MacJournal, a journaling application for Mac OS X 10.4.9 (Tiger) or later (10.5.x - Leopard), has been updated to version 5.1. The new release adds support for several languages, finally completes the transition to Apple's MobileMe service and sports several other tweaks and enhancements.

As a dedicated journaling app, MacJournal lets you create, edit and manage journals with a very long list of features and options. Whether you use it for keeping a diary and blog entries, or for keeping a detailed account of your activity, MacJournal can be used for pretty much anything, as it uses toolbars, a spell checker, font and color panels, localization, and drawers. All these are provided in a UI consistent with that of Apple's Mac OS X. The software supports "all the cool OS X doodads you would expect," developer Mariner Software claims, as MacJournal has been written using Cocoa in Mac OS X.

Besides making backups, MacJournal also lets you sync your journal to your MobileMe (formerly known as .Mac) account so that it is safe and easily accessible. Using the program you can export both journals and entries in a variety of formats so that they may be used in other applications. Exporting keywords, topics and annotations is possible, as well as creating one file per entry.

According to the release notes, MacJournal 5.1 adds support for several languages; Karelia's Media Browser window (to import images from iPhoto and other sources); an editable entry viewer windows from the View menu; new 3-pane view; Smart Journal improvements; import and export of Comma-Separated Value files, as well as export of Movable Type's database format, to provide better export of text with metadata; improved blogging functionality.

Most importantly, the update completes the .mac to MobileMe transition. Additionally, the calendar in the sidebar now supports other calendars and will show additional months. The new version is also able to create a droplet somewhere that will import anything you drop on it from the Finder into a specific journal.

A free, 15-day trial version of MacJournal is available here. Requirements call for QuickTime 7.2 or later. The full version of the journaling software costs $34.95.