Journal uses two files that you should be aware of. The first is the diary file that you enter all of your daily information in. This can be just about any place on your hard drive, but in most cases its in the Journal Folder. Its usually called “Journal.YYYY” where the YYYY is the year that you created this file in. So for 1997 it would be Journal.1997.
The second file is the prefs file that Journal uses to store all of the preferences you have set in the program AND any cycle or events you have defined. This file is called “Journal Prefs”
Journal 5 Files :
If you have been using Journal 4 and want to upgrade to Journal 5, you MUST convert the older files to the new formats required by Journal 5 (for OS8 and hopefully beyond). Apart from being a requirement if you want to use Journal on OS8, the new version also corrects a couple of problems that existed in previous versions.
If you have not been using Journal 4, and you are starting fresh with Journal 5, you can skip the rest of this document and get right into using Journal!
Updating Journal 4 files to Journal 5 format :
The updater only changes the data and prefs files not the Journal 4.x application itself. So if you started a new Journal file in 4.x it would have been called something like "Journal.1997" or something like that.
Double click the Journal Updater.
Locate the Journal data file you created with the 4.x version of Journal. The next question it asks is, WHERE you want to save the UPDATED file. You can select anywhere you want or even in the same folder.
The updater will then create a NEW journal file for use with Version 5. If the previous filename was "Journal.1997" the new file will be created and it will be called "Journal.1997.5" to indicate that its been updated for version 5. You may rename it to whatever you’d like.
If you have a prefs file (full of events and cycles), use the Convert Prefs File option for that. The prefs file will be in your System Folder, Preferences Folder.
Journal 4 - Journal Prefs (the old name of the preferences)
Journal 5 - Journal Preferences (is the new name)
If any errors are encountered during the conversion, your original files will remain intact but the new ones might as well be thrown out. Since there was a possibility that some Journal 4 and previous diary files could be corrupted, they may not be able to be converted (and in fact will be damaged but not as a result of the conversion). Unfortunately, nothing can be done about this...it has been an elusive bug to track down but finally has been fixed in Journal 5.
