rock and scroll

Chronicle for iPhone update

Be sure to check out the latest Chronicle update.  In addition to some small bug and performance fixes, you can now enable an extended keyboard to make adding in-line timestamps easy as you write.  There's also two buttons to make navigating you writing easier - tapping will move the cursor to the next word, for example.  There are a few other changes sprinkled throughout.  I leave finding them as an exercise for the reader ;)

As always, let me know if you need help or have questions.

 

Writing notes and more on iPad

Chronicle for iPad is now in review and I'm really excited about its release.  The scaled screenshots make the text lighter than it actually is; it's very easy to see on the iPad's screen.

Chronicle makes it easy to keep a notebook or journal.  You can customize your journal's background color and font settings and focus on your writing.  What you write can be protected against data loss (easy journal export) as well as unauthorized access (turn on the password protection and pick a passcode).

Search through everything you've written to find what you want.  Each search result appears with contextual text around it, making it easy to find specific events, people, or ideas you've written about.  I can't stress the importance of good, fast search.  It'll come to your rescue when you find yourself wondering what did we eat for breakfast in Spain last summer? (search Spain or breakfast) or What was the name of that t-shirt distributor I was going to use for my business? (search t-shirt distributor).

"The problem is we can never find the information we've stored, so we wind up with folders and folders we don't know what to do with," Merrill said. "Search is the new organization. Search can set us free from the clutter of our imperfect minds" by allowing us to get a little messy. No time is lost on meticulously filing and hunting for folders when well-defined searches are used. - De-cluttering your digital life can set you free

Add photos to any entries you write and position them however you want on the screen.  You can view a larger, zoomable version of each photo.

 

If you're reading this and would like to help me translate Chronicle to other languages, please contact me!

iPhone journal app update

Chronicle has been available on the App Store for 3 days now.  It doesn't have any reviews yet, but I have heard from a couple customers already who use it to write a diary.  I hope many find and use it.

I remember buying a set of 3 black Moleskine cahiers a few years ago.  They're smaller than a normal notebook and more flexible, ideal for keeping in your back pocket.  That was my thinking.

The problem was that I often forgot to take them with me.  Or I'd forget my pen and have to ask the person behind the Barnes and Noble Starbucks counter for one.  I like to flip through magazines and write down ideas or links to look at later.

Three things I always have with me: keys, wallet, and phone.  If you think about it, there's really not enough room to take any more with you (such as a cahier) unless you're toting a bag.

That's one reason something like Chronicle is ideal.  You'll always have your phone, so writing is a matter of opening the app.  

A great secondary advantage: you can search your writings to find ideas you wrote down a long time ago.  

Maybe you were reading Kiplinger's in December and heard about a free tax advice hotline they were going to set up for tax season.  Instead of flipping back through your notebook, you type "tax" or "hotline" and the appropriate entry appears, with context around it.

iPhone journal writing prompts

My iPhone journal app, Chronicle, will be available at the App Store within the next few hours.  It's a great way to write, wherever you may be.  You can always export your journal to Google Docs (then print it, save it as a PDF, share it, etc). 

Some may opt to fill the pages with events as they happen.  If your days aren't as eventful as you might hope, you can still practice writing by using writing prompts.  A prompt is suggestion.  Pick from a list of topics and write. 

Some to think about:

• A superpower I'd like to have is...
• The thing I liked most about my childhood...
• One thing I'd like to change about the place I work is...
• The thing I want to improve about myself is...
• In five years I want to be ...
• The proudest day of my life was when ...
• The best date I ever had was ...
• The most embarrassing moment in my life...
• In an apocalyptic future I'd run off to the woods (or city) because...
• The best way to study something is to ...
• If you could live in another century, it'd be ...
• The next place I'll travel will be...
• A time people admired me was ...
• Have you seen a ghost or alien?  Tell me about it...
• You have one year to live.  What do you do?
• You sold your business for $5M.  What would you do next?
• What's your favorite movie?  What do you like about it?
• A historical event you'd like to witness is...
• Your favorite memory of your parents
• Your favorite experience with your spouse

Feel free to leave more in the comments.  Try writing with Chronicle on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

 

Chronicle - Writing, notes, lists for iPhone

Chronicle is coming. At its core, it's a chronological listing of
entries, a digital Moleskine.

It's the perfect journal, offline blog, or secret diary, and you can
upload everything you've written to Google Docs. Add images from your
photo library to your entries.

One of the best things about it is the search. I worked hard to get
it right. Even if you write five large paragraphs a day for the next
two years, Chronicle can find the entries you're looking for in less
than 1 second. And to make it even better, each search result appears
with context around it, just like you're used to with search engines.

Write your ideas down and dig through them later. It's a great way to
make notes or memos on the iPhone.