I have been a longtime fan of the Zinnia Digital Planning app. After trying a few other digital planners over the years, Zinnia is just doing it all and I love it. I’ve had the great opportunity to work with Zinnia over the years as well, which has given be an even deeper respect for what the app is doing in the planner space.
It’s been a bit since my last features recap, so I wanted to give an update on what Zinnia has been up to and share my top 10 new features.
1.Handoff
Zinnia is available on your iPad, iPhone, and now also on the Mac so you can plan and use your journals on any devices. Now I can start my day in my planner on my desktop and switch off as I go about my day. Depending on where I am, I can always be connected and using my journals in Zinnia.
The iPad is where Zinnia was born and the app continues to perform it it’s truest form here. Type, touch, write, tap – it does it all.
Zinnia on the iPhone takes the app to a whole new place. The ability to plan on teh go is amazing. Before the iPhone app, it felt like you could only plan at home or at a desk. The ability to check things off, take notes, and really make your digital planner what it needs to be at any time is very refreshing.
I love that everything is avilalbe and the navigation is easy. It can be a little difficult to try and get a full view of your week at a glance with a double page spread, but you are on a phone, but Zinnia makes it as optimal as it can be.
I also need to mention that having Zinnia on my desktop is pretty damn awesome. Most apps have only been for a single device, and that is usually fine, but it makes it hard to always use a planner in different situations. I love the bigger screen on my desktop for designing and getting pages together. I love that I can pick up my ipad and write out my notes easily. Using the apple pencil is awesome. And having Zinnia on my iPhone is really the best because I can take my notes on the go. No more taking a note in my phone and having to translate it in the app later on.
2. Split Screen
Taking advantage of iOS, you can now use split screen while using Zinnia. It’s almost like having the app open twice and it makes it really easy to translate notes and work between multiple journals pages this way. I find this most helpful when creating new monthly or weekly spreads in Zinnia. I can reference the future log or monthly overview in my bullet journal while setting up the week and no need to flip back and forth.
3. Offline Mode
Offline mode has been a highly requested feature for Zinnia and now it’s here. If you are like me, my iPad doesn’t have cellular connection, and unless I am sharing my hotspot with my iPad, I was kind of dead in the water to use Zinnia when there wasn’t a connection available. Now you can download your journal to your device and use it offline while traveling or when you will not be able to connect to the internet.
4. Updates to “My Stuff”
My Stuff was a cool addition to Zinnia a while back. You can import your own art work, stickers, as well as save your favorite grouped items. To add an extra level of organization, you can now tag your items in the My Stuff folder. Use tags that already exist or create new custom tags to better identify what is in your “My Stuff” folder.
5. Adding Calendar Events
This new feature really takes Zinnia Digital Planning to the next level! You can now add calendar events to Zinnia that will also sync with your devices calendar. There is no need to create a whole new event – you can do it all at once. You can add all the details you need, like start and end dates, invitees, and alerts. And this new event will now live in your app and in your calendar. It’s so easy, it kind of makes me rethink analog planning 😉
6. Links in your journal
The linking feature in Zinnia is, in my opinion, one of the best ones recently. I love it so much because it really makes digital Bullet Journaling possible by allowing you to link to pages and index collections. You can link anything too, text, images, stickers – it really is cool. Now you can create a useable index and future log in Zinnia and reference pages and collections easily. You can connect back and forth between notes, ideas, and collections. I really love this feature so much.
7. Line smoothing
This feature was added a while ago, but it has been such a game changer in how I use Zinnia, I have to share it. Before smoothing was added, I really did not like to write with my Apple pencil in Zinnia. My handwriting was always a mess. It didn’t look clean or smooth, just bleh. So, after smoothing was added, my handwriting has totally changed. You can control how much your lines are smoothed. I have found that about 60% is my preference for writing. Going too far, like 90% or higher makes the lines too constricted and when you write your letters look all crazy.
8. Line Straightening
This is another feature that was highly requested, and it was so nice to see it added to the app. Getting a straight line was impossible before this feature was added. No matter how steady your hand, it was difficult. Now you can draw out a line and hold your line at the end and Zinnia will automatically snap your line straight. You do need to be careful with how curved your line is. The straight line snapping only works to a certain threshold. If the line is too wavy, Zinnia thinks it is on purpose and keeps it that way. I use this feature mostly for creating easy dividers in my rapid log, but you could use it for shapes or drawing.
9. Narrow Pages
Zinnia has been broadening their pages, allowing for more customization of how you use your journal. You can now choose more than just your standard Zinnia sized page and opt for something narrow, more like a traveler’s notebook. I love how Zinnia isn’t limiting you to one type of page. Each journal might have different needs, and a traveler’s size just feels different when you have those slim pages to work in. Zinnia also has pre-made templates to use with these slimmer sizes.
10. Enhanced Search
Zinnia’s digital planning library is absolutely massive, in the bast way. There is so much to choose from, and it just feels like a never-ending supply if ideas and inspiration. The search feature has been my best friend from the start, so when I saw that they made some enhancements, I got really excited. Now the enhanced search brings up more than just stickers and items from your libraries. It also now brings up articles and special features in search. If you have an idea for a spread, now you can read and get inspiration from new sticker and content announcements at any time.
I really love how many new features Zinnia continues to come out with. You can download the Zinnia Digital Planning App for your iPhone, iPad, and Desktop. And like I mentioned, you can use them all together across the different platforms. It’s pretty incredible.
