Journals

Welcome to Journal!   If you write journals/blogs on your travels or local experiences, the Journal app is perfect for you.  It has a conventional blog layout, but in a different layout, it can also writes and reads like a journal book.  If you pick book, you can customize with lots of book cover designs.  If you blog, you get to enjoy what a good blogging tool offers.  If you don't blog and just want to write as if you are writing you travel diary or journal, the Journal app is also tailored for you.      Unlike other blogs, Journal at Sosauce has a few advantages.  You get instant writing and previewing so you don't have to save and come back all the time.  If you make your posts look like book and chapters, you get comments side by side with the writing, so people can interact with you easily.  Multiple blogs are allowed here, and it's super easy.  If you upgrade to premium account, you can create a Group Journal so you and your friends can write together in the same book.  In addition to RSS Feed, you can subscribe to others' books within Sosauce through Subscription .  Want to take your writing to fuel other places of your web existence?  No problem.  Sharing on Sosauce includes emailing, link posting, embedding, Facebook Connect, and public, customizable URLs.  This blog as journal design got endorsement and support from Mashable , a leading web blog, so it's pretty safe to use.     Let's walk you through some things you'll find useful and fun - Writing with Journal, Multiple Journals, Book Design & Customize, Conversations, Group Writing, RSS & Subscription , and Sharing .     Writing with Journal If you want to start writing, there are quite a few places to turn to.   When at your Home, you'll use the Add Content button and select Write a Journal Entry.   Within the Journal app, use the orange links under the page title:     You can write a new entry for a New Journal, Group Journal, or Existing Journal.  Let's get to Group Journal in its own section later on down in this Guide.  For now, if you are creating a new journal, let's click on New Journal.   When you see the screen below, put in a name for your new journal.  You can write a description or intro for your journal if you want, but it's optional .  So don't confuse yourself with actually writing here.  You can also choose the Privacy. (Private = for your eyes only.  Friends = for friends to look at.  Public = for everyone to share.) Done?  Let's start writing.     Using the Journal Editor When you see the editor below, you can basically start typing.  When you type and hit Enter, your writing will show in the preview pane on the right.  This way, you'll get to see exactly what you type in pretty much instantaneously.  So no more saving and previewing, saving and previewing like you would on other blogs, which can get pretty painful.       Be sure to give your writing entry a Title!  And you can also have some fun with the subject, weather, and mood.  The text editing works like a simple and light version of Word, so use it how you would with Word formatting.  Feel free to add tags to help others as well as yourself find your writing.             Alright, ready to insert some stuff to your writing?  Clicking on the dropdown brings up all the options you have - Photo, video, album, and trip.  Once you pick what you want, hit the Insert button.  F or video, since we're partnering with YouTube, you can store and attach videos straight from YouTube here.     A note about Save vs. Publish .  When you want to save, you might want to save your writing as a draft so you can keep working or fighting through writer's block before you are ready for other people to see.  In this case, click on Save.  When you are ready for people to see, click on Publish, and your book chapter will be out.     Multiple Journals     Sosauce Journal is about creating as many blogs or journals as you want.  It doesn't limit you to just one.  Even easier than writing actual diaries or journals, you can start a new one just by clicking a big button.  Each blog can be decorated and customized differently, and each can take on a different personality.   And the blog URL that you use will always update to your latest piece of writing, so with one URL, people will always see your latest!  This way, people will be able to easily identify with you and what you write.       Book vs Blog Layout Within your Journal application, you have two ways to look at your writing.  If you click on Journals, you'll see it organized by journals/blogs, and from there you can easily manage your journals/blogs.  If you click on All Entries, you get direct access to your entries so you can manage them fast!  On the right of All Entries, all your different journals/blogs are still listed, giving another navigation alternative.       Each journal/blog can have a book layout or a regular blog layout.  To switch back and forth is a piece of cake.  Look for the View as Book or View as Blog button at the top of your journal/blog:       Once you pick the layout that you want, it would be what you see, and what others see.     The blog layout looks like this:   The top banner you can customize through Journal Settings and have a little fun with.     The book layout looks like this:      Look for the Settings button to decorate your blog or book.      In Settings, you can add a cover photo for your book, change title or description, and play with the Themes, which are designs for the blog banner or book.  There are some interesting choices here, so play, try, and have fun!   Please note that we use the same Settings for both Blog and Book layouts, so that you can do everything at once.  Keep in mind that if you select a cover photo, it is for the book only.      One more word on the book design.  After you are done writing, you'll notice that you have comments side-by-side with your writing.  This is an advantage of the book design, that you can have conversations right next to writing.       Group Writing (A Premium Account Feature) ( for how to setup and use this, click here! ) Group Writing is a one of a kind feature for you to write with friends.  With it, you can share thoughts on a topic, work on a project together, or have a very private conversation with a select few.  The possibility is pretty much endless.  Giving you a way to create a Group Journal is another way Sosauce can help you to relive your travel experiences and find the easiest and most fun way to share with those you care about.       RSS & Subscriptions With RSS , you can subscribe your favorite journals via RSS feed.  For how to use RSS, click here !   In addition to RSS feed, we also have a Subscriptions service within Sosauce.     When you want to Subscribe to a journal you like, as you dive into the journal and read, you'll notice the Subscribe button or link at the top left of the journal.  Click on it to Subscribe to the journal.  It's as easy as that!       Now that you've subscribed to something, go to your Subscriptions page.  The easiest way is to use the Sosauce Header and click on the Subscriptions link in the drop down menu.       Ok, at your Subscriptions page, you'll see all the journals you subscribed to.  If you don't like a journal anymore, click on Remove Subscription next to it, and it's gone from your list.   If other people subscribe to one of your journals, you can know about it.  And you can choose if you want others to subscribe in the first place.  You can do both these things at Settings.    You can use the Allow Subscriptions checkbox to decide if you want people to subscribe to a journal.     See the Manage Subscribers button above?  Click on that.  And you'll see:     If there are subscribers that are giving you trouble, you can kick them off of your subscription list by click on Remove here.       Sharing A big part of sharing on Sosauce is actually to help you take your writing elsewhere. So your anti-social networking friends can get emails, friends on other social networks can get linked posts or embeds, and you can feed your stories or thoughts to other social media sites if you want.     In addition to RSS that is just mentioned, you can share your content outside of Sosauce through emailing.     Emailing     At an entry, click on the Share link and select the Send Message option.  Then you can email your entry to friends outside Sosauce by typing their address or use your web addressbooks (ex. Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, and MSN).  They will receive a book cover design in the email, and when they click on it, they can view what you write without having to log in.   Posting Links & Embedding To see how Posting Links and Embedding via the Share link work, click here!   What this allows you to do is to take advantage of the easy and powerful Journal app for your writing, and take the writing to other communities that you belong to.    Exploring Sosauce Sharing within Sosauce is pretty fun as well.  Obviously, you get to see and explore lots at your Home Updates already.  But there are also additional pages at your disposal for more dedicated exploration.     Let's try going to the Journal Home via the Header:      Here you'll get the lastest and most interesting on travel and local writing.  In addition, you'll have pages dedicated for Friends' Journals, Subscriptions, and your Group Journals.   Ok!  This concludes our tour of the Journal app.  If you have questions or suggestions, you can always write a comment on this entry or write the Sosauce Concierge (concierge@sosauce.com) a feedback.  In the meantime, take it easy and have fun writing.