Journler to EF and feature Qs - Browsing history

I am a long-time very happy user of Journler but have become concerned about its future development as well as whether it will handle a big increase in the amount of data I have in it. So I’ve been checking out all the notebooks, info managers, etc. for the Mac, and EagleFiler wins the contest hands down!

I’m extremely impressed with the improvements in EF in the last two years. And with a few changes in the way I use folders, tags and links between records, it’s going to do everything I want, and as easily as with Journler. With the added advantage that files remain editable in other apps and it integrates with Finder.

In experimenting with moving from Journler to EF, I have one problem with the “capture Journler entries” process – getting the tags to move properly. A bit of history to explain.

About a year ago, Journler upgraded to a new tagging system and created two fields for each entry – “tags” and “comments”. For old entries that had tags, the old tags became “comments” and an empty “tag” field was created where new tags could be entered using the new system.

When EF reads a captured Journler entry (whether the entry was created before or after the new tagging system was introduced), it treats Journler “comments” as EF Tags and treats Journler “tags” as just another meta field. All the meta fields – other than Journler “comments” which are displayed as Tags in EF’s Tag Bar – appear as a header list at the top of the rtfd text which displays the Journler entry contents.

Here’s an example of an entry header that imports with the rtfd text:

Title: Stowe House - Buckingham (Temple-Grenville)
Date: February 23, 2009 2:05 PM
Category: Research
Tags: England, homes, architecture, aristocracy, 18thC, 19thC, landscape

So I get the list of Journler “tags” and can copy and paste them into the EF Tag Bar. They just import into the wrong place. All the other Journler meta data that has an analog in EF - frex entry title, label – are importing and displaying properly in EF.

This switching of “comments” and “tags” occurs whether I use your embedded, automated “capture from Journler” script, or instead use Journler’s export function to create rtfd files that I then move into EF.

Is there a way I can modify EF or write a capture script to make EF read Journler “tags” as EF Tags and Journler “comments” as EF Notes? The comments-to-Notes function wouldn’t be essential – I don’t use Journler’s comments feature a lot – but it would be nice. But getting the “tags” to transfer properly to EF Tags would be a huge help as I move my data from Journler.

The one major area in which I find EF lacking features is the browsing process. I’m not talkiing about Journler’s integrated web browser – it’s very nice but far from essential. Rather, I’m talking about the EF records browser.

Does EF have the functional equivalent of browser back and forward buttons? Or a “history” list? I move around a lot between records that don’t share the same permanent folder or tag. And I don’t remember everywhere I’ve been or the specific path thru the records I used. Am I overlooking a function or menu option that provides a way back and forth thru the records?

And the one major feature I’d put on my “wish list” for EF is for tabs in the browser. I’m always working with multiple records and flip back and forth among them. Browser tabs that keep multiple records “open”, visible and immediately accessible are ideal for that process. I suppose I can achieve something similar by creating temp tags for groups of records I’m working with, but it’s a lot of extra steps. And I’m extremely spoiled by the ease of a tab bar for “open” entries in Journler.

Other than that, I’m extraordinarily pleased with EagleFiler and its features. Thanks for a great product!

I’m finishing up some major improvements to capturing from Journler. Please e-mail me if you’d like to try them out.

No, although I’m planning to add some history features.

This is a possibility for a future version. What I do in cases like this is open multiple windows, either in EagleFiler or in more specialized editing applications.

This is improved in EagleFiler 1.4.7.