“This superb journaling app remains pleasant to behold, easy to use, and a tough act for any rival to follow.”
-Macworld
Day One is an award-winning journaling and note-taking app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. This app allows you to easily add date-wise entries along with attachments like images or any other file format. Just like a physical journal, you can write about what you plan to do later in the day, things that bother you, or jot down some notes related to your work.
The user interface is simple and hassle-free. In fact, it is one of the tidiest journaling apps I have ever used. One of the reasons to download this app today is, they have a free version which provides almost 70 percent of the features of the premium version. So, feel free to install it on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. You have nothing to lose.
Table of Contents
Introduce producer
Paul Mayne is the designer and founder of an organization called Bloom. The Day One app was developed by the hard-working and talented team of this company. In an interview with LifeHacker, Paul described how and why he decided to work on this idea.
Paul himself had struggled to keep a personal journal and wished there was a software that would make his life several times easier. So, he began working on a basic version of this app for Mac computers. And since, he and his team of software developers have made plenty of enhancements to make it one of the best in the category.
“Day One makes keeping a journal delightfully easy.”
-Wired
Here I have listed 3 features of Day One that make it extraordinary.
1) Reminders and Notifications
Reminders help you be consistent with your journaling habit. Reminders are for you if you constantly find yourself forgetting or making excuses to write. On setting up a reminder, its date and time, the Day One app will send you a notification to your iOS/ macOS device.
Here is how you can set a reminder in iOS. You can customize it however you want.
You can add a message that will display when the reminder appears on your screen. It also allows you to set the time and frequency at which you want the notifications. When you receive the notification, all you have to do is tap on it and add the entry for that particular time of the day.
To create Reminders, go to Day One > Settings > Notifications & Reminders > Add Reminder.
Here is how you can set a reminder in macOS. To set reminders in macOS, the same procedure applies as that of iOS.
Click Day One > Preferences (in the file menu) > Reminders. Click to enable reminders and then click the + icon to create a new reminder.
2) Convert your journal to a book
Day One Apps book printing is a perennial favorite among writers and publishers. This feature allows you to convert your journal into a book in a matter of seconds.
Here is an example of how the book will look like.
You can preview the entire book to see if the content, book cover and page layout is to your liking. Once everything is perfect, you will have to add it to the cart and checkout.
This feature is available in iOS and macOS devices. But, as of now, it is not available for Day One Android. They are working hard on bringing it to Android devices as well.
3) Powerful rich text formatting with Markdown
Day One App supports Rich Text Format. For content writer not well versed with HTML and other languages, writing code can be a very difficult and time-consuming process. To solve this problem, John Gruber of Daring Fireball has created a free tool called Markdown.
Markdown is a markup language that converts a plain text to HTML. All you have to do is learn a few tags used in this and you are ready to create web pages without any knowledge of programming languages.
Day One App has Markdown already integrated into it. This app allows you to write plain text which will get processed into the desired format.
This is how the document looks like when written in Rich Text Format.
After processing, it gets converted to a standard web page. The following is a virtual compiler window to help you design your page better.
What I like
There are plenty of things I love about this app. I have installed it on my iPad, iPhone, and my Mac computer. The app has a lock screen, so in my absence, I don’t have to worry about secrecy or someone peeking into my journals. Moreover, the user interface is amazingly designed. All the entries I have made until now are available to me in a single click.
What I don’t like
This app has some sublime features but there are a couple of key elements missing. It would have been remarkable to have these features in this app.
One drawback of the free version is that you can only add one image per entry. However, the paid version allows you to do so.
An option to maximize and minimize the screen is another thing the designers of this app have not considered. I can’t hide the sidebar when I want to focus solely on writing. I hope the makers of the Day One App fix these trivial issues.
My recommendation
“If you’re looking for a fantastic journaling app or a great app for logging and recording various events and milestones of your life, then by far and away the best pick is Day One.”
-The Sweet Setup
I definitely recommend using Day One for your journaling and note-taking needs. They also have a free version. So, you can try it out for a few days and see if it suits your requirements.
For me, features like book printing and markdown seem surplus right now. But, who knows, I might decide to print out the whole thing in a book format to pass the information on to my future generations. It’s a small investment that will deliver tremendous benefits.
Pricing
The Day One App has both, a free and premium version. If you are really serious about journaling, then there is a free 7 day trial for the premium version. The price is $2.92 per month. You’re paying for quality. If you choose to go with the premium version then you will be billed annually.
About Carson Derrow
