Beginner Builder series 75% done! will probably never be finished. :(

Friday, November 20, 2009

Advanced Diary (v1.3): Dear Journal, I love this freeware!


A while ago, I decided I wanted to pick up journaling again for the first time in who knows how many years, since it really helps unwind at the end of the day and think about what's happened, plus there's the added bonus of looking back at the entries years later. And me, being a freeware freak, decided to find a freeware to make journaling easier (plus, my handwriting is atrocious).

I came across Advanced Diary, and I was extremely surprised at just how much it was exactly what I was looking for. Here's some of the key features that I really like, in terms of a diary.

"Wordpad"-like:  I was expecting something like notepad: write down text, but not much formatting. I was wrong. Advanced Diary has it's own little "Wordpad" built in, filled with formatting like font type, font size, font color, bold, italics, underline, highlighting, alignment, "find in text", tables, hyperlinks, bullets, numberings, spellcheck, and more *GASP FOR AIR*. That's alot of features for just a diary! Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's actually more than Wordpad! It might not be as much as Microsoft Word, but it definitely has enough for a good diary.

Password protected: This is a must, in my opinion. Journals are often very personal, and you don't want people snooping around, so having a password is a necessity for a good diary program. But then, it's also an optional feature, for maybe if you are just journaling about something non-private, like your favorite sports team.


Calendar: It has a wonderful little calendar in month form, which you can browse through. What's even extra cool is that the day is bold if it has an entry, meaning you can tell at a glance what days have entries and what days don't.


"Find": This actually surprised me about how good it was. Say you remember journaling about a certain word, like "freeware", but couldn't remember what month, much less what day, you had mentioned it in. Advanced Diary has a wonderful search that will pull up every entry that has the search terms in it.

Link to other entries: This is really kewl. Say you refer to something you said last week, and you want to provide an easy way to find where you said it in your Advanced Diary journal. You can actually create a hotlink, just like to a URL, except it will take you to that Advanced Diary entry. (Keep in mind, Advanced Diary is not tabbed, so you can't multitask, but it's still a useful tool.)

Autosave: If you've ever used Google's Blogger service, you know how useful this is. You'll be typing along, your browser/internet/computer will crash, but you don't worry about typing that long post, because Blogger auto-saves the draft as you go along. Advanced Diary has the same functionality, only better. You can actually specify how often you want it to auto-save, meaning it can save every 1 minute, assuring you that no entry will ever be lost.

Images: Maybe you want to illustrate your journal with doodles or pictures. Advanced Diary can do that too. One of the nice things about it is that (I believe) it actually copies the picture data into the Advanced Diary file, not just the link to the image file. That means that if you delete the image on your hard drive, it won't dissapear out of your diary, like in some other word processors *coughOpenOfficecough*. On the downside, there aren't as many formatting features for images as there are in processors like MS Word or OpenOffice. You can't choose the wrap (how the text moves around the image) or really any other formatting, but you can adjust the alignment (just like with text) and resize.

Thesaurus: This is kind of a bonus, but you can select a word and use the built in thesaurus, which you can then use to replace the word with a synonym.

Multiple Diaries: This is an interesting feature. Suppose you want to journal, but want to keep it "separated", like maybe journal about school in one place, and then about your latest gaming venture in another, and so on and so forth. Advanced Diary actually lets you create multiple diary's in hierarchical form. For example, your diary list might look something like below:
-School
-Diet
-Private
--Friends
---Geoffrey
--Girlfriend
Overall, it's a fascinating concept. It's really a good way to further organize your entries.

Print, Backup/Restore, Import/Export:  Need I explain? I shall. You can print the current entry, all entries in the current diary, or all entries from a specified date range. You can backup for safety, and then restore if something goes awry. You can import (which is actually really picky and depends on what the files are named), and you can export in RTF, TXT, or HTML (images will actually be exported along with the HTML file!). Overall, it's a great way to get entries in and out of Advanced Diary.

It really is a wonderful utility. Some might say "It's just a glorified, organized notepad, with password protection!" And I would respond ".....so?" What more could you ask of in a Diary?

There is one catch though. Unfortunately, the makers of Advanced Diary decided that it's so good, it should be worth $30. However, the last free version available (version 1.3) is available through the ever-amazing and wonderful A+ Freeware, and can be downloaded from thus. This entire blog post was about the free v1.3, so don't think you are being cheated of any features.

8 comments:

  1. Hi there, awesome site. I thought the topics you posted on were very interesting. I tried to add your RSS to my feed reader and it a few. take a look at it, hopefully I can add you and follow.

    Journal support

    ReplyDelete
  2. Be careful with this freeware...! One wrong photo and you will loose everything! All your information will be "kidnapped" and you will never see it again! When it comes to "Advanced Diary", it's pro version or nothing at all. It "may" be free one day on GIVEAWAYOFTHEDAY. In the meantime use Open Office.
    A friend

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is a requirement, in my opinion. Journals square measure usually terribly personal, and you do not wish folks snooping around, therefore having a watchword could be a necessity for a decent diary program best assignment help.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Out of time? Don’t worry and let your economics Homework be handled by us. The incredible Economics Homework Help services are provided by TOP ACADEMIC TUTORS. We provide you with the service so that if you are having problems in understanding and completing your Homework then you can simply leave it with us so that with the help of professional tutors and writers, we can complete your Homework and deliver it to you. We know about the problems that students face in completing the Homework. We only have one motive and that is to help students achieve high marks through helping with their Homework.

    In this modern era, students have come to realize the importance of economics and have taken a keen interest towards it. Students have come to realize the potential approach of taking economics as their subject. Economics handles the description of producing and consuming goods. But that is not at all because the uses of economics have reached over too many other fields in the market. It has many potential reaches in the market. Students only choose the subjects that can offer them high rates of success in their life. Yeah, it also has a lot to do with what they have interest in but that interest is only developed after they see the potential uses of that field.

    Students only choose the subjects for their academic career which they deem perfect that they can provide them high success rate and a better life. Students only depend on the subject which they find reliable and with potential uses in the market. There is no use in choosing a subject that cannot guarantee them the success that they are seeking. The subjects which have the proper worth in market are only chosen by the students. Economics is one of the subjects that have high rates of success and worth in the market. It links to almost every field in the market. Economics does a nice job of attracting students towards it. https://liveassignmenthelp.com
    https://topacademictutors.com/economics-homework-help/

    ReplyDelete
  5. If you have an assignment which you have yet to complete then you can simply let our experts do it. No matter how difficult your assignment is regarding the subject but we complete it with the perfection that you need. Our assignment helpers make sure that your assignment is handled with care. We have countless of experts who specialize in the writing of the assignments. They conduct in-depth research about the topic and come up with the content that can make your assignment be the best. With our cheap writing service, your assignment is handled with perfection.
    Academic Essay Writing

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is one of the best blog it is increased my knowledge a lot ! riding helmets

    ReplyDelete
  7. You shared a informative article with us. I found great information from this article. I am always waiting your articles. Now its time to avail Sign and Blind Services in Eastbourne for more information.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This latest version of Advanced Diary has brought a wave of excitement to my tech journal. It's like discovering hidden treasure, much like the thrill of finding a remarkable 57-1000014-01 that revolutionizes network connectivity. The freeware's features and performance have certainly earned a special place in my digital diary.

    ReplyDelete