Journal comments

First, just a thought: What do you think of adding a link to a journal entry so it can be added to the PlantFiles?

I'm one of those people who used the journal a long time ago and abandoned it, so I'm just now taking time to explore it again and haven't gotten very far. When I start clicking on links I get lost and have a hard time knowing where I'm at. For example, when I click on Manage Your Own Journal, which is my Main Page according to the Main Menu heading. I originally thought it would be my "Default Journal."

Then, Under the heading "Change your default Journal:" I have 2 journals listed, and Winterberry Farms Co-Op is also under "Access by Category:" but I don't know how all this is intended to be organized. So I'm not sure where I want to go. I don't remember being this confused when I added a category, but now that I'm trying to look at what I did, I'm kinda lost. When I click on my "Winterberry Farms CoOp" journal, the page looks the same as the last. My Default Journal pages seems to make more sense to me, probably because there are entries in it but my other journal is empty.

I'm not sure if I was able to make sense with that, but it's hard to explain my confusion. Would be much easier if I understood what I wanted to say, but then I wouldn't be confused huh?

So far, my productive comments/questions are about the ToDo. On my Default Journal page is a heading "Access your TODO items:" so I clicked on the link, which took me to another page that told me I have no entries yet, but it still had another link to prepare the items for printing, which took me to another similar page.that also said to use the Journal Menu on the right to add a new item. I have a few comments/questions about these pages:

Can the links be disabled if there are no ToDo items?
There was no Journal Menu on the right.
I can't find the place to add ToDo items (but I'm still exploring).

Hi Cheryl -

My guess is that the reference to "the Journal Menu on the right" is from long ago when we had the navigation links on the right hand side of the site. With the change last year to the new tabbed site navigation that went away.

To ADD a ToDo you need to "Add an entry" to a Journal item. When the page opens to add an entry there is a drop down box that gives you a choice of: 1) Status Update 2) Action I Performed or 3) ToDo Item. By selecting "TODO Item" you then create a ToDo that shows up on your ToDo List.

(hope that wasn't too confusing!)

Not at all - I found it pretty quick from your explanation - thanks.

I'm not sure I know what you mean. If you're saying people should be able to create a journal entry, which in turn would create a PlantFiles entry, then I don't think that's a good idea - it would most likely result in a lot of incomplete, incorrect and mistakenly-submitted entries in PlantFiles. (And our editors have enough to do to keep the intentionally-created entries accurate and non-duplicative.)

I think (just my opinion) it would be more efficient for people to be able to browse through PlantFiles and create a personal journal entry based on the plant entry already there. (Which is pretty much the inverse of what I think you might have suggested.) PlantFiles isn't 100% guaranteed accurate, but the odds are fairly high the plant's name is spelled and formatted correctly - which is a good starting point for a journal entry about that plant.

If you were meaning something else, I apologize for assuming too much - and I'm all ears. (But you might want to start your post in the "stickied" thread for wish lists ;o)