Using LaTeX to keep a diary
As you can't comment yet, here's a proposition using the tufte-latex class and a custom environment. This is just what I made up, you could edit your question to specify what format and features you would like. The lipsum package is just used for some dummy text.
\documentclass{tufte-book}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\newenvironment{loggentry}[2]% date, heading
{\noindent\textbf{#2}\marginnote{#1}\\}{\vspace{0.5cm}}
\begin{document}
\begin{loggentry}{2009-Oct-31}{Snow}
\lipsum[1]
\end{loggentry}
\begin{loggentry}{2010-Dez-31}{Water of Life}
\lipsum[2]
\end{loggentry}
\begin{loggentry}{2011-Nov-15}{Cold}
\lipsum[3-5]
\end{loggentry}
\begin{loggentry}{2012-Aug-24}{Sunrise}
\lipsum[6-7]
\end{loggentry}
\end{document}
Edit 1: Here's an automated version. It assumes your directory to be of the form /Year/Month/Day.tex, formatted as e.g. 2012/Aug/24.tex, so the month is just the first three letters. The individual .tex files have only the requirement to have the first line as \mytitle{<The actual title here>}.
This solutions makes use of Peter Grill's answer to "How to iterate through the name of files in a folder".
The main file:
\documentclass{tufte-book}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{xifthen}
\newenvironment{loggentry}[2]% date, heading
{\noindent\textbf{#2}\marginnote{#1}\par}{\vspace{0.5cm}}
\def\?#1{}
\pgfmathtruncatemacro{\StartYear}{2008}
\pgfmathtruncatemacro{\EndYear}{2012}
\newcommand{\writetitle}{0}
\newcommand{\mytitle}[1]
{ \ifthenelse{\writetitle=1}{#1}{}
}
\newread\mysource
\begin{document}
\foreach \Year in {\StartYear,...,\EndYear}
{ \foreach \Month in {Jan,Feb,Mar,Apr,May,Jun,Jul,Aug,Sep,Oct,Nov,Dec}
{ \foreach \Day in {1,...,31}
{ \IfFileExists{\Year/\Month/\Day}
{ \openin\mysource=\Year/\Month/\Day.tex
\read\mysource to \firstline
\closein\mysource
\xdef\writetitle{1}
\begin{loggentry}{\Year - \Month - \Day}{\firstline}
\xdef\writetitle{0}
\input{\Year/\Month/\Day}
\end{loggentry}
}
{ % files does not exist, so nothing to do
}
}
}
}
\end{document}
A sample log entry file:
\mytitle{Something happened}
\lipsum[3-5]
The Output:
My new code for diaries is as follows. It adds a note on the side, but without a box because it uses the marginnote package.
The environment file input.tex
\usepackage[top=4cm, bottom=2cm, outer=5cm, inner=2cm, heightrounded, marginparwidth=3.5cm, marginparsep=0.75cm]{geometry}
\newcommand{\mybox}[1]{%
\marginnote{{\color{red}CAUTION!}\\{#1}}
}
\newlength\sidebar
\newlength\envrule
\newlength\envborder
\setlength\sidebar{1.5mm}
\setlength\envrule{0.4pt}
\setlength\envborder{2mm}
\makeatletter
\long\def\fboxs#1{%
\leavevmode
\setbox\@tempboxa\hbox{%
\color@begingroup
\kern\fboxsep{#1}\kern\fboxsep
\color@endgroup}%
\@frames@x\relax}
\def\frameboxs{%
\@ifnextchar(%)
\@framepicbox{\@ifnextchar[\@frameboxs\fboxs}}
\def\@frameboxs[#1]{%
\@ifnextchar[%]
{\@iframeboxs[#1]}%
{\@iframeboxs[#1][c]}}
\long\def\@iframeboxs[#1][#2]#3{%
\leavevmode
\@begin@tempboxa\hbox{#3}%
\setlength\@tempdima{#1}%
\setbox\@tempboxa\hb@xt@\@tempdima
{\kern\fboxsep\csname bm@#2\endcsname\kern\fboxsep}%
\@frames@x{\kern-\fboxrule}%
\@end@tempboxa}
\def\@frames@x#1{%
\@tempdima\fboxrule
\advance\@tempdima\fboxsep
\advance\@tempdima\dp\@tempboxa
\hbox{%
\lower\@tempdima\hbox{%
\vbox{%
%\hrule\@height\fboxrule
\hbox{%
\vrule\@width\fboxrule
#1%
\vbox{%
\vskip\fboxsep
\box\@tempboxa
\vskip\fboxsep}%
#1%
}%\vrule\@width\fboxrule}%
}%\hrule\@height\fboxrule}%
}%
}%
}
\def\esefcolorbox#1#{\esecolor@fbox{#1}}
\def\esecolor@fbox#1#2#3{%
\color@b@x{\fboxsep\z@\color#1{#2}\fboxs}{\color#1{#3}}}
\makeatother
\definecolor{exampleborder}{HTML}{FE642E}
\definecolor{examplebg}{HTML}{CEF6EC}
\definecolor{statementborder}{rgb}{.9,0,0}
\definecolor{statementbg}{rgb}{1,1,1}
\newenvironment{eseframed}{%
\def\FrameCommand{\fboxrule=\the\sidebar \fboxsep=\the\envborder%
\esefcolorbox{exampleborder}{examplebg}}%
\MakeFramed{\FrameRestore}}%
{\endMakeFramed}
%\renewcommand\dateTurkish{\def\today{\number\day~%
%\ifcase \month \or Ocak\or Şubat\or Mart\or Nisan\or Mayıs\or Haziran\or
% Temmuz\or Ağustos\or Eylül\or Ekim\or Kasım\or Aralık\fi\space
%\number\year}}
%\dateTurkish
\newcounter{diary}
%\numberwithin{uygulama}
\renewcommand{\thediary}{\arabic{diary}}
%%% CODE ENVIRONMENT. PUT TEXT INTO COLORED FRAME %%%
\newenvironment{diary}[2]
{\par\medskip\refstepcounter{diary}%
\hbox{%
\fboxsep=\the\sidebar\hspace{-\envborder}\hspace{-.5\sidebar}%
\colorbox{exampleborder}{%
\hspace{\envborder}\footnotesize\sffamily\bfseries%
\textcolor{white}{{#1}\ {#2}\enspace\hspace{\envborder}}
%\today
}
}
\nointerlineskip\vspace{-\topsep}%
\begin{eseframed}\noindent\ignorespaces%
}
{\end{eseframed}\vspace{-\baselineskip}\medskip}
The diary files are stored in a separate folder e.g 2013 and files are stored in it. An example of diary file 2013.tex:
%2013 Notes
\begin{diary}{Hello!}{07.18.2013}
\mybox{Put some text here for caution.}
\lipsum[1]
\end{diary}
\begin{diary}{Second entry.}{07.19.2013}
\mybox{Put some text here for caution.}
\lipsum[2]
\end{diary}
Main file
\documentclass[a4paper]{book}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{framed}
\usepackage{datetime}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{fourier}
\usepackage{marginnote}
\usepackage{tikz}
\input{input}
\title{\Huge My Diary}
\author{Someone}
\date{}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\include{./2013/2013}
\end{document}
Output
Addendum
To use orange sidebar on left instead right, the input.tex file rearranged as follows:
\usepackage[top=4cm, bottom=2cm, outer=5cm, inner=2cm, heightrounded, marginparwidth=3cm, marginparsep=0.75cm]{geometry}
\newcommand{\mybox}[1]{%
\marginnote{{\color{red}CAUTION!}\\{#1}}
}
\newlength\sidebar
\newlength\envrule
\newlength\envborder
\setlength\sidebar{1.5mm}
\setlength\envrule{0.4pt}
\setlength\envborder{2mm}
\makeatletter
\long\def\fboxs#1{%
\leavevmode
\setbox\@tempboxa\hbox{%
\color@begingroup
\kern\fboxsep{#1}\kern\fboxsep
\color@endgroup}%
\@frames@x\relax}
\def\frameboxs{%
\@ifnextchar(%)
\@framepicbox{\@ifnextchar[\@frameboxs\fboxs}}
\def\@frameboxs[#1]{%
\@ifnextchar[%]
{\@iframeboxs[#1]}%
{\@iframeboxs[#1][c]}}
\long\def\@iframeboxs[#1][#2]#3{%
\leavevmode
\@begin@tempboxa\hbox{#3}%
\setlength\@tempdima{#1}%
\setbox\@tempboxa\hb@xt@\@tempdima
{\kern\fboxsep\csname bm@#2\endcsname\kern\fboxsep}%
\@frames@x{\kern-\fboxrule}%
\@end@tempboxa}
\def\@frames@x#1{%
\@tempdima\fboxrule
\advance\@tempdima\fboxsep
\advance\@tempdima\dp\@tempboxa
\hbox{%
\lower\@tempdima\hbox{%
\vbox{%
\hrule\@height\fboxrule
% \hbox{%
% \vrule\@width\fboxrule
#1%
\vbox{%
\vskip\fboxsep
\box\@tempboxa
\vskip\fboxsep}%
#1%
}\vrule\@width\fboxrule}%
}%\hrule\@height\fboxrule}%
% }%
% }%
}
\def\esefcolorbox#1#{\esecolor@fbox{#1}}
\def\esecolor@fbox#1#2#3{%
\color@b@x{\fboxsep\z@\color#1{#2}\fboxs}{\color#1{#3}}}
\makeatother
\definecolor{exampleborder}{HTML}{FE642E}
\definecolor{examplebg}{HTML}{CEF6EC}
\definecolor{statementborder}{rgb}{.9,0,0}
\definecolor{statementbg}{rgb}{1,1,1}
\newenvironment{eseframed}{%
\def\FrameCommand{\fboxrule=\the\sidebar \fboxsep=\the\envborder%
\esefcolorbox{exampleborder}{examplebg}}%
\MakeFramed{\FrameRestore}}%
{\endMakeFramed}
\newcounter{diary}
%\numberwithin{uygulama}
\renewcommand{\thediary}{\arabic{diary}}
%%% CODE ENVIRONMENT. PUT TEXT INTO COLORED FRAME %%%
\newenvironment{diary}[2]
{\par\medskip\refstepcounter{diary}%
\hbox{%
\fboxsep=\the\sidebar\hspace{-\envborder}\hspace{-0.5\sidebar}%
\colorbox{exampleborder}{%
\hspace{\envborder}\footnotesize\sffamily\bfseries%
\textcolor{white}{{#1}\ {#2}\enspace\hspace{\envborder}}
%\today
}
}
\nointerlineskip\vspace{-\topsep}%
\begin{eseframed}\noindent\ignorespaces%
}
{\end{eseframed}\vspace{-\baselineskip}\medskip}
And the output is as:
