The Gift Journal
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The Gift Journal · User Guide

Reflection & Recall · Version 1.6

Year in Review, Moments Remembered and the paper/PDF pathways on iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Version 1.6 helps you revisit real gifts, dated hints and recorded occasions without creating new journal entries. These reflections are read-only: to change a memory, open and edit its original saved record.

Year in Review

  1. On iPhone, open Journal and choose Review this year / Year in Review. On iPad and expanded Duo layouts, open Year in Review from the sidebar. On Mac, choose Year in Review in the sidebar under Journal.
  2. Use the year selector to choose a year with eligible dated memories.
  3. Browse by month to revisit gifts given and received, occasions and dated hints. Annual totals are for recorded gifts, not a ranking of generosity.
  4. Select a memory to open its original Gift or Hint record; on Mac the detail opens in the right-hand column.

An edited Hint date may cause that memory to appear in an earlier year. An undated record cannot be placed on a chronological timeline without evidence. Year in Review does not include technical Practical Detail change entries or invent descriptions, photographs or events.

Year in Review annual summary on iPhone

Moments Remembered

  1. Open a Person, navigate to History, then select Moments Remembered.
  2. Browse the chronological year/month sections; expand or collapse each group to focus on the period you need.
  3. Use All, Given or Received to filter gift direction, and Since… to narrow the date window.
  4. Tap a card to open its canonical source record. Gift direction is relative to the selected Person, not always relative to you.

Only eligible dated and source-backed memories appear. Protected records remain excluded from Reflection, even if they can be opened directly after authentication elsewhere in the app.

Moments Remembered person timeline with year and month groups
  1. Open Year in Review and select the desired year.
  2. Use its Print control to open the iOS printing/share flow on a supported iPhone or iPad.
  3. Choose a printer or use the system’s PDF-saving route when available; check the preview before sharing or saving externally.

Mac has its own established print/PDF functionality. Printed material and exported PDFs can disclose private memories outside the journal, so choose destinations and recipients carefully. This is not a Portable Journal archive or a full backup.

Where these features appear

iPhone: Year in Review through Journal and Moments Remembered through People → History. iPad and expanded Duo: Year in Review in the sidebar with a main/detail presentation. Mac: Year in Review in the sidebar, month browsing in the middle column and selected records on the right; Person History opens Moments Remembered directly. Apple Watch: no full Reflection interface, preserving its quick capture and glance focus.

For automatic archives, their scheduling limitations and the new history log, see iCloud, backup and export.