Day One is high on my list of favourite apps and I have written about it many times, including last December when I reached the 745th day of diary keeping. In all my life I have never managed to keep a journal for more than a few days. I lost count of the New Year’s resolutions when I went out and bought a snazzy diary and vowed to keep it going until eternity. Day One is the only tool that has encouraged me to keep up the routine. In fact, though, it isn’t really a routine. It has become a pleasure, and I now look forward to writing down my daily doings.
Many times in the past two years Day One has saved my bacon as I have been able to search back and find when I took some action that needs to be documented. With tags or simply with word searches you can keep on top of vacations, locations, weather (yes, it automatically records the weather for every day), health issues and just about anything. When did I last? is easily answered with Day One and the pity is that I can go back only a couple of years. I wish I had had this app for life.
The three Day One apps, iPhone, iPad and Mac sync seamlessly and you can jot down notes wherever you are. You can also add files or photographs, including those taken from within Day One on an iOS device.
In the latest 1.8 version of the Mac Application there are many improvements. Just one, though, has wowed me. I can now drag a photograph to the Day One icon in the dock and it will be filed away against the entry for the day on which is was taken. It is now possible to go through iPhoto or Aperture selecting past pictures that you would like to remember. Drag them to Day One and the app takes care of everything. It will either append the picture to an existing entry for a particular day or create a new entry. Just two caveats: Keep your camera’s clock in sync and remember it doesn’t work with scans from film cameras. You then have to remember the date and put it in manually.