Tarot journaling sofware?

Simple question: which (if any) softare do you use to journal tarot readings? I've heard of treeDBnotes, but am not quite sure how to use it yet, and I would like to know if anyone knows of any good freeware. Or alternatively, if anyone has any suggestions on organising a handwritten tarot journal that would be great too. I ony have a simple notebook but I want something more organised that I easily look up things in. Any suggestions?

lad

I use Tree DB notes and find it very good indeed. I love the way you can import images into it. It's searchable and you have lots of flexibility in its formatting.

There is another you can get through http://squasige.net/tdiary/

This one is attractive as well but does not have as many features as Tree DB notes.

Moongold

I'm another fan of TreeDBNotes Free - I was never very good at keeping journals (paper ones) but with this being on the PC its easy to keep it up to date.

It does look hard to use at first but it takes practise, also if you were to do a search on it here, there are some good hints and tips about using it - especially the DataBase Tools button.

I do my journal in Outlook Express as a rich text (HTML) e-mail. I can imbed scans of cards or other relevant graphics; change the text colour and size; use formatting options like Bold and Underline etc.

Then I print them and keep them in a large binder (I'm on my third one now, I write a lot), and the binders have tabbed chapter inserts so I can label and identify things. I also use clear inserts to put card scans and artwork within the journal.

I also have a separate binder for Daily draws. The big binders are used for creative writing in conjunction with cards. I also have a separate folder with artwork, collages, mandalas that I have done using card draws or sets of cards or books and cards as inspiration.

I also have smaller book-bound or spiral bound journals where I do poetry and artwork in relation to the cards. Some of these are the ones that came with particular decks so my studies in those are for that deck--like the Arthurian Tarot (Hallowquest.)

I never handwrite though because of my tendinitis but typing is manageable and quick and easily editable for spelling and grammatical mistakes.

I've never heard of TreeDBNotes but it looks interesting. I usually delete my journal notes and studies after I print them. I prefer to haul a binder out and read things in hard copy while having tea. It's fun to browse and see what you wrote. I find reading off a computer hurts my eyes and hand--too much mousing.

There is some software that can be useful. Chronos "Stickybrain" (http://chronos.com) is nice and DEVONThink Personal (http://www.devon-technologies.com/products/devonthink/overview.php) is similar. Both allow for detailed searches and flexible formating of material. Both are for Macintosh, which is a better OS and safer than Windows and offers a better choice of software nowadays.
If you want Windows stuff, try looking at http://versiontracker.com for what you might be interested in; the site is very good for both operating systems.

Goodbye TreeDBNotes

I LOVE TreeDBNotes, though I've had to abandon the system. For whatever reason on two separate occasions I've had the system occur errors that have almost made me lose some of my notes. (Fortuneatly for me, the notes that I couldn't recover were things that I got from the AT site so I just had to look them up and copy and paste them over.) I miss that program. It was extremely useful when it comes to organizing things.

I've now turned to trusty MS Word. I figure that I use it for everthing else so why not my journal? I can cut an past everything I want into the program, create tables, search, etc. Each TreeTBNotes tab was turned into a separate file and to replicate the "tree" effect that allows you to organize and search for particular "chapters" within the work, I create headers within the word document and then open the document map and there's my tree! I just have to figure out the largest size a Word file can be before I start having problems with the file, but otherwise it seems to be working great.

I love T-Diary. It's great software and organizes my readings perfectly.

~Azarial~

Azarial said:

I love T-Diary. It's great software and organizes my readings perfectly.

Click to expand...

Between you and Moongold I have decided to try it for comparison to OE. The author says he has big ideas for it and I always find software development intriguing.

[Edited to add: Well, it's done weird things to my Control button on the keyboard and I couldn't get rid of italicization once selected. It is still messed up so I'll have to restart my computer. I hope that works.

The hierarchy was laborious to access since the program wouldn't recognize the files it had created two seconds ago. I don't get the point of T-Diary when I can make up a folder with a title in Outlook Express and create daily entries. They aren't searchable but I never search them anyway. Very glitchy program on my system. I became annoyed with it immediately. Sorry, but I tried. That's the problem with Windows--one system and another--things aren't the same.]

Fortunately Windows has recovered from the TDiary experience. Oh yeah and when I uninstalled it with the uninstaller that came with TDiary, I had to edit the registry myself.

Oh well, the programmer's young, at least he's making an effort. That's why it's freeware. Although I did notice that in one of the Sample entries he had imbedded his picture with a query as to why you hadn't paid for the program.

Yeah well, I can think of a few reasons. Stability and functionality being major issues for me in this 1.2.1 build. He'll get there.

[Edited to add: At least he's trying, how many people don't? It shows great initiative anyway.]

Another treeDBnotes fan

I also use treeDBnotes for both my Tarot Journal and for my Astrology work. Having the ability to treat it as a book with sections, chapters, individual topics/pages and even sub-pages, I find it quite useful. Specifically, I can"

1) Copy and paste direct from the Internet (and AT) directly to any page in the journal.
2) Rearrange and print out pages for my use or for friends.
3) Insert copies of cards/decks and other useful information such as actual spreads and readings given.

It is very flexible. Dave