Although Personal Log is designed to be simple to use, it has very powerful features. Personal Log is not intended to be used as a word processor, but rather, as a note “processor.” In order to make use of its note-processing function, you first must create a log file, then you may create any entries you see fit.
Creating a Log File:
To create a log file, select the New Log… menu item in the File menu. The following New Log File Setup dialog will appear:
 
The New Log File Setup dialog allows you to set three options when creating a new log file. The first option is whether or not you want to use a password to open the log file (see Password Manager in the Advanced Features chapter of this manual). The second option is whether you want the log file’s entries to open in an editable format or a read-only format (see Log Setup Manager in the Advanced Features chapter of this manual). The third option is whether or not you would like all new entries to be signed automatically when closing their window (see Signing Entries in the Advanced Features chapter of this manual).
Creating a New Entry:
To add a new entry to a log file, select the log file by clicking on its log window, then click on the new entry button. The following entry information dialog will appear:
 
In this dialog, you may enter the subject of the new entry, a listing of any keywords, and the desired assigned date and time you wish associate with the entry.
You may enter a subject up to 255 characters long and any number of 31-character keywords, as long as they do not exceed a total of 255 characters in length. You must separate each keyword with a comma when entering them into this dialog. Note the pop-up menus next to the “Subject” and “Keywords” text fields. These pop-up menus allow you to enter often-used subjects and keywords more quickly. You can set up these menus using the Log File Manager, which is explained in the Advanced Features chapter of this manual.
An entry will have three types of date & time stamps ascociated with it:
Created Date: This is the date and time that the entry was created. This date and time cannot be edited.
Assigned Date: This is the date and time you choose to have asscociated with the entry. You may set this date and time in the entry information dialog.
Last Edit Date: This is the date and time the entry was last edited. This date and time cannot be edited and is updated automatically by Personal Log whenever an entry is edited.
To enter the information you have typed into the dialog, click the OK button. This will dismiss the dialog and create a new entry with the subject and keywords you have specified. An entry window will appear, and you may create and edit the text of your entry. Some editing features of Personal Log are:
• You may edit the entry text’s format, e.g., the font, font size, and font style, in the Format menu. This menu is only available when the front window is an editable entry or a text window.
• You can define keywords for the current entry “on the fly” by selecting the word you wish to define as a keyword and selecting Define Keyword in the Commands menu.
• If you have Apple’s Drag & Drop technology installed on your computer, Personal Log fully supports it in entry windows. You may drag styled text, pictures, sounds or files into or within any editable entry. You also may drag items from an entry window, including entry windows which are currently uneditable. You may import a text file’s contents to an entry simply by dragging the file from the finder to an entry window (see Personal Log Preferences in the Advanced Features chapter of this manual).
• You may edit the entry’s subject, keywords, and assigned date at any time while editing an entry by bringing forward the entry information dialog and selecting Information in the Commands menu.
• You may save the entry to the log file at any time to protect against data loss due to a machine crash. To do this, select Save (not Save As…) in the File menu.
When you have completed your entry, you may save and close the entry window or click the record entry button, and the entry will be added permanently to the log file. The only difference between saving an entry and clicking the record entry button is that the latter saves the entry, then closes the entry window.
Once the entry has been recorded, it will be added to the log file. The subject and date created will be added at the end of the entry list in the log window.
Recalling Old Entries:
To recall a previously recorded entry, double click on that entry in the entry list area of the log window. If the entry was signed (see Signing Entries in the Advanced Features chapter of this manual) or the “Read Only” radio is selected in the Log Setup Manager dialog (see Log Setup Manager in the Advanced Features chapter of this manual), it will be displayed in a read-only entry window, meaning it may be viewed but not edited.
Printing*:
To print the text and header information of an entry in Personal Log, select that entry’s window, then select Print… in the File menu. To print the entries of a log file, select Print… while that log file is the front window. To print a certain collection of entries, select the entries you wish to print in the log window, then select Print Selection… in the File menu.
Saving Entries as Text Files*:
To save an entry as a text file, select that entry’s window, then select Save As… in the File menu. The following dialog will appear:
 
This dialog looks similar to Macintosh’s standard save dialog, however, there are two exceptions. The Save As… dialog in Personal Log has three extra items. The first is the “Save Selection Toggle.” This checkbox is enabled only if the entry window you wish to save has text selected. If you check this toggle, only the selected text in the entry window will be saved into the text file. The other two additional items are the “Format” and “Creator” menus. The “Format” menu allows you to set the format of the file that is being saved. It contains only two formats—text files and Personal Log log files—and is useful only when saving log files. When saving entries as text, only the text file option is enabled. The “Creator” menu is only useful when you are creating text files. It allows you to set the text file creator to other popular applications which support text files. If you are creating new log files, you will be able to select only Personal Log as the file creator.
Once you have selected your options and named the text file, click the “Save” button, and the entry will be saved to the text file.
To save multiple entries to a single text file, select the log window, then select Save As… in the File menu. The same dialog will appear, except now the Save Format menu will enable both the text and log file options. If no entries have been selected in the log window, the “Save Selection Toggle” will be disabled. If the “Save Selection Toggle” is enabled and the box is checked, the selected entries will be saved as text. In other words, you cannot create a new log file that is a subset of another log file. When the “Save Selection Toggle” is not selected, you may save the entire log file either as a text file or a new or copied log file.
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* Please note that a reminder to pay the registration fee will be displayed in unregistered copies of Personal Log when these functions are utilized.
