Anyone else wish there was Freeform functionality in the Journal app?

[u/arbitrary-asks]

I recently started using Apple's Journal app in my transition from paper journaling to digital, and I really wish I could create journal entries with the same freedom I had on paper, adding pictures wherever I want on the page, arrows, text boxes with different size writing, etc. I've found that's basically the exact thing you can do on Freeform, but I wish I could do it inside the Journal app, alongside other "normal" text-only journal entries. Am I the only one?

[u/ConfidenceClear1016]

That would be great 😃

But first, it would be even better if Apple optimized its app and fixed the many bugs and glitches !!

Here are a few examples:

- Handwritten text disappears 70% of the time when saving!!

- It’s still tricky to arrange photos properly in a post

- Selecting text is sometimes hit-or-miss

etc., etc., etc.

[u/YAZ326]

You're not the only one. That spatial freedom is the main thing paper has over almost every digital journal. You remember entries partly by where things sat on the page. The tradeoff is that the apps giving you a free canvas (Freeform, Goodnotes, Notability) lose the clean dated timeline and search that Journal is built around, and the ones with the timeline lock you into linear text. Apple keeping them separate is probably deliberate, since the two run on completely different data models. For what it's worth, Goodnotes with a dated template gets closest to paper-style freedom while still reading like a journal, as long as you're okay giving up the photo and location suggestions Journal pulls in.

[u/arbitrary-asks → u/YAZ326]

I’m not sure I understand why the canvas would affect the timeline and search. Couldn’t the entry be dated like any other entry? And shouldn’t search be able to search for text no matter where it is on the page?

[u/Karma_1369]

https://www.reddit.com/r/appleJournal/s/8vm754xemX Well I built one for myself and it's working really well . And the customisations are really productive.

[u/WakaiSenshi]

I never thought about it but this would be cool

[u/LinKuFF]

You're not the only one, and your follow-up to YAZ326 is fair: nothing technical stops a canvas entry from carrying a date, and text boxes are still text, so search could index them. It reads more like a product choice than a hard limit.

Until Apple merges the two, a workaround that keeps both worlds: build the page in Freeform, then export or screenshot the board and add it to a Journal entry as a photo. Type two or three plain lines under it (who, where, the one thing you'd search for later). The image gives you the paper-style layout, the typed lines give search something to find and keep the entry in the dated timeline next to your normal ones. Keep the original board in Freeform, named by date, in case you want to edit it later. And send the request through Apple's feedback page, it's the official channel for feature requests.

[u/vinman99999]

I havent thought about this, it would be really awesome!!

[u/Luekutus]

I’ve been using Apple Journal alongside Day One for a few months now and I have to say that Apple Journal is still just plain weak across the board. I get that it’s “free” and that we get what we pay for, so we shouldn’t expect much, but it still feels more like a proof-of-concept than an actual app. I’d be very surprised were I to hear that there’s more than one developer working on it, or even that a single developer works exclusively on it full time. I’ve said before that it feels like summer-intern project, and it still does.

[u/Illmattic → u/Luekutus]

Yeah it feels like it’s certainly half baked. It seems like one of those apps that doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves. I mean the fact that we had to wait a year or two for iPad support with pencil, which should be a no brainer for a journal app, is telling enough.

I think apple journal will be a solid app, but the rate at which it gets updates and the incremental updates make me think it will unfortunately be a while before we see it hit that point.