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September 2005
LifeJournal Newsletter
September 2005
I’ve never
been one for buying gadgets. I’m a bit of a minimalist. To me, a knife is a
knife is a knife. My husband, however, thinks differently and enjoys high
quality tools. Recently he bought one of those sleek, beautifully balanced,
sharp knives at a fancy kitchen store.
At first I teased him about the “fancy-shmancy” knife. Then I started
using it when he wasn’t in the kitchen. Now, when we’re cooking together he
notices that I always choose that knife to chop vegetables. You know what? He’s right.
Going out of the way to get the right tool for the job makes the task
easier, more efficient, and yes—I admit it—even more fun.
One of the
major challenges of efficiently using a journal is to locate specific entries
that you have written in the past. LifeJournal has the high quality, precise,
and powerful tools to help you quickly find the writings you are looking
for. And further, LifeJournal has the
tools to bring together entries and passages scattered throughout your journal
that have common threads, juxtaposing some of your pieces, allowing you to more
easily see patterns, make connections, and draw conclusions.
With
LifeJournal you can skillfully slice, dice, and re-combine your writings in a
two part process: You have to first prepare your journal by assigning topics to
entries and passages, so that you are then able to perform powerful searches.
This month’s newsletter explains the first part—using LifeJournal’s tools for
assigning topics. Next month, in October, we’ll discuss the tools to perform
powerful searches.
Sincerely,
Ruth Folit
Chronicles
Software Company
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Assigning Topics: A Powerful Tool
for Later Searching
Editing the Topics List
When to Assign Topics
End Quotes
How to Purchase LifeJournal and LJ
for Educators, and Upgrade to LJ 2.0
ASSIGNING TOPICS: A Powerful Tool
for Later Searching for Entries
The one
critical piece of information to understand about assigning topics is that you
can (1) assign a topic to an entire journal entry, or (2) assign a topic to a
passage in an entry.
To assign a topic to an entire entry, open
the journal entry and click the appropriate topic in the Topics List. The
Topics List is in the bottom portion of the sidebar to the right of the journal
entry. (If the Topics sidebar is not
displayed, click the “Topics” tab on the top of the sidebar.) You’ll see that the topic that you clicked in
the Topic List now is listed in the Entry Topics list above it. It has a “bookmark” icon next to it, which
shows that that topic is assigned to the whole journal entry.
To assign a topic to a passage in a journal entry, open a
journal entry and select the passage: that is, with your mouse, click and drag
over the text that you want to assign a topic. Click the topic that you’d like
to assign and the text will become highlighted (a color will appear behind the
text). You’ll also notice that the topic now appears in the Entry Topics list
with a highlight icon. If you click on “Show None” in the Entry Topics list,
the highlighting will disappear. If you
click on the topic again that you just assigned to the passage, the
highlighting will show.
You can
assign more than one topic to an entry or to a passage. Just repeat the process
as needed with each topic of your choosing.
If you want
to remove the assignment of a topic from an entry, right click the topic in the
Entry List and click “Remove Topic from Entry.”
If you want to remove the assignment of a topic from all the passages in
an entry, right click on the topic in the Entry List and select “Remove Topic
from All Passages in Entry.” If you want
to remove the assignment of a topic from just one passage in an entry (and keep
the topic assigned to other passages), first select the passage (by clicking
and dragging your mouse over it) and then click the “Remove Highlight from
Selected Passage” button in the journal toolbar. The “Remove Highlight from
Selected Passage” button looks like an upside down pencil and is the right-most
button in the journal toolbar.
Editing the Topics List
When you
open LifeJournal for the first time, you’ll see that there is a default list of
topics in the journal entry sidebar, which gives you a range of topics that you
might want to include. It’s important that you customize the Topics List to
reflect your world, so you’ll want to remove or add some topics, and perhaps
rename others.
Note that
the topics are organized in levels or branches, with subtopics or lower
branches, and sub-subtopics or even lower branches. A “+” sign to the left of a topic indicates
that it has subtopics; when clicked the subtopics are displayed. To add,
remove, or rename a topic (or subtopic), right click it and a context menu
appears. You can then select “add new,” “remove,” or “rename.” The “remove” and
“rename” commands are self-explanatory.
The “add
new” command will open a dialog box where you can enter the name of a subtopic
to the topic that you right clicked on, unless you check the “Make Top Branch”
option. When you select “Make Top
Branch” you will be creating a new highest level topic or branch. There won’t be a “+” next to the top branch
if you haven’t created any subtopics.
When to Assign Topics
The cool
part of assigning topics is that you don’t have to assign topics until AFTER
you have finished writing your journal entry.
So, you can write naturally, staying in the flow of your writing,
without having to alter your writing process to accommodate the software. This
design is not rocket science, but the ability to assign topics after writing an
entry is unparalleled in journal or diary software. So just open a journal
entry and start writing.
When you
are finished writing, go back and re-read what you have written. If a majority of the entry is about one or
two topics, assign them (bookmark) to the entire entry. If you find that there are a couple of very
meaningful or insightful sentences or paragraphs that you think would be worth
reading again in the future, select the text and assign a topic(s) (highlight)
to it.
End Quotes
"Our
Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today's jobs with
yesterday's tools"
--Marshall McLuhan
"Man is a tool-using Animal. Nowhere do you find
him without tools; without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all."—Thomas
Carlyle
"Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right
things." --Peter F. Drucker
How to Purchase LifeJournal, LJ for
Educators and/or Upgrade to Version 2.0
You can
purchase LifeJournal 2 (or upgrade to version 2.0) either by:
-Ordering LifeJournal online;
ordering LifeJournal for Educators online.
-Ordering by telephone: toll free 1-877-456-8762 from 9 am to 5 pm Eastern time, Monday to Friday.
-Ordering by postal mail and pay with a check or money order payable to:
Chronicles
Software Company
PO
Box 220
Sarasota, FL 34230
To learn more about upgrading to
LifeJournal, go to our June 2005 newsletter.
If you have friends or colleagues
who would enjoy this newsletter, invite them to subscribe. We request that you
keep the broadcast intact, including our contact and copyright information.
OTHER QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS: Send mail to info@lifejournal.com
or visit us at http://www.lifejournal.com.
©Chronicles Software Company, 2005. All rights reserved.
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