Looking for journal/diary program to download

December 24, 2015 2:40 PM

Hi, I used to use a program called ViJournal Lite on my Mac, which was a pretty simple password-protected text program that I used as a diary. With it I could create a new page for each day. Does anyone know of a similar such program that I can download? It seems like the ViJournal website is gone.

I'm hoping for something simple and clean. I'm not very interesting in computers, just need a word document type program with password protection. Thanks.

posted by poilkj to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

I think the standard nowadays is called DayOne, available on the AppStore.
posted by foxfirefey at 2:54 PM on December 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

Oh--however, keep in mind that the password protection in DayOne is a bit of a sop. The data storage is not actually encrypted yet, though it's on their road map.
posted by foxfirefey at 2:59 PM on December 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

Thirding DayOne. It's a really good app, and it can be as simple, or complex, as you need it. Also has an iOS version if you want to journal on the go.
posted by SansPoint at 3:37 PM on December 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

I know macjournal lists encryption as a feature, but I haven’t used it much.
You could make an encrypted disk image and just use a simple text editor and keep your data there for free if you want to mess with that. I do it a lot.
posted by bongo_x at 7:46 PM on December 24, 2015

Best answer: The Vijournal web page still seems to exist.
Also, though I don't know this program in particular, if you've actually downloaded a program (as opposed to just using their web page or having an account with them) it shouldn't just go away even if the company goes out of business.

Having said that, it also looks like the mac program Pages has password protection.
posted by 2 cats in the yard at 6:27 AM on December 25, 2015

I used to use Life Journal software. It was Word based, and still exists. And now there is a cloud-based version for $27/year. I used the software, pre-cloud, back when I had a PC. I switched to Mac, still have the old PC, and have to eventually figure out what to do with all of those entries.

I stopped journaling for a while, searched for options, and decided I like the versatility of Evernote. It's a download, a web site and an app, all synced and free with certain limits. If it's text only, it may be free forever. The only time I've ever gotten an error message was when I tried to upload too many photos in a day. You can create different folders, and password-protect some if you wish (that may be a premium feature). There are some great organizational tools. A nice, clean, simple interface. You can work offline and set it to sync when you connect. Worth a try.
posted by AnOrigamiLife at 1:37 AM on December 26, 2015