Microsoft Journal

Journal is a beautiful Microsoft app just out of the Garage that gives you another notetaking/diary/schoolwork option.


Right away you are thinking - isn't that what OneNote does? Well yes - but if you want a digital tool that more closely resembles a physical journal - check out Journal HERE



Journal is a more stripped down version of OneNote without the menus, notebooks, sections, section groups, pages (yes read simpler!) that is ink-first, with a number of AI powered gestures such as underlining to create a heading, creating lists, and marking important items with stars. It is a completely new experience and a refreshing change from OneNote. It feels more... personal in a sense.


You can also add PDFs and images but that is it - it is really designed for those who are using an ink-enabled device. Using it on my Surface Pro was a fantastic experience with the sensitivity of the pens - one a usual pen, the other a pencil along with a highlighter and eraser. Again a much simpler tool set compared with OneNote that focuses on the pen experience.



It also promises a link to your O365 calendar so you can match up meetings with notes - I could not see this in my version yet but this sounds like a really handy feature.

Organising Journals through folders is easy (I wish we had that for Sway!)

As the bulk of my notes are made with a pen (with evidential cognitive advantages for this style), when I start to see a Journal App available for other platforms that syncs the content, this will be a strong contender as my go-to notetaking app.