Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Do I need to buy any additional plug-ins or tools to start using iwrite.4.life™?

No, you don't. The iwrite.4.life system is all you need to get started because it includes everything you'll need for journal writing:

• The built-in itext™ text editor with sufficient text processing capabilities for most basic journal writing purposes
• Three tools that'll help you find your way around even the largest journal: The month calendar tool, the journal content tool, and the full-text search tool

However, the itext text editor included with iwrite.4.life is a very basic text editor and not a full-fledged word processor. If you need advanced text formatting and layout capabilities you'll want to get the iwrite™ word processor plug-in. In addition, with iwrite you'll get:

• A spell-checker with a comprehensive English-language dictionary
• An English-language thesaurus with synonyms and antonyms

Any additional plug-ins and tools will be sold separately. You can try them out as they become available to determine if they suit your needs.

Do I have to uninstall the trial version before installing the purchased product?

No, all you have to do is to enter the license key.

Do I have to unistall i*write before installing iwrite.4.life?

No. I would actually advise you to leave it installed (at least until you are certain that everything has been transferred correctly to the new journal) so you can access your old journals in case something goes wrong with importing/exporting.

How can I import my journal entries from i*write into iwrite.4.life?

1. Export your journal items from i*write (Menu Journal > Export...).
2. Now import the old items into iwrite.4.life by clicking on the Import button on the toolbar and selecting Version 3 Item Files...
   In Windows Explorer navigate to the folder to which you exported the old items. You can select several item files at once by clicking the first file to be imported and then holding down the shift key while clicking on the last file. If the item files are not contiguous you can still select several files by pressing the Ctrl key while clicking the files.

What are the system requirements for iwrite.4.life?

iwrite.4.life runs on Microsoft® operating systems. It has been tested on Windows® 7, Windows® Vista, and Windows® XP. It is compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of those operating systems.

Like always, the older your system the more likely you will need to update it, especially if you didn't make it a habit to regularly run Windows Update (which you should in any case).

iwrite.4.life uses Windows Installer technology for installation; at least version 3.1 is required but the setup package will take care of it.

The current iwrite.4.life installer package includes checks for the system requirements below (except Adobe Reader) and will offer you to download and install what's needed. In case something doesn't work or you have an older installer package, the individual download links are mentioned below.

The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 or newer must be installed on your computer. This version has been published by Microsoft in November 2007 so it should already be on most newer machines. If iwrite.4.life complains about the absence of it on older computers (or if the program crashes right after starting it with a message that dtSearchNetApi2 is missing) you can download it (free) directly from the Microsoft Download Center. For the technically interested or administrators who want to download it once and make it available off a network share check out Scott Hanselman's blog.

Although iwrite.4.life is completely written in .NET (100% managed code), some of the third-party components we use are not. That means that a further prerequisite is an installed Visual C++ Redistributable. Again, on all newer machines this should not be an issue. However, we've already had cases where this condition was not met (always on XP), usually accompanied by error messages like "dtSearchNet2Api.dll not found...".

Finally, you will need the Adobe Reader (or some alternative way to view pdf files) to access the iwrite.4.life user manual.

The iwrite.4.life installation package has a size of about 15 MB including the three standard tools and the itext text editor plug-in that comes with it. Actual hard disk space requirements depend on the number of additional components installed (plug-ins, tools, optional WordNet thesaurus, further spell-checking dictionaries etc.).

If I have entered data in iwrite.4.life but decide to no longer use it, will I be able to get at my data?

Yes, we don't lock up your data inside iwrite.4.life. There is an export function that will write your journal items to a location of your choice in a standard text processing format (Rich Text Format - rtf). If your trial period ended before you exported your data, drop us an email and we'll send you a trial extension key.

Where can I find test data?

Sullivan, May Kelly: A Woman who went to Alaska.
Boston 1902: James H. Earle & Company 178 Washington Street.

eBook produced by Malcolm Farmer, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

We have put an eBook by Project Gutenberg™ into a test journal that you can download from this site. Put this file (AlaskaWoman.iwr) anywhere on your hard disk and open it from iwrite.4.life. When asked for a password simply press Enter.

This eBook is a more-than-300-page travel journal from 1902 by, as the title says, A Woman who went to Alaska. It's a fascinating story all in itself and you may well end up reading it all. If you want to jump right in, search for strawberries and see what you'll get in Alaska.

Since the original does not consist of daily entries, we have chronologically split the text in arbitrary chunks and assigned the chunks as journal items to an arbitrary date range with arbitrarily named topics and info types. And since we wanted to provide a fairly large test journal, we created one thousand journal entries, repeating some of the text in the process. Therefore, if you'd really like to read the whole book sequentially, you should get the original file.

Note that the first time you open this journal iwrite.4.life will automatically create a full-text search index for it and this may take some time.

I bought i*write in the past. Is there a special upgrade price?

Yes, there is and we have tried to make it as simple as possible: No matter when you bought i*write and no matter which edition you bought, you can upgrade to iwrite.4.life for $39.

Are the new plug-ins and tools also available for i*write?

No, they are not. iwrite.4.life is a completely new program with a new architecture that is necessary for the plug-ins to work.

Will you continue to support i*write?

No, after almost ten years we discontinue i*write and will no longer officially support it. However, if you just can't make up your mind yet to upgrade and have a problem with i*write we will still try to help you on a voluntary basis.

Does the trial version have any limitations?

No, it does not. It's the full commercial program but it will stop working after 30 days. If you need more time simply send an email to get a new trial key.

Are my private journal entries safe in iwrite.4.life?

You bet. Your journals can be password-protected and the database in which your journal entries are stored is encrypted.

On how many computers can I use iwrite.4.life?

As many as you like.

Does iwrite.4.life support multiple users?

iwrite.4.life access levels

owner - unlimited access
admin - same as owner but cannot delete journals
write - normal access but cannot change users or passwords
read - read-only access
none - obviously no access at all (can be used by admin or owner to deny access to a user without deleting the user's journal entries

Yes, it does. That's another enhancement compared to i*write. Each journal can have an unlimited number of users and you can assign different access levels and passwords per user.

Which additional plug-ins and tools are currently available for iwrite.4.life?

The standard plug-in that comes with iwrite.4.life is itext™ - a text editor with similar functionality as i*write. For those of you who need more elaborate formatting and layout features we offer a word-processing plug-in called iwrite™. You can take a look at this and other plug-ins (as they become available) on our products page. Further plug-ins still under development are, for example, a plug-in for nutrition planning and monitoring and a plug-in for exercise planning. There's many more ideas but let's not get carried away...

iwrite.4.life includes three tools: The calendar tool, the table-of-contents tool, and the full-text search tool. One of the future tools in our pipeline is a hierarchical categorization tool that lets you define arbitrary classifications and assign your journal items to multiple  user-defined categories. Another tool will enable you to create hyperlinks between journal items.

Are there various iwrite.4.life editions like in i*write?

No, iwrite.4.life does not come in different editions. Of course, we will continue listening to your feedback and if it should turn out that the majority of you dearly misses the choice among editions... unlikely, isn't it?

View it this way: If you buy iwrite.4.life, you get a fully functional journal-writing system that may serve your needs forever - at a reasonable price - and with no need to make any decisions as to the right edition while you're in a state of not knowing what would be the right choice. You can then try out any new plug-in or tool as they become available and then make an incremental decision, knowing that they all will work seamlessly with what you already have.

You might even have your own ideas which plug-ins or tools you would really like to see. If so, let us know; we're eager to hear what you need.

I cannot see the tools on the Journal Explorer™

On small screens (for example on Netbooks) when you click one of the tool names on the Journal Explorer the tool opens but you see only the white background. The reason is that you need to increase the tool height.

Do this by using the tool height adjustment slider at the top of the Journal Explorer. It works for the selected tool. If you rest the mouse cursor above it you will see an explanation in a tooltip.

It seems that menu items are missing from the user interface?

iwrite.4.life stores your personal configuration of the user interface. This configuration is even preserved after installation of a new version. This is a good thing but if the new version contains changes in the user interface (like additional menu items for example) they will be hidden by your stored personal configuration.

Solution: Reset the user interface and restart the program. To reset the user interface go to Tools > Options... and select the checkbox Reset User Interface.

When I start the program I get an error message about incorrect configuration or a missing file dtSearchNetApi

 On older systems (usually XP) the program might crash with a message similar to:

This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem... File or assembly name dtSearchNetApi, or one of its dependencies, was not found...

The exact message may be a little different (and longer) but don't worry about reinstalling iwrite.4.life. The real cause is that your system is not up-to-date und you will have to download and install a file from the Microsoft Download Center. Please press the last of the three download buttons (The file is called vcredist_x86.exe, 2.6 MB). You will not get a success message after installation and you do not have to reinstall iwrite.4.life! Simply restart the program and continue below.

The new installer lets you check for the most important system requirements including the above.

What is the idea behind "4.life"?

First of all, writing things up can help to better manage many aspects of your professional or private life. So journal writing is more an approach to "life management" than a mere technique. You provide the mindset - iwrite.4.life provides the toolset.

Second, because of the new plug-in architecture of iwrite.4.life, it can grow with your evolving writing and record keeping needs over a lifetime.

And finally, we just liked the idea of our ancestors sitting in front of a cave wall, putting paint to rock to tell their stories; and what magnificent journals they produced to tell of their lives! They already had the mindset, just the tools were different.