All My Journals: Review

I’ve been looking for a journaling software program for quite some time now. To me it seemed awkward to use some of the office software I have installed on my computer. These programs did not quite fit right as a journaling software. I just wanted  to be able to open and start writing my thoughts and notes for the day without going through any formatting or anything.

Then I came across All My Journals by Bad Wolf Software. I downloaded and installed the free trial version of the program and started using it. This is the one I needed. It’s simple,clean and is not overloaded with features I will never use anyway.

The free trial version is just as it says…a trial. It doesn’t include all the features available in the licensed version and just one journal is available. The licensed version is the full version with all the features unlocked and you can have an unlimited number of journals.

Some may think, well, I never keep a diary so what would I need something like this for anyway? There was a time I thought this way too. Then I became disabled and had to start making regular visits to my doctors. They would ask questions and I didn’t have all the answers I should have. I would not think about asking the questions I should be asking…until I’d get home again. That’s when I realized that I needed something I could keep a journal with.

Let’s think for a moment what you might use All My Journals for. As I mentioned earlier, I use mine for notes to my doctor that I write right away when there is something she or he should be aware of. I’ve also been using it to keep a diary. I don’t write in it every day, but when there is something significant to write about. Perhaps you might want to use it to keep agenda notes for an upcoming meeting. Or keep minutes for your meetings. Maybe keep a diary of your golf games, fishing or hunting trips. Ladies can write about their ladies groups, knitting, book clubs or whatever. The ideas are endless, I could keep going on with more ideas, but I think you get my point. It’s for everyone, men, women, children, students and businessmen and businesswomen. You will find many uses that will be unique to your needs.

When you open All My Journals, it will open to today’s date and the last used journal. Just start writing, or chose the journal you want and start writing. You can choose from a list of fonts in preferences and you have all the basic formatting tools available to you. To make it easy to read your journal there is a reader built into it. You can print your journal and specify the range you want printed. It includes a search feature making searching for a particular entry easy. The Save As and Export allow you to export your journal that can be read by any word processing software. Backup does just as it says by backing up your journal for data recovery should you journal become corrupted or lost.

The program will always give you the choice to choose the current year or the next couple of years. But that does not mean future years are not available. As the years pass, future years will always be shown. It is a perpetual calendar so you’ll be able to use this for many years to come.

Do you have a need to take it with you to use on another computer? All My Journals can be installed on a thumb drive with the data saved there also so you can take it with you to use wherever you are.

One more thing I’d like to mention about Bad Wolf Software is their tech support. I’ve rarely had to use tech support with any software I use. I read their blog and they said they were working on a new feature and an update would be soon released. I thought I’d take a chance and contact them to find out if indeed it was on track to be released as planned. I received an immediate reply that it was expected to be released the following month. To my surprise, shortly after, I received an e-mail that the new version had been released that day and they included a link to go to their site to download the updated version! I was impressed! All to often I read of complaints about tech support. In this case I’m happy to report that their tech support is responsive to their customers. I put a lot of value in that.

In conclusion, All My Journals is a simple program that will do what you want, no more, no less. I highly recommend it and encourage all my readers to check it out for yourself.

Happy Journaling,

-Ed

Making Life an Adventure

 

My sister just returned from her first cruise and she posted this on her Facebook page, “It just came to me…Life is a party…”. Well, I can agree with that to a point, but I’d rather believe that life should be an adventure. I think I’ve pretty much made my life an adventure so I thought I should write a little something about that here. I would like to describe some of my adventures and hopefully encourage all my readers to make their life an adventure also.

I have had the privilege to know a lot of different folks around town since I first moved here. Many of them just live their lives going to work every day, they would take vacation days to work around home and never go anywhere special. Some have never tried anything new or challenging. There are some who have not even traveled more than 100 miles from home. This doesn’t sound very adventurous to me.

When I turned 18, I decided right then that I would join the Army, so that’s what I did. I was living in Florida at the time so I traveled first to Jacksonville for my physical and induction into the Army. Having past the physical, I was inducted into the Army and immediately sent to Ft. Benning, Georgia for my basic training. My first real adventure had begun. The next three years would prove to be very adventurous indeed. I traveled around the country serving at different military posts and spent one year fighting in Vietnam (not the most pleasant adventure).

After separation from active duty I came home, started college and took a job with the county. The job was with the mosquito control which meant I would be traveling around the county to all the wetlands controlling them where they where populating. The most challenging part of that job was avoiding all the poisonous snakes and alligators that I would be encountering. While doing all this, I also became friends with a local diving instructor. So the next thing I know I was getting the training I needed to get my certifications to be a scuba diver. Now, I would be diving around the area to depths exceeding 100 feet. From snakes to alligators to the little fishes swimming around me, I’m living an adventure!

Living at home proved less than desirable, so I moved on. I left west central Florida and headed southeast to where an uncle of mine lived. I didn’t live there very long when I met the girl who would become my wife. She was there staying with a cousin, having moved down from Wisconsin. We both decided that it wasn’t the place for us so we moved here to Northeast Wisconsin where I live to this day.

Not long after moving here, getting married and starting a family, I would meet someone who would introduce my to my next adventure, flying. I started with flying a Cessna 150, then later I would fly a 172. A few years later I met a new friend who would teach me to fly the right seat in a twin engine Cessna 421. I loved flying that one especially! We would fly around the Great Lakes area and out to the east coast. I had a lot of great experiences flying, too many to mention here.

My work for a local shipbuilding company took me around the Great Lakes also. They would fly me to various cities to work on the ships and I even sailed on a few of them.

I’ve had the opportunity to travel from coast to coast, north to south and points in between. I’ve seen San Francisco, Philadelphia, Miami, Tampa, Tallahassee, San Antonio and Houston, just to name a few. To write about them all, I would have to write a book. I mention them only to let you know that you can get out to other places to see new things, and meet new people. Make life an adventure!

Some of you may not be able to travel to find new adventures. But, you can find many close to home. Check your local papers and information centers for activities that are going on in your area. I’m often surprised when I hear someone say there’s nothing to do around here. Why then do tourists flock to our county for a vacation? There are things to do. There are adventures here close to my home and yours.

I’m limited now as to what I can do and where I can go. I now have to use a powered wheel chair to get around and I no longer drive myself around in my van. My adventures are my writing, helping friends with their computer skills and things like that. I find new things to do right here at home. I’m not going to stop being adventurous just because I can’t get out and about. I enjoy checking my stats on this blog and seeing that I’ve had readers from Russia, India, Germany and Canada. I hope to see many more readers from around the world. To me this is quite exiting! I’d like to make friends with some of these people to learn about them and their way of life. This is my new adventure.

Now when you’re done reading this, if your life has been an adventure, share the memories with your children, grandchildren, friends and family. I’m sure they’d love to hear your stories. If you haven’t been adventurous, then maybe it’s time to start. Life’s too short to get stuck in a rut and do nothing. Have fun and create some new memories, do some exploring, meet new people and enjoy life to the fullest. I think that’s what our creator would want for us.

Have a happy adventure my friends!

-Ed