If you’ve been wondering about which Digital Journaling Method will work best for you, I’ve spent quite a bit of time during the last couple of days exploring what cross-platform journaling software is available for the Mac, Windows PC, iPad, and iPhone.
The results have been rather disappointing. As far as I can tell, only one product boasts computer to iPad and iPhone cross-platform compatibility: MacJournal/WinJournal. The rest are all either computer platform dependent or electronic gadget dependent. To be honest, I was rather surprised. This late in the iOS game, I expected much more to be available.
My take: If you want a cross platform journaling product, MacJournal/WinJournal is the only one—and the best one—on the market. It’s incredibly feature rich, and, despite the fact that it doesn’t support images on the iPad/iPhone, it surpasses all the other journaling apps I’ve tried.
- Pros: Has apps on both Mac and Windows, as well as iPad and iPhone. Supports images and video. Syncing across platforms is easy. You can have unlimited journals. Uses keywords, tags, and labels, and exports to a variety of formats, including Word, ePub, email, PDF, and RTF. Ability to publish automatically to your blog. Has password protection.
- Cons: iPhone and iPad apps don’t support images and formatting options are limited. No stylus/handwriting support.
- Price: $39 Mac/Win; $2.99 iPad; $4.99 iPhone
If you only want to journal on your app or iPhone, here are links to some external reviews—none of which includes MacJournal. Don’t ask me why:
The Gadgeteer blog offers an examination of some of the current apps and methods available for the computer and mobile devices, along with a list of “must have” features to consider.
AppAdvice.com gives an overview of six apps.
CommonSenseMedia reviews apps geared for encouraging children to journal and/or scrapbook.
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Did you check out Evernote? I’m not sure it would meet all your requerments, but I think it rocks for plain note taking on different computers, via web + cross platform.
You might want to give Evernote a look (evernote.com). It’s massively cross-platform: Mac, PC, iOS, Android, web, etc. Keeps everything in sync. Evernote is much more than a journaling program, but it’s pretty easy to keep a journal. You can attach documents, pictures, even sound and voice memos.
I’ve been keeping my daily journal in Evernote for a few years now. Each day gets its own note, with a title like “Journal 20120317 Mon.” That way everything sorts by date (although Evernote has fantastic search capability). I’ve even been working retroactively to put older entries in (including scans of paper journal pages), and now I’ve got over 7600 daily entries at my fingertips no matter where I am or what device I’m using.
iHanna and Don, thanks for the info. about Evernote. The name never came up in my Google and App keyword searches using “journaling,” or “diary,” which is interesting. And as I mentioned, I’ve been using MacJournal for quite a while now.
I’ll check Evernote out and report back.
Well, folks, I have to say I’m very impressed with Evernote. And I don’t know how it I didn’t already know about it! First of all, it’s free. It’s cross-platform (as noted above), syncs using iCloud (something MacJournal doesn’t) without losing pictures or sound notes, and has companion apps (also free), including Skitch, which enables me to draw using a stylus or finger on the iPad (remember those mind maps I like to use?) and save directly to an Evernote page. I think I’m sold. But I need to do some more testing before I switch from MacJournal (I’m pretty loyal to my favorite software). And yes, it allows for multiple journals (Evernote calls them notebooks). The only thing it doesn’t have, as far as I can tell is password protected notebooks, but it could be that I just haven’t looked into it enough.
For what it’s worth – the folks from Mariner say that an iCloud version of MacJournal is very close.
Mark
It’s worth a lot. I’ve been exploring evernote and related apps the last few days. If MacJournal is to remain competitive, that would be an important move. One of my complaints about Evernote is the lack of password protection for individual journals. There are a few others, but I’m still evaluating. Nothing’s perfect.
Hi Amber,…your last entry was in March, did you decide on using evernote? I am trying to pick which app/program to journal with and want to include pictures and writing etc.
Evernote seems like it has a steep learning curve…is it worth it?
Hi Deb. Yes, I’ve been using Evernote. I didn’t think it was difficult to use at all (but then it’s similar to other programs I’ve used in the past). It has two disadvantages to MacJournal: no password protection for individual journals and only two levels of folders. MacJournal has password protection and multiple journal levels. However, Evernote syncs with all my devices and on the cloud without any thought or effort on my part, which makes the difference for me.
I like to use DAY ONE for journaling. It’s not cross platform, but there is an IOS app and a desktop app which sync between the two. You can include pictures and updates weather and has gps ability. It runs smoothly and it looks great.
Dodi, thank you for your comment and contribution to the discussion. I haven’t tried Day One. I’ll have to check it out.