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Provides: Idea/event management and blog posting

Format: Download or CD

Developer: Mariner Software

Minimum Requirements: Mac OS X v10.4, QuickTime 7

Processor Compatibility: Universal

Retail Price: $39.95 boxed edition, $34.95 download edition, $139.95 family five pack, $19.95 upgrade

Availability: Out now

Version Reviewed: 5.0.4

I'm not the type of guy to look at my past and wish I could be back there. By and large, I'm happy where I am right now, despite the Minnesota Wild continuing to choke in the Stanley Cup Playoffs (something is most certainly rotten in the State of Hockey). However, I do sometimes lament the fact that today's technology wasn't available to me when I had the time, ambition and friends required to have myself some good adventures. Add to this list, now, the combination of a MacBook and MacJournal 5, because the two work perfectly for the young Mac user living the type of adventure worthy of documenting.

That's not to say MacJournal's not useful for everyone else, of course. I've used it quite effectively for organizing my stories and ideas for a while now, and it's become an important part of my writing process. For each project on which I'm working, I create a journal entry of ideas, snippets of dialogue, etc. I also have a journal of good bits that don't necessarily have a home yet, and one specifically for where I have used ideas I like. The latter is tremendously helpful for making sure I don't use the same joke twice, for example, or for determining whether I can because the first use will fade into oblivion.

Sound dumb? I suppose it could, but that's the beauty of this program. Those who get it, will love it. I mean, better to store all of this information in one, easily accessible place (backed up elsewhere, of course) than to spread it out across multiple documents in multiple areas. And writers will find more to love here than just data storage. Along with text, you can store images, PDFs, audio, movies and more. With MacJournal 5, you can record video directly from your iSight camera and attach it to a MacJournal entry. In short, you can collect just about anything on your computer and organize it into one particular entry, all with drag and drop simplicity. Man, this sure would've been nice to have when putting together research papers back in high school or college.

Features of MacJournal v4 return here, of course (full screen mode, two level security, exporting to multiple formats, etc.) and you can read more about those in my previous review. New in this version are a few welcome improvements, but still not everything I'd like to see.

First off, users will notice an improved user interface that closely reflects the Leopard interface. MacJournal has always been fairly intuitive, and this visual integration with the OS helps the user feel more comfortable within the program. Integration with attached elements has also been improved, as users can now resize images within an entry. Entry search has been punched up a bit with the ability to create smart journals based on the searches you perform. MacJournal now supports Apple's Quick Look feature, as well, so you can see the contents of your journals without having to first launch the program. Perhaps my favorite new features, however, improve integration between journals. You can now open more than one MacJournal document at a time (which may not sound like a big deal, but it's as useful as tabbed browsing in Safari), and you can store aliases to entries in other journals. This is fantastic for managing content between multiple projects.

As for sharing your content online, the only real improvement in MacJournal v5 is Picasa integration. Of course, there's still support for LiveJournal, Blogger, Movable Type, WordPress and .mac. Connecting and posting to your account is quite simple through MacJournal, but the formatting still leaves a bit to be desired. What looks great in MacJournal doesn't always look the same once it's on Blogger, for example, and I found myself wrestling with that more than I should have. For most, it just makes more sense to post directly to their blog via the website instead of going through a third-party program such as MacJournal. That being said, I should note I didn't test this with LiveJournal, Movable Type or WordPress. I'm guessing that the more basic your blog design, the more luck you'll have integrating your MacJournal entries.

One of my continuing hopes for Mariner Software is tighter integration between the different programs. I understand that this isn't as easy as it seems, as Mariner took over development of some programs instead of creating them from scratch. Still, if Mariner can get MacJournal, Montage and StoryMill to communicate and share information in much the same manner that the applications in Adobe's Creative Suite do, that would pretty much be the killer creative writing suite for the Macintosh.

As it stands, MacJournal continues to be a great tool for organizing your thoughts, ideas and media. Its support for various blogging platforms is handy, but limited by formatting issues. Therefore, like a true journal, the program is best suited for more personal use. Writers will love it, but MacJournal 5 can be just as easily used by students for taking notes and planning papers, parents keeping track of past/upcoming events and to do lists, and—as I mentioned at the top of this review—anyone with a laptop and a sense of adventure. Combine a MacBook, MacJournal, a camera, a backpack and a few Welsh castles, and you're well on your way to your senior thesis.

Or what mine would've been, anyway.