PC-Mac SecureJournal
User Manual

HTML Edition: 1.0.0.0
Release date: 24 February 2003

Notices

Operation
  • Introduction
  • Security considerations
  • Choosing a master password
  • Setting up master password recovery
  • Entering your master password
  • The layout of the main window
  • How to use the daily journal
  • Managing your documents
  • Backup your data!!!
  • Appendices

    Operation

    Introduction
    This application contains a highly-secure document editor and diary/journal. The
    document editor allows you to create, edit and store your private notes, ideas, product designs, commercial information, academic papers, etc. with the knowledge that other computer users and Internet hackers will never be able to read them. The diary/journal allows you to easily create, edit and maintain daily journal entries, without the risk of other people being able to read your personal experiences, thoughts and ideas.


    Security considerations
    PC-Mac SecureJournal was designed from the ground up with security in mind. All your information is protected by highly secure 896-bit encryption, and the only time this information is in a form which can be easily accessed is when you are running PC-Mac SecureJournal. Even if a hacker manages to access the data files which store your information, they cannot be read without the master password or by using 'Master Password Recovery'.


    Choosing a master password

    Your choice of master password is important in ensuring the security of your data. With PC-Mac SecureJournal, the master password is the only password you need to remember, so it is a good idea to make it reasonably long and include some numbers. For example, 'yukonmoose597' is a good master password since it combines two unusual words and includes numbers as well.

    Enter you password into the Master Password textbox on the Master Password Setup dialog (see Figure 1 below). This dialog will be displayed when you press the Key button on the main window.


    Figure 1. The Master Password Setup dialog


    Setting up master password recovery

    This powerful and unique feature of PC-Mac SecureJournal allows you to recover elegantly if you ever forget your master password.

    The master password recovery system works by allowing you to enter a series of personal questions (ie. clues), to which only you know the answers. Any number of clues can be used, so you can make the recovery system at least as secure as the master password itself - the more clues used, the better the security. You should use clues which have very exact, explicit answers, which will never change. For example, 'What was my puppy's name when I was 6?' is a good clue, because it is something you will probably never forget and which very few people would know. An example of a poor clue is, 'Who is my best friend?'. The answer may change over time, thus affecting successful recovery (ie. you may enter what you think is the correct answer, but it may not be what you originally entered).

    Setting up master password recovery is easy and is strongly recommended for all users - if you forget your master password and do not have master password recovery set up, you have permanently lost the data stored inside PC-Mac SecureJournal! On the other hand, if you have set up master password recovery, you just need to answer some simple questions to get back to the main screen. From there, you can re-familiarize yourself with your master password or change it to something else.

    To display the Master Password Setup dialog (shown above in Figure 1), press the Key button on the main window.

    To add a new clue, enter the question in the Question textbox and the answer in the Answer textbox. Then press the Add Clue button to add it to the list. After you have added all the clues you want to add, press the Save button to save the list of clues.

    To update a clue, select it in the list and it will be placed in the textboxes. Make any changes you wish and then press the Update Clue button to update the clue in the list. Then press the Save button to save the list of clues.

    To remove a clue, select it in the list and press the Remove Clue button.

    Entering your master password
    The great thing about PC-Mac SecureJournal is that you only have to enter your master password, and then all your important data becomes conveniently accessible. When you launch PC-Mac SecureJournal (and have set a master password), you will see the dialog in Figure 2 displayed. If master password recovery has been set up, the Key button will also be visible. If the Key button is not visible, it means that master password recovery has not been set up and is not available.


    Figure 2. The Enter Master Password dialog

    Enter your master password and press the Enter button to display the main PC-Mac SecureJournal window. If you get the master password wrong, you can try again. If you have forgotten your master password, press the Key button to begin master password recovery. The dialog shown in Figure 3 will then be displayed.


    Figure 3. The Master Password Recovery dialog

    Simply enter the answer to each question in the Answer textbox and press the Next >> button. After you have worked through the series of questions and answers, the main window will be displayed. If you can't remember the answer to a particular question, think about it for a while before trying again. If you cannot remember either the master password or the answers to the questions for master password recovery (ie. you can't recover), you cannot access the data stored inside PC-Mac SecureJournal.

    If you can't recover, you should quit PC-Mac SecureJournal and move the PC-Mac SecureJournal preferences folder (see the FAQ) to a safe place on your hard disk (such as a backup folder) and then run PC-Mac SecureJournal again. Your master password will now be cleared and all your previous data will be safely stored away in case you remember enough information to recover.

    The layout of the main window
    As soon as you launch PC-Mac SecureJournal and enter your master password (if you have set one), the main window will be displayed (see Figure 4 below). On the left is the monthly calendar used to manage journal entries, and on the right are the controls for managing documents. The Key button under the document controls allows you to set the master password and enter the master password recovery questions and answers.

    The main text editing area is located at the bottom of the window, along with the usual types of text attribute controls found in any word processor, such as font style (the Bold, Italic, Underline and Normal buttons), font size (the Font Larger and Font Smaller buttons) and font color (the Red, Green, Blue and Black buttons). To select a different font type, use the Font menu on the menu bar.


    Figure 4. The main window

    The four buttons on the left, under the status message (from left to right) are the Minimize button, the Display Lock-Out button, the Line Separator button and the Time/Date stamp button.

    The Minimize button allows you to use the most of your screen space by hiding the calender and document controls. Pressing the button once hides the controls, pressing it again reveals the controls.

    The Display Lock-Out button (also activated by pressing the Esc key on your keyboard) instantly makes the main window invisible and displays the master password dialog. This function helps prevent someone from walking by your computer and reading your notes whilst you are editing them. You can also activate this function to protect your information when you are temporarily away from the computer. To display the main window again, enter the master password.

    The Line Separator button inserts a line of dashes into your document, and can be used to separate sections of text.

    The Time/Date stamp button inserts the current time and date into your document. This is useful if you want to timestamp your journal entries during the day or if you want to place a time/date stamp into your documents.

    How to use the daily journal
    The monthly calendar is used to manage your journal entries (see Figure 5 below). To change the month displayed, press the Next Month or Previous Month buttons. The month is formatted in such a way that it shows the day-of-the-week of each day. The current day-of-the-month is also drawn in red (ie. today's date), whilst all other dates are drawn in black.


    Figure 5. The monthly calendar

    When PC-Mac SecureJournal is launched, the current day's journal entry will be opened immediately and made ready for you to edit.

    To select a different day, click on it in the calendar. A black rectangle will be drawn around it to show it is selected. The main text editing area will also become active (if it was inactive), ready for you to input your journal entry. If you've selected a day without a journal entry (ie. one which is not highlighted in green on the calendar), a journal entry for the day will be created automatically when you start typing. Since days which have a journal entry are highlighted in green, it's easy to see which days have journal entries and which days you have missed in the month.

    The journal is designed to be sleek, fast and efficient, even with years of daily journal entries. Thus, you can rely on PC-Mac SecureJournal to help you maintain a secure and thorough diary of your personal experiences, thoughts and ideas well into the future.

    You also need never worry about saving your data to disk, as you would with a word processor - this is all done automatically by PC-Mac SecureJournal. Whenever you select a new date in the calendar, create or open a document, or quit PC-Mac SecureJournal, any journal entry you have open will be saved. Whilst you are editing a journal entry, your updated text will also be auto-saved every five minutes.

    Special note: To remove the journal entry for a particular date, click on it in the calendar (to load it from disk), delete it's text in the main text editing area and then select a different day. You will find the journal entry will be deleted (as indicated by the removal of the green highlighting for that date).

    Managing your documents
    The Document popup menu (see Figure 6 below) is used to select from the documents you have available for editing. Selecting a document in the popup menu will load it from disk and display it in the main text area, ready for editing. To create a new document, enter it's name in the textbox and press the New Document button - the new document will be created, it's name added it to the Document popup menu, and the main text area made ready for you to edit. To delete a document, select it from the Document popup menu and then press the Delete Document button (as a precaution, you will be asked to confirm the deletion).


    Figure 6. The document controls

    You also need never worry about saving your data to disk, as you would with a word processor - this is all done automatically by PC-Mac SecureJournal. Whenever you select a date in the calendar, create a new document, select a different document, or quit PC-Mac SecureJournal, any document you have open will be saved. Whilst you are editing a document, your updated text will also be auto-saved every five minutes.

    Backup your data!!!
    It would be very sad if you spent considerable time and effort writing a diary/journal or editing private notes and then lost them due to a hard disk crash or similar catastrophe. It is strongly recommended that you backup your data regularly (at least once per week) by copying it onto backup media such as a zip disk, a networked hard disk, or other storage. Avoid floppy disks, unless you are desperate - they have very limited capacity and are unreliable.

    To do a backup of your PC-Mac SecureJournal data, include the 'PC-Mac SecureJournal' preferences folder in your regular backup. This folder is in the 'Preferences' folder inside the 'Library' folder in your user folder on MacOS X, in the 'Preferences' folder inside the 'System' folder on MacOS Classic, in the 'WinNT' folder in Windows 2000, and in the 'Windows' folder in Windows 9.x.