In the Topics List—accessible in every journal entry by clicking the Topic Tab—the topics are listed hierarchically. There are top levels, sub-topics, and sub-sub topics. You can create a “new” topic that isn’t a sub-topic, but rather a top branch topic. Here’s how:
The new top level topic will appear in the list alphabetically.
Note: JournalLife writers report occasionally that the new top level topic appear as a sub-topic. At first glance it may look like a sub-topic, but click the “collapse all” button so that only the top branches appear. Carefully look at the gray dotted lines which show the different hierarchical levels and you’ll see that the new top branch topic that you created is indeed a top branch. There isn’t a “+” to the left of the new top level branch yet, but if you do add a sub-topic, then there a “+” will appear to the left of that topic and it will look similar to other top level branches.