• Recipe Link

Use journals to record thoughts and experiences (like a blog) thereby creating a record of critical development over time. An account has one journal by default but more can be added by selecting the multiple journal option on the account settings page.

Add journals or individual posts to a page to allow people space to place feedback and comments on it. Journal entries can also be added by an individual to a group space that they are part of.

It is recommended that all journals and especially individual entries are tagged to make searching and adding to pages easier.

Add a new journal

As noted above, every Mahara account has a journal already set up ('Account name's Journal). Additional journals can be added for specific courses, placements or tasks.

1. Click on the main menu icon, expand the Create section, and select Journals.

2. Click Create journal
3. Add a Title and give the journal a description. We strongly recommend that you add Tags (these are really useful for finding and organising artefacts, and creating pages).
4. Click Create journal

Create an entry

When creating an entry, enter a title for the post and then content for the entry. There is an option to add tags and attach files to the post. By default comments are allowed on the entry, this can be changed when creating the entry or can be modified afterward.

1. Click on the main menu icon, expand the Create section, and select Journals.
2. Click New entry
3. Add text, images, links etc to the entry using the text editor.
4. Tag the entry.
5. Click Save entry

The entry can be set as draft form so that the entry is saved but not visible until the creator is ready to publish it.

Check the status of an entry from the journals page. For draft entries, click the publish button to change the entry to published, and if already published click the unpublish button to hide the entry. Only published entries are available to add to pages.

Add a journal to a page

Journals have their own section in the block menu which indicates how useful this tool is in terms of generating portfolio content. Journal entries are the core tool for adding text entries over time - whilst a text block is useful for small amounts of page-specific descriptive text, it is journals that allow people to record their thoughts and skills, and their evolution, over an extended period.

1. Turn on editing on a page using the pencil  edit icon at the top right.
2. Click and drag the drag to add a block icon from the top right-hand side of the page to the appropriate location on the page. Existing blocks will move to make space.
3. A window will fly in from the right. Click on More, and click on the Journal block in the list.
4. Edit the block title if required.
5. Select one of the journals in the list to add to the page.
6. Set the number of entries to display
7. Click Save and the file(s) you have chosen will appear on the page as a list.

Add a journal entry to a page

1. Turn on editing on a page using the pencil  edit icon at the top right.
2. Click and drag the drag to add a block icon from the top right-hand side of the page to the appropriate location on the page. Existing blocks will move to make space.
3. A window will fly in from the right. Click on More, and click on the Journal entry block in the list.
4. Edit the block title if required.
5. Select one of the journal entries in the list to add to the page. This list will contain the entries from all the journals in the account. Alternatively, you can search all entries for a specific term and select one of the results.
6. Click Save and the file(s) you have chosen will appear on the page as a list.

Add tagged journal entries to a page

The value of tagging entries is made explicit through the inclusion of a tagged journal entries option on the block menu.

1. Turn on editing on a page using the pencil  edit icon at the top right.
2. Click and drag the drag to add a block icon from the top right-hand side of the page to the appropriate location on the page. Existing blocks will move to make space.
3. A window will fly in from the right. Click on More, and click on the Tagged journal entry block in the list.
4. Search for tags and click on them to add to the search (tags are AND not OR, so more tags will result in fewer results).
5. Choose whether the entries will just be the title (recommended) or the full text (this may result in a very long block if there are a lot of entries).
6. Click Save and the journal entries that match the list of tags will appear on the page as a list.

Using journals with templates

You can use journals with templates e.g. to give an example of a journal, or add a journal with an initial entry with instructions for the people to add to. At step 4 above, set the copy options (the default is skip copying):

• Display this journal in another portfolio (people can add comments to existing entries, but cannot add new entries)
• Make a copy of the journal (people can add new entries to continue the journal)