FishingSoft Deluxe™ uses a tabbed-interface design to making navigation easy. Simply click on any of the titled tabs to go to that feature of FishingSoft Deluxe™.

Journal List: The left hand side of the Journal displays a list of dates currently in your journal.  This list will be empty until you add your first date.  When a date has been added, it is displayed in the list.  To access or edit a date, click on it and the journal entry for that date will be displayed. Your FishingSoft Journal consists of each date you add to it. You can have as many date entries as you wish.

Journal Introduction: You can add a Journal Title to your FishingSoft™ Journal. To title your journal as something other than the default title, click the button to change the Journal Introduction, and type whichever name you choose into the Journal Title Field. This title will be prominently displayed at the very top of your Journal’s web page version.

Working with a specific entry

When you click a date in your journal list, you will be presented with two tabs, one for entering text information for that date, and one for adding images.

The journal entry tab contains three fields, one for the journal entry title, one containing a drop down list of weather conditions, and one large text box in which all additional information you choose to record can be entered.

All of the fields in each journal entry page are optional, you may simply enter important information in the large text box and it will be displayed on your journal page. This information, as well as the icons, will be displayed on your journal web page, and will comprise most of your journal entry for that date. When the "Allow inline HTML tags" checkbox is checked, it is possible for an advanced user to enter HTML code into large text box directly.

The Journal entry title is a title which is specific to that particular date entry in the journal. It will be displayed directly above the date in the web page version of your journal.

Weather: The weather conditions field will be displayed below the journal entry title and date of the web page. You may choose from the drop-down menu of weather conditions, or you may click on the field and manually type in your own description of weather conditions on that date. Clicking on the field and manually altering the field allows you to enter a blank entry for the weather as well. Choosing any of the drop-down options for weather will display an icon in your journal entry that corresponds to the weather conditions selected. If you manually enter the weather, then no icon will be displayed on your journal page.

The Insert Icon box allows you to assign an icon to any other information you wish to record, including sizes and number of catches, global positioning satellite data for fishing areas, or any of the choices offered in the drop-down menu. Choose any of the drop-down entries and click the “Insert Icon” button and your choice of description, along with its icon, will be displayed in brackets, (for example, [location]) on your journal page. Then simply enter whatever additional text you wish to the right of the icon.

The Image tab allows you to insert digital images into your journal entry. To add an image, click the “add image” button to browse your computer’s files and select an image. FishingSoft Deluxe™ is optimized so that only .jpg format images can be used. This format is the standard image file format for the web. Many freeware image converters are available on the web, if you need to convert your images for use with FishingSoft Deluxe™.

Click on an image to launch that image with your computer’s default image application.

The field directly underneath the image can be used to enter a text caption for your image.

Adding or Deleting Journal Entries

Add/Delete dates

Adding a date to the Journal

To add a date to your journal, enter a date in the date field and click “add date”. Dates may be entered either by clicking the arrow in the field box to access the calendar, or by clicking on the day, month, or year of the default date and manually entering the new date.

Deleting a date from the Journal

To delete a date from the journal, click on a date in the date list on the left side of the journal page, and press the delete key on your keyboard to permanently remove the date from your journal.

Exporting and Printing your Journal

Exporting your Journal

With FishingSoft Deluxe™, you can do more than simply create a journal. You can create your own website and share your fishing exploits with others over the World Wide Web! The Fishing Website Builder™ uses 21^st century technology to allow you to export your journal by converting it into an .html file. You can view your page on- or off-line.

The Fishing Website Builder™ provides you with a number of options for exporting your journal. FishingSoft™ allows you to create four different styles of web pages: as a single file without an index, as a single file with an index, and as multiple files with an index. To export your Journal as a web page, click on the Fishing Website Builder™ button, having selected the style from the drop-down menu.

-To convert your journal into a single page website, select the “Single file w/o index” option. Viewers will simply scroll through each entry on a single web page.

-To convert your journal into a single page website with an index at the top which lists each date as an index entry, select the “Single file w/index” option. Each date in your journal will be listed in an index on the top of your website, allowing viewers to go directly to a date using the index.  This is recommended for longer journals in which you may want to allow viewers to look at specific entries or groups of entries without having to scroll through the entire document.

To convert your journal into a website with multiple pages as well as an index, select the “Multiple files w/index” option.  This is recommended for large journals in which you may want to organize information on different web pages to allow viewers to navigate between pages to view your journal. Each date in your journal will be listed in an index on the top of your website, 10 dates per web page.

Your web page will be created in the FishingSoft™ webjournal directory: C:\Program Files\FishingSoft\FishingSoft Deluxe 2.0\webjournal

Therefore, in order to publish your journal online, you must upload this directory to your web server.

All images you add, as well as icons required for the FishingSoft™ journal, are stored in the “journalimages” subdirectory: C:\Program Files\FishingSoft\FishingSoft Deluxe 2.0\webjournal\journalimages\

Click the Fishing Website Builder™ at any point in your journal entry process to rebuild your journal and view it.

Allow inline HTML tags allows an advanced user to manually type in HTML tags within their journal entries. For example, it is possible to create a link to another website by typing:

<a href="http://www.lunklink.com">Lunker Link City Fishing</A>

into your journal. If this box is checked, care must be taken not to accidentally enter text strings that may inadvertently be interpreted by the web browser.

Printable My Fishing Scrapbook™: To convert your journal into a more printable format, select the “Printable Version” option, to the above-left of the "My Fishing Website builder button".  The button will switch to "Create Printable My Fishing Scrapbook™". Click this button. The journal with load with Internet Explorer. Within Internet Explorer, go to the FILE menu bar and click PRINT. The “Printable Version” generates a simple printer-friendly html file.  The links will be removed and your journal’s text will be converted to black and white, but the color of all images will be preserved. This will conserve color ink while printing out your journal.

Publishing your Journal Online: In order to publish your web site, you need to copy the
C:\Program Files\FishingSoft\FishingSoft Deluxe 2.0\webjournal\ directory and all of the files in it to your web host.

Getting a web host:
If you do not have a web host, there are many web hosts that offer free and for-pay web hosting options.

In order to get a advertisment-free web page you will probably have to pay for it. It is important to choose a web host that allows you FTP access. Here is a short list of free web hosts:

http://www.fortunecity.com/
http://angelfire.lycos.com/
http://free.hostdepartment.com/

If you want a personal domain name and are willing to pay for an advertisment-free web host, FishingSoft recommends:

http://www.hostway.com/

Uploading your files:
Once you have a web host, you must upload your files to your web server.

You need a FTP program to do this. Here is a small list of free FTP programs:

http://winscp.vse.cz/eng/download.php

http://www.ipswitch.com/Products/WS_FTP/

Open up your FTP program.
Login to your web server, with your username and password supplied by your web host.

There are two ways of hosting your journal online.

Linking with other users' Fishing Journals online: The coolest thing about FishingSoft Deluxe™ is the ability to show off your fish to everyone around the world. FishingSoft can help you by linking to your fishing journal form our web site. Go to http://www.fishingsoft.com and submit your fishing journal's web site address to us. We have a page with links to many users fishing journals. This is a great way to participate in the online fishing community. Share and read about great fishing stories, photos, and tips.

Backing up your Journal: To ensure that your journal is safe from computer malfunction it is a good idea to backup your fishing journal to a safe place, like a zip drive or CDROM. Backing up your journal consists of two steps.

To restore your journal: Restoring your journal consists of two steps.

Moon Phase

The phase of the moon is an important variable in fishing certain species.    

The Moon Phase tab will display the phase of the moon which corresponds to the date selected in the calendar at the top of the page. To select a calendar date, either click the arrow in the field box to access the calendar, or click on either the day, month, or year of the default date and manually enter the date for which you would like to know the moon phase.

Important Dates

The Important Dates tab displays four phases of the moon: first quarter, full moon, last quarter and new moon. The dates associated with the most recent manifestations of these moon phases are displayed, along with the next manifestations of these phases. This information will be invaluable in planning your next fishing trip.

ArtiFishal Intelligence™

ArtiFishal Intelligence™ is a tool designed to help predict how well a given species will bite on a given day. ArtiFishal Intelligence™ combines information about moon phase, seasonal information and fish behavior. The values generated by the LunarProphet™, The Moon Index™, the Seasonal Index™ and other relevant information are calculated using a sophisticated non-linear equation to give species-specific predictions. Choose a species from the drop down menu, click “ask”, allow ArtiFishal Intelligence™ to perform the calculation, and read off the indexed values to predict the chances of that species biting on the selected date. To select a calendar date, either click the arrow in the field box to access the calendar, or click on either the day, month, or year of the default date and manually enter the date.

The Moon Index™, The Seasonal Index™ and The Fishing Index™ are each scored on scale from 0 to 100.

The Fishing Index™ is a combination of the information given in the Moon and Seasonal indices, and so can be relied upon to give a total outlook for fishing that species on that day. A score below 50 indicates fairly poor fishing, whereas a score above 50 indicates fair fishing, and a score of near 100 indicates optimal fishing conditions.

CalcuWeight™ allows you to estimate the weight of your catch by entering its length and/or girth.

Select the species from the list on the left by clicking on your choice, then enter the length of the fish and the girth of the fish in the appropriate fields. This data must be entered in inches.

You will notice that some of the species do not allow the girth of the fish to be recorded; in particular, Catfish, Muskie and Pike, Sunfish, and Walleye. In these species, body shape develops in a standard way, so that girth is related to length in a predictable fashion. FishingSoft performs these calculations automatically, so for those species, girth does not have to be entered manually.

Custom CalcuWeight™ also allows you to calculate a formula for estimating the weight of a species other than those listed with its “custom” feature. In order to create a custom formula, you need to have a sample fish to base the values on. For example, if you want to calculate the estimated weight of a salmon based on length and girth, you would catch a salmon, and use it to provide the values needed for custom estimation. You would measure the length, girth, and weight of your caught salmon, and enter these values in the If “Custom” is selected as the species, a field will appear which asks for the length of your sample fish of that species. After the length of your sample fish of that species is entered, another optional field is displayed which asks for the girth of that same sample fish. The girth field is optional.  If measuring the girth is inconvenient, you do not need to enter it.  However, entering the girth creates a more accurate formula, especially for species of fish that have body shapes that can vary with size.  For instance, some carp are fat, while other carp are skinny.  If you do not wish to enter the girth measurement, click the “skip this step” button and move on to a field which asks for the weight of your sample fish. CalcuWeight™ now has the information necessary to generate a formula for calculating an estimated weight of any specimen of that species given the length and/or girth of a specimen fish.

Water Clarity

The Water Clarity slider provides valuable information about the appropriate lures to use in different water clarity conditions. Move the slider by clicking anywhere on the slider, or by clicking and dragging the slider indicator.

Information and images relating to that level of water clarity will be displayed. This information will consist of important information relating to the depth at which you should be fishing, and what lures are appropriate to that particular level of water clarity.

Quick Tips

The Quick Tips tab provides users with information about fishing different species at different times of the year.  This provides a good place to start when deciding where and how to fish.  Select a species by clicking on it, and select a time of year by clicking on it. Information about appropriate fishing strategies for that fish, at that time of year, will be displayed. Use the scroll bar to the right to view all the information displayed.

Unit Conversions

The Unit Conversion feature allows users to convert units quickly and easily. Simply input the number you want converted into the distance box next to the unit, and click the button to the right of it. The program will convert this number into all the listed units. This allows conversion between different units in the imperial system, as well as conversion from imperial to metric and vice versa.

Lure Depth

When fishing from a moving boat, it is useful to know how deep your lure is. The rule of thumb is: Keep a 45 degree angle between your line and the water, then for every 3 feet of line you let out, your lure goes down about 2 feet.

The Lure Depth Calculator™ allows you to calculate the depth of your lure for angles other than 45 degrees, and for variable line lengths. Enter the angle of your line to the water in degrees in the top field, and then enter the length of line let out in the next field down. Click the “Calculate Depth” button to find the depth of your lure.

Records

FishingSoft Deluxe™ provides you with the latest record information for your interest and enjoyment. Think you have a record-breaking catch? Check FishingSoft Deluxe™ to find out!  Choose the state from the drop-down menu, and click on the species, and the record will be displayed at the bottom of the window, including weight, location, state, and the source for the record information.  The record information that FishingSoft™ provides was collected in January 2003 from various web sources. These sources, however, may no longer be up to date.  Go to the cited source for up-to date information.