system is already securely encrypted, Bloom Built says it’s planning to add even stronger private key encryption in the months ahead.
Day One 2 also temporarily lacks its predecessor’s Publish feature, which automatically turned entries into blog pages, although Bloom Built says it’s rethinking that ability, and will add it in a future update. I can see how Day One 2 might evolve into a powerful online publishing platform, especially if its makers keep their other on-the-horizon promises of stronger social media integration and the ability to turn your journal entries into a printed book.
Bottom line
In my tests, Day One 2 offered speedy searching, excellent online help files, and responsive, bug-free performance. It’s become slightly more complicated than its predecessor and it costs four times as much. But this superb journaling app remains pleasant to behold, easy to use, and a tough act for any rival to follow.
Journal Program For Mac
Microsoft Day One 2
iOS devices have completely changed the way we write. Not only has iOS given us the flexibility to quickly jot down our thoughts wherever and whenever they strike, it's fundamentally flipped our expectations of the humble text editor. In an effort to maximize every pixel of screen real estate, developers rethought what was necessary for productivity and efficiency on our mobile devices, from the size of the canvas to the way we interact with buttons, bars and ribbons.
The result left us with minimal, distraction-free environments where the only things that matter are our words. And as formatting bars and font menus became obsolete on our iPhones and iPads, a funny thing happened: They became less important on our Macs, too. From iAWriter to Pages and even Microsoft Word, the streamlining of the word processor has created a world of smart, lightweight interfaces built to adapt to whatever device we happen to be using.
As someone constantly switching between my Mac, iPad, and iPhone, the seamless experience has become an indispensable part of my workflow. My writing sessions are no longer tethered to a desk, but it's not just the freedom I enjoy—the cross-platform congruity has become just as important to my productivity, letting me literally pick up where I left off without losing any momentum my train of thought may have.
But even more than that, the tailored interfaces help maintain my focus no matter the size of the screen I'm working on. Having a digital notepad within constant arm’s reach is one thing, but staying in a writing groove is quite another—the feature and font familiarity across my Mac and iOS devices keeps my eyes and concentration from wandering. When I come across a new writing app in either the iOS or Mac App Store, the first thing I do is check the other to see if a companion is available.
It’s hard to say definitively what makes a good cross-platform writing app, but I instantly know when I’ve found one. A good use of fonts is important, but a wide selection isn't necessary—for example, Vesper doesn't let you stray very far from Ideal Sans, but it absolutely would be on this list if a Mac component were available. Also, a pure writing space is nice, but menus and sidebars aren't an immediate turnoff. Simply put, the essence of a great text editor is more than the sum of its fonts or keyboard bars.
The bottom line is focus. The best cross-platform apps know what to leave behind when switching from a 21-inch-screen to a 9.7-inch one, and they do it without trampling over any of our individual writing styles and preferences. And while mine may certainly differ from yours, here are my picks for the best ones:
Best: Ulysses III
Long before the minimalist trend, Ulysses put a heavy focus on writing rather than formatting, giving authors the tools they needed to brainstorm, organize, and create their projects with ease. Today, Ulysses III (Mac, $45; iPad, $20; iPhone, $1) has evolved and matured into the premier writing experience on the Mac. The recent release of a major version 2.0 upgrade has raised the bar so high it’s hard to imagine a better experience on any platform. With full support for Yosemite and an overall refining of the paneled interface, its eloquence is only trumped by its flexibility.
Ulysses may be a simple Markdown text editor at heart, but an array of carefully crafted features makes it a true multipurpose utility for writers. All of your documents are stored right within the app's attractive sidebar, allowing you to search and organize your projects with ease. A slide-out panel stores notes and images related to the document you're working on, while typewriter scrolling keeps your eyes from losing their focus.
And unlike many of the other text editors I’ve used, The Soulmen didn’t water down its vision for iOS. On the iPad, you’ll find a full version of Ulysses formatted to fit the smaller screen and reimagined for multitouch. Everything from its minimal interface to its professional features has been brought to the iPad, but nothing about it feels cramped or crowded.
As you switch between Ulysses for Mac and Ulysses for iPad, iCloud keeps your documents safe and synced, but it's the uniform experience that will keep your words flowing. Fonts and themes match across both devices, and many of the things that make Ulysses great in OS X, such as attachments, exporting, and picture-perfect previews, all make an appearance.
And of course there are some features that only make sense on the iPad. Slide your finger over the keyboard to control the cursor. Tap the extra row above the keyboard to bring up things like word and character count (including within selections), Markup styles (and an excellent set of punctuation shortcuts if Markdown isn’t your thing). Swipe a document name to move, copy, or export. It's all extremely simple and intuitive, and The Soulmen has gone to considerable lengths to create a smooth transition between the two apps.
On the iPhone, there's Daedalus Touch, a unique, extraordinary text editor in its own right, but it doesn’t follow the Ulysses aesthetic, at least not yet. Instead of panels there’s a system of stacks and sheets that mirror the ones in your OS X sidebar. However, since it syncs only with the Mac and not the iPad, working across all three devices isn’t exactly seamless. Thankfully, an iPhone version of Ulysses is already in the works, so these continuity issues shouldn't last too long. Besides, the Mac-iPad Ulysses tandem is so tight, it's not a deal-breaker in the slightest.
Runner-up: Byword
A canvas free of icons, menus, and other distractions has become a staple of the modern text editor, but Byword (Mac, $12; iOS, $6) takes it to a whole new level. Starting a new document is a lot like opening Apple’s classic TextEdit app: The only identifying marking you’ll find is a word counter at the bottom of the window. (And even that can be turned off.) Whether all that extra space makes you a better writer is debatable, but Byword’s mission is to keep you focused, and in that it succeeds admirably.
Just because there aren't any font menus or icons in your line of sight doesn't mean there aren't any options. Whether you’re using the full-screen mode or a floating window, an excellent implementation of customizable text widths (which can be set to narrow, medium, or wide) will help you set up your perfect workspace. Byword also includes several typing modes designed to help you write and edit with ease; a pair of “focus” modes dim any excess words around the paragraph or line you’re working on, and small touches like paragraph indents and insert-able lists make outlines and quick notes simple and elegant.
Byword excels as a Markdown editor, but if you're not proficient in the language, you can also write using rich text, just like you would in Microsoft Word. Having another option is a nice touch; unfortunately it's not one that extends beyond the Mac. Only plain text documents will sync with iOS, so if you want to use bolding and italicizing across your devices, you'll need to get comfortable with asterisks and underscores.
But it'll be worth it. Byword's iOS offerings are gorgeous exercises in style and restraint, delivering an experience that isn’t just minimal for minimal’s sake. While the iPhone and iPad versions offer identical interfaces and features, each of the two apps take advantage of the screen they’re presented with; for example, the iPad app presents your documents in a sidebar that isn’t feasible on the iPhone, but both utilize the same simple gestures to navigate between files. And you're not stuck with iCloud—Byword also lets you store files in your Dropbox folder for easier sharing between other apps.
Byword on iOS includes many of the same excellent exporting options that the Mac version does, including PDF, HTML, and rich-text email. Also like the desktop version, a separate $5 in-app purchase lets you publish to WordPress, Tumblr, and Blogger, or upload to Scriptogr.am and Evernote, but it's even more useful on iOS, where cutting and pasting text between apps is much more tedious. But even if you just use it as a plain text editor, Byword will give your words a fantastic home, whether they’re traveling on your Mac, iPad, or iPhone.
Best for Word stalwarts who don’t have an Office 365 subscription: TinyWord/Microsoft Word
Back in the day, Microsoft Word was the go-to app for writers. Powerful and feature-rich, it offered something for everyone, whether you were writing the great American novel or adding footnotes to a lengthy research paper. But over the years, Microsoft surrendered its foothold, and now that it’s tied to a monthly subscription, many people are understandably reluctant to make the commitment.
Diary Program For Mac
But you can still get a cross-platform Word experience without the rolling fees. On the Mac side, there are numerous apps that claim Word kinship, but they don't all deliver what they promise. TinyWord (Mac, $2) does. As its name suggests, it's not exactly overloaded with features, but Word users will certainly notice a distinct similarity in the interface. It can handle all of your .doc and .docx files with ease, and there are more than enough text and exporting options to keep your files looking their best.
Journaling Apps For Mac Free
And when you need to transfer a document to iOS, just save it to your OneDrive and open it up in the free Microsoft Word app. TinyWord will maintain any formatted tables and fonts to keep things from getting messy, and you’ll be able to edit and save in the mobile Word app without needing a subscription. Microsoft has done an admirable job with the Word interface on iOS, adhering to the clean iOS aesthetic while still offering the features Word users crave. Office 365 users will get a few extra formatting and layout options, but even without a subscription, Word on iOS still feels very much like a premium universal app.
Best for writers who spent all of their money on new Apple stuff: Pages
If you’re looking for a completely free way to write and edit on whatever Apple device happens to be at your disposal (and it’s been purchased within the past year and a half), you won’t find an app anywhere that beats Pages (Mac and iOS, free). Apple took its iWork suite in a new direction with its iOS 7 redesign, removing many of its professional features along with the price of admission. But even without things like mail merging, linked text boxes, and mailing labels, Pages is a fine tool for writers looking to quickly get to work.
No matter which platform you’re using, there’s a clear focus on simplicity, with a sparse interface and a well-stocked library of templates. There’s no Markdown support, but headers, footers, and margins are all adjustable, and rich-text support maintains desktop-class uniformity across all of your devices.
But writers working in a standard template will be pleased with Pages' responsive layout and exporting options, which includes .doc as well as ePub and PDF. Documents are neatly formatted for each screen, and there's even a web component that lets you work on Windows PCs and collaborate with up to 100 other writers. And if you work alone, you can still utilize Pages' excellent annotations by inserting comments, monitoring changes, and highlighting parts you need to work on later.
Pages has taken its lumps over the years—and it’s probably not worth the $30 price Apple charges for older devices—but you'll be hard-pressed to find a free writing app with more features in either the Mac or iOS App Stores, let alone both.
Best for keeping a writing journal: Day One
Any of the apps here can double as a writing journal, but none of them let you personalize and simplify it like Day One (Mac, $10; iOS, $5) does. With an impressive system of tags, reminders, and hashtags, Day One is versatile enough to be more than a digital diary—with a little creativity, it can become one of your indispensable writing tools, especially if you’re already accustomed to using Evernote or OneNote to record your thoughts throughout the day.