Best Trip Journal Software

[Flytyer2]

Have done a cursory search but didn't find an answer.  What, in your opinion, is the best Travel Journal "software" or program?  Also, same question as it relates to best Trip Planner.  TIA

[Ned]

Are you asking about writing a blog or just a private log of your travels?

[Tom]

If you're planning to put the logs on a server to share with others, Wordpress is one of the best. On a local PC, I use a text editor but, of course, any photos can't be embedded. If you need a photo journal locally, Ned or others will have a better idea.

You might also consider software such as Rolling Stock, used by many folks here to keep track of vehicle, camping, and other expenses, maintenance and more. Click here for a source.

[Flytyer2]

Am interested in keeping a blog-type journal.  I currently use mytripjournal and am happy with it.  Have also used a journal writing feature in yahoo travel, and it seems to be OK as well, but haven't used the one with Google.  Just wondering if anyone had a better mousetrap.

[Ned]

For blogs, Wordpress, as Tom says, is one of the most popular.  They will even host your blog for you if you don't want to go to the effort of maintaining your own domain and server.  If you click the link in my signature, that page has a link to our blog.  We use Wordpress for the software, but have our own domain.

[aka Porky]

My complaint with most blogging/journal software is that they only allow reading the latest entry first and are not easily read as a story, or chronologically reversible for later printing or recapping.  That is fine if you are the reader who checks in everyday to see the latest post, but makes it difficult to navigate after the fact.

Bear in mind that I haven't researched a lot and am by no means swuft when it comes to these things.

[Ned]

Well, a blog by definition is read with the latest items first.  However, if you look at our Alaska trip blog, I did modify Wordpress to present the entries in chronological order, but not until after the blog was complete.  No new entries will be posted there.

[Tom]

Me too. Here's the fix for reverse (forward?) chronology in Wordpress.

[aka Porky]

Ned and Tom, that's exactly what I had in mind.  The blog flow (real time) is fine and being able to create a chronology account at a later date is what I wanted to do.  I may have to get back to you if I do indeed try the code change.  thanks for the tip

[aka Porky]

I just had a brain flash....

Since I don't host my own blog server, is there a way for me to accomplish the reverse order?

[Tom]

Lou,

Wordpress works on an external server, not on your PC. You could lease time on a server with one of the low cost hosting companies such as GoDaddy. You'd also need to register a domain name (e.g. onaquest.com), and you can do that through GoDaddy or another registrar of your choice..

Alternatively, you could sign up with one of the blogging sites, but I don't know if that would allow reading in the other direction.

If you don't need to share the blog with others, you could do something on your PC using MS-Word or Open Office. Personally, I think they're too bloated for a simple function like a blog, but they are readily available.

[aka Porky]

Tom, that was the crux of my question.  I had a blog, written with Wordpress, during my Alaska trip in '06.  It is/was wholly contained on their site.  That is why I have the question of access to the code to perform the reverse presentation.  I assume I do not.

Ned hosts his blog on his own server so I assume he can alter the resident Wordpress code as he sees fit.  Am I missing something that should be obvious to me?   

[Tom]

Lou,

Where was the Wordpress software you used being hosted? i.e. who's server was it on?

Yes, you need access to the software files to be able to change the code per my earlier link.

[aka Porky]

Tom,

I assume it was hosted by Wordpress.com.  The url access to the bloq was simply (www.user-name.wordpress.com).

I have since gone through the laborious procedure of downloading the posts to MSword, re-inserting the photos and converting the entire blog to PDF format.   This did allow me to reverse the flow, perform some editing and print/file a very nicely formatted journal, but I would not want do it again.

[Tom]

Lou,

If you're going to transfer it to Word anyway, why not create it in Word to start with?

[aka Porky]

Point taken Tom. 

It's just that while traveling, especially with the limited and unpredictable Internet access we had on the Alaska trip, I was not always able to compose a post in msword and then upload it to the blog.  Many of the posts were created on the fly and the only soft copy existed on the published blog.  The process of retrieving and reformatting it was horrendous.  I have learned my lesson and will not attempt to maintain a running blog under those conditions again. 

Thanks for all your time and consideration on my little problem.  I was just hoping their was a quick and dirty method of reversing the sequence of the existing on-line blog.

Thanks again, lou 

[Tom]

I feel your pain Lou. Wish I had a good answer for any report you've previously published via online blog software.

FWIW trip reports posted here in the forum, such as Betty's Canadian Maritimes report, can be reversed at the click of a mouse.

[RV Roamer]

I Googled Simple Journal Software and got lots of hits, including some that are free.  These are not blog software - basically just a diary on a PC.

One called My Simple Friend sounded attractive for basic needs. It has a basic free version and more featured ones (e.g. photos) for a price, e.g. $9.95 for the standard edition which includes images, spell checking, etc.  My Simple Friend

[Ned]

Lou, when you hosted with wordpress.com, you were running a shared copy of Wordpress and you would not have the capability of altering the template code.  When you host it on your own domain, you are responsible for maintaining the Wordpress code and can alter it as you like.

There are several program that will run on a PC for composing blog entries offline, then uploading them to the blog server at a later time.  Some are free, some are inexpensive, but I've found the free ones to more than adequate.  If you or anyone else is interested, I can post a list of some of them.

[aka Porky]

Ned, a short list of your picks would be helpful.

Gary, If you discovered any that don't appear on Ned's list, feel free to add them.

This is not a pressing need at the moment, but all info is welcome. 
I have considered my own Domain, but I spend entirely too much time in front of this computer as it is.

My apologies to Flytyer2 for hijacking this thread.

[Ned]

In no particular order:

Blogdesk
Post2Blog
BlogJet

I have used Blogdesk to post to our usabyrv.us blog, but have no opinion of the others.  A Google search on free blogging tools will turn up more.

[RV Roamer]

Gary, If you discovered any that don't appear on Ned's list, feel free to add them.

Lots of them, but I was talking about journal software and Ned listed blog software. Similar, to be sure, but oriented toward a different style of use. I threw out that option because the original inquiry said journal rather than blog.  I'll leave it to you to Google the term Simple Journal Software and see if any of them seem to suit what you want to do.

[fldarla]

If you are doing emails, I just discovered "Google Documents". You can create your document using different types, fonts, colors etc AND you can imbeded photos where you want in different sizes. I use it alot as my dog send emails to about 60 people to document our travels. You can create it there and then cut and paste it into anything you want.....any questions, let me know. I could send you a sample.


Edit: Removed white space.

[Tom]

What does this add to the discussion