Online journal - getting started

Joan,
In my journal it has me choosing a catagories to add to but I have no catagories or subcatagories and I can figure out how to start over or start a ne journal.
Sumer

Sumer,

Okay, it looks like you have one category.

From the main menu of your journal, go into Manage Categories. You can click on any category to drill down and perform actions against that category. You can add subcategories to that top level category, or delete that top level category if you don't have subcategories underneath it. If you do have subcategories under the top level category, you will have to drill down to the subcategories and delete them before you will be allowed to delete the main category.

If you want to add a new top level category, you can go to the bottom of that same page and add it in the box and submit.

Once you have the categories set up as you want them, find the link on the page that says either "When you are done, click here to return to your main journal page to continue." or "Back to your journal homepage".

Once back on your journal homepage, you can click on any of your top level categories and then click on "This category has no entries yet. Click here to add a new item." This is where you would enter the plants you want to add under that category.

If you set up subcategories, you click on that subcategory and then on "This category has no entries yet. Click here to add a new item." This is where you would want to enter the plants that you want to put under that subcategory.

Try this and see if you can get further. I'm off to bed now, but I'll check in tomorrow when I get a break at work. Feel free to click on my name and take a look at my journal. It may help you understand what I'm trying to explain.

Good luck!

Joan

how do I start my own journal apart from the default one

Sumer

From the Main Menu on the first journal page, go into Manage Journals, then leave the first box alone, because it defaults to new journal. In the second box, type in what you want to call the journal. Then hit submit.

Maybe you have answered this before. But is there any way to remove the Default Journal? I think I've added a new one, but I actually was trying to rename the default one. Now I have two - default and a second one. And that wasn't the initial idea. They seem to have the same number of categories as well as the same item that I've initially added. Or am I doing something incorrectly?

Appreciate your assistance,
Elena.

Mmmmm, nope there's not. To be honest, the "default" thing has always thrown me for a bit of a loop too.

IMHO, it would be best if we could name our default journal - even if it has to be a permanent fixture in our journal area, and even if it still has to display "default journal" after the name we give it ;o)

I'm not seeing the "Manage Categories" option. I go into my Journal tab, select "Manage your own journal" and all I see is one category listed, "General" and no way to add any additional categories. I must be missing something.

Donna

I wonder if you never finished the initial setup for the journal properly? Someone else I helped out with a different problem was seeing completely different screens than I was and it turned out it was because they had never finished the setup. Unfortunately it's been so long since I set up my journal that I don't know how to get back into the setup and fix it, but hopefully someone else will remember.

What you should see when you click on manage your own journal is a screen with multiple sections, first one is called "your journal summary" which says how many categories, etc I have, then the next section down says Main Menu and that is where the manage categories link is. When you click on that, it pulls up a list of the categories you have, and underneath them there's a space where you can add in a new category.

That may be the case, but I'm stuck!!

Can you post a screenshot of what you see when you click on "manage your own journal"? Or if you can't do that, then at least type in here what it is you see on the screen when you click that link (make sure you scroll down to the bottom of the page, sometimes options are out of sight and you don't see them unless you scroll). I can only view your journal as an outsider and from that view it doesn't look like there's anything wrong with it so I don't know why you don't have the main menu that everyone else does.

Here's what I see....

OK, that's what I thought, you're still in setup mode. I'm not sure if this will work, but here's what I would try. Click on the general category and add an item (make it up if you have to, you'll be able to delete it later). Then keep going following the directions on each page until it's not on Step # xxx anymore (I'm not sure how many steps there are, but you'll need to get through all of them I think before your journal will work normally). Once you've gone through the rest of the setup steps, you should be able to click on the journal tab, then manage your own journal, and the screen should look like I described (main menu category with various options such as adding categories, etc). Then you can go make real categories.

One other thing I would suggest--if you plan to use the option of importing plants from Plant Files into your journal, I would create a new journal other than the default one--for some reason the import feature doesn't work with the default journal (this is something else that you can do once you get through your setup steps--it's an option in the main menu just like adding categories)

Thanks, I'll give it a shot!!

Ok, that appears to have worked...

Question, how do I delete a category... it's not giving me an option to do so.


Nevermind... DOH!!!!!!

This message was edited Jul 24, 2006 9:28 PM

I am unable to add an entry from in the status screen. When I click " add entry" it goes back to the home page. What am I doing wrong?

"Add an entry" is used if you want to add comments to an existing plant (and the reason it keeps taking you back to the home page is that you didn't tick off the check box next to the plant you wanted to add an entry to since that wasn't what you were trying to do). I'm not sure if you can add plants when you're in access by status, I would go to the access by category section, click on the category that you want to add your plant to, and above the table listing everything you already have in the category, it'll say "add another item under this category". Click on that, and then put in your info.

Hi,

I'm trying to set up my journal. I've successfully added one plant entry, but now I'm trying to add another one and I'm stuck. What does "Jump to RID" mean? When I'm viewing a plant in the database that I want to add I hit the button "add to journal" and then get a screen that says "You are importing a plant" but then I don't know what to do next.

Thanks for any help.

Di

Jump to RID is if you know the RID for the plant you want to find in your journal (this is the number that the computer assigns to each entry...personally I never use this button because if I'm looking for a plant I'm much more likely to know it's name than it's number!)

As far as adding plants to your journal from Plant Files, are you trying to add plants to your default journal? That doesn't work for some reason, you have to make your own new journal and then you should be able to add plants to it just fine (if you want to read more on this, scroll up through this thread, this problem has been discussed several times before). When it's working right, it'll pull up a screen that asks you first what journal to add to, then what category to put it in, etc and it's pretty straightforward. But if you're trying to add things to your default journal then you get something that looks like what you're describing where it's not clear what to do.

Thanks ecrane3... it worked!!

Di

My computer kicked off while I was loading images in my journal that I just "kinda" figured out last night. Now when I go into my journal, it's not showing anything but still shows I have 107 items.....I can't seem to find the items....where do I find them or do I start over?

Edited to say:
I've found my stuff....I think....but I have to enter a RID number, then go to the 2006 catagory to get into all of the items....I know I messed something up, just not sure how to fix it.

This message was edited Aug 28, 2006 9:55 AM

This message was edited Aug 28, 2006 9:55 AM

Dear Dave's Helpers,
I create a new category then go to Manage Your Category's click on to same to add detail etc but keep being returned to add a new category page. Why can't i get in to the new category?

Bazza

Are you sure you're getting returned to the same page? I have a category called Annuals, and when I'm in manage categories and I click on it, it takes me to a screen that says Managing Your Categories: Annuals on the top, and there's a box to add a new sub-category. If you're trying to see the actual plants that you have in that category or add new ones, you don't do that through Manage Categories, instead you should go back to your main journal page and scroll down to the section where it says Access By Category, then if you click on the category there it'll show you the plants you have in that category or let you add new ones.

Help Please.. How do you copy entries from one journal to another?. How does the clone feature work?

I want to copy entries of my daylilies from one journal's category as an entry into another journal's category. Just hope there's a way to keep from typing the same info already included in another journal.

Hope this makes sense. I feel brain-dead this morning.

Deborah

There's not a one-step way to copy something from one journal to another--you will have to copy (clone) the entry, then move the clone to the other journal (cloning creates a copy of an entry, you can choose whether to also clone all the entries and images of that plant, or just the plant itself). Once you have your clone, "view" the entry and you'll see a link to move to another journal, then just follow the screens step by step to get it to the journal and category that you want.

Thanks, ecrane3!

Dear Dave's Helpers,
I find when I add anew Category I cannot add content to that new Category until the next day. They say self learning is the most rewarding knowledge!
I am now requiring info on the Chinese Date (Jujube) when planting from seed. I had eight seeds now zero with zero plants. I even tried the method of placing seeds in storage area of fridge for sixty to ninety days to help promote germination without success. I say without success as there are still four seeds in pots which should have seen the light of day by now. Still hopeful. " HELP"
I should mention i growing trees in sub-tropical climate.

Bazza

I have never had that problem with categories, not sure why you are. As far as your question on Jujube, I would post either on the Propagation forum or Tropical Fruit forum

I've looked at the previous 186 entries, and if my question was there and/or answered, I missed it. I am trying to use the Journal to keep track of my seeds, and hopefully their emergence into life. There are some 120 entries and the process is daunting. For example; under Penstemon, which has 5 of 16 entered, to enter number six I end up back at 'home' and have to scroll down to access by category and start the basics all over. Is there a way to add an entry to my Penstemon sub-category , and future categories without having to 'backpedal' so much ? It would be so much nicer if I could merely click "add next item".Hope I haven't overlooked the answer somewhere.

You haven't overlooked anything, but if you don't like all that clicking you can use the back button on your browser instead. I hit it twice after I've added a new plant--that'll take you right back to the list of things in that category and you'll have the link to add a new plant (if you've done anything else like edit the entry after you made it, you may have to hit back a couple more times, but I've still found that's the easiest way).

Sounds like a reasonable alternative. Thank you e3

What's the difference between a Journal and a Diary?

The journal is more useful for tracking information about individual plants, and the diary is more useful for tracking everything else--things like how your beds look from season to season, landscaping projects, etc. If you want more of an explanation than that, it might help if you take a look at how other people have set theirs up--a lot of people have their journals and diaries public so you can take a peek and see how other people have used theirs.

Thanks.

This is the second day I have worked on my journal. I remember seeing nice pictures of the plants on the left side of my screen the last time, but not today. Today I have RID numbers. I want the pictures back, I don't really care to see the RID numbers. Can I get the pictures back? What do need to do?

The RID numbers are always there, if you have a picture the thumbnail will show up underneath the RID number. I'm not sure why your pictures disappeared, but I checked my journal and the few pictures I uploaded are still there just like they should be so there's nothing wrong with journals in general. I don't see any pictures when I look at your journal, so somehow your pics must have been accidentally deleted--can you remember the things you've done in your journal between when the pics were there and when they disappeared? Since they're gone now, I think the best thing to do is try uploading them again, but pay attention to everything you do in the journal and that way if they disappear again it'll be easier for someone to help you figure out what's going on.

Thank you for the response. I had some computer problems in between the two entries but I wasn't in DG. Is there any way to use the Photos from the Plantfiles? Or do I have to have my own photo of each item?

If you want the photo to show up in the thumbnail, you have to upload it from your computer. You can import plants from Plant Files into your journal, if you do that then when you go into each plant's entry you'll find a link back to the Plant Files entry, but you won't be able to look down your list of plants and see the pictures. If you wanted to save a pic from Plant Files and then upload it into your journal so that it'll show up as a thumbnail, you can do that only if you contact the owner of the picture and get their permission, otherwise you're violating their copyright. And then if they give you permission, make sure you turn off the copyright watermark when you upload the pics so that the pic shows with their copyright not yours.

I'm new at this, so this may be a really dumb question. What is the easiest way to open up my journal? There is no link to it on my home page as far as I can tell. I've been getting to it by going to My Tools. Also, I can't find the link that takes you a page where you can set up a diary. Help!

The diary and journal are both under "My Tools", the diary is now called a blog but it's the same feature that's always been there. The easiest way to get to your journal is just how you're doing it now going through My Tools--Dave's talking about adding a feature where you can add a few links to your home page if there are places you visit frequently that you want one-click access to, but I don't think he has that up yet.

Thanks! Also, I've added several plants to my journal from the plantfile, but the link back to the plantfile does not show up when I go to the view option. Should it show up immediately?