Your first five minutes

Let's get you from a fresh install to two entries of your own, joined into a journal with a name. It takes about five minutes.

#0 · Open the app

The first time it opens, one page sits over the sky: "the journal", and under it "a sky of everything you've written". Under "to begin" it offers four doors. Tap "look around first" — it closes the page, and you can come back to the others later.

#1 · Place a star

The sky is the home view: your entries as stars along the year. A star is one entry.

1. Find an empty part of the sky, between the header at the top and the dotted path near the foot.
2. Hold your finger still there. After half a second a firm tick lands, and a new star appears under your finger.
3. Its card opens low on the screen: "a new star", the day you held and "✦ written here", then "not written yet", and "write it", "connect it", "leave it loose" and "take it back".

A tap on empty sky only leaves a small spark. Holding is what places, so a stray touch never leaves a blank star behind.

#2 · Write it

1. On the card, tap "write it". Compose opens — the one screen where an entry is written.
2. Under "what to call it", type a title.
3. Under "what happened", write a line or two.
4. Tap "‹ compose" at the top. What you wrote is saved, and the line at the foot says "saved".

Back on the sky, your star now carries its title.

#3 · Join two stars

A journal is a named group of entries. In the sky it is a constellation — stars joined by lines you draw.

1. Hold another empty part of the sky to place a second star. Tap "write it", give it a title, and come back.
2. Tap your first star. Its card opens.
3. Tap "connect". The card reads "tap the star to connect it to" and "it joins the constellation you started from. tap a loose star to bring it in.", with "cancel".
4. Tap your second star.

A line is drawn between them. Both stars were loose — in no journal — so together they begin a new journal called "a new constellation". The card says "now part of a new constellation" and "the line is the filing. one star can join more than one constellation." The line at the foot says "connected · now part of a new constellation", with "undo" for a few seconds. A curled arrow, "undo", also appears in the top right corner, beside "AI" and "shuttle", and takes the same step back.

#4 · Turn the year

1. Put your finger on the dotted path near the foot of the sky and slide sideways.
2. The days move under your finger. Each new month that reaches the middle gives a tick and a note.
3. A "today" button, ◉, appears in the bottom-right corner. Tap it and the sky comes back to today.

#5 · Name your journal

1. Hold the "journals" button — the book in the bottom-right corner. The escritoire opens: the desk where your journals lie as glass plates.
2. Tap your journal's plate to bring it forward, then tap it again to go in.
3. Tap ⋯ at the top right. Under "change it", tap "rename".
4. Type a name under "what to call it", then tap "keep the name".

#You're set

You can place a star, write it, join two stars into a journal, turn the year and come back to today, and name a journal. Next, take a look round The home screen — header & corners.

#See also.

Tap, hold, drag & pinch · Compose, top to bottom · Make & name a journal · The welcome, hints & the example journals