Writing Entries
The entry editor is the heart of DearDiary.Net. It's built on Lexical — a fast, extensible rich-text engine — so everything you write is saved in a structured format that renders cleanly and exports faithfully.
Creating an entry
Click Create New Entry on the Control Panel card on your Dashboard. On desktop you can also open the menu by clicking your username in the header and choosing New Entry. On mobile, tap the orange pencil in the footer bar and tap New Entry.
The editor page contains:
- Toolbar — formatting options in the header bar.
- Tracker pills — mood and sleep tracker quick-record buttons, shown at the top of the editor if trackers are enabled.
- Details / Save button — opens a panel with entry metadata and save options (see below).
- Main editor body — the rich text area.
When you click Details / Save, a panel opens with:
- Title — required before the entry can be saved.
- Privacy — Private, Public, or Followers Only.
- Date — defaults to today; click to pick a different date.
- Save button — saves the entry.
- Save & Notify button — saves and sends a notification email to your diary's followers (only available for non-private entries).
Formatting
The toolbar above the editor exposes all formatting options:
| Option | Notes |
|---|---|
| Bold / Italic / Underline / Strikethrough | Standard inline formatting |
| Code block | Formats a paragraph as a code block |
| Headings | H1 – H3 |
| Bulleted & numbered lists | Including nested lists |
| Block quote | Indented styled quote block |
| Horizontal rule | Divider line |
| Link | Insert or edit a hyperlink |
| Inline image | Upload an image directly into the entry body (Plus only) |
| Coloured text / background | Change text or highlight colour (Plus only) |
| Emoji picker | Browse and insert emoji |
Embedding media
(Plus members only)
You can embed external content inline using the Insert menu in the toolbar:
- YouTube — paste a YouTube URL to embed it as a video player.
- Twitter / X posts — paste a post URL to embed it.
- Bluesky posts — paste a Bluesky post URL to embed it.
Inline images
(Plus members only)
Click the image icon in the toolbar to upload an image from your device. Images are resized and compressed automatically. They appear inline in the entry body and are served from DearDiary.Net's own storage.
Trackers
If you've enabled trackers for your diary, pills appear above the editor:
- Mood tracker — tap an emoji to record how you're feeling.
- Sleep tracker — enter hours slept and a quality rating.
- Other custom trackers configured in Diary Settings.
Tracker readings are attached to the entry and displayed alongside it when you view the entry later. They also feed into the dashboard charts.
See Features for full tracker documentation.
Drafts
The editor automatically saves a draft to your browser's local storage as you type. The first time you open the editor, a dialog asks whether you'd like to enable draft recovery — you can choose a retention period (1, 3, 7, or 30 days) or disable it entirely. You can't change this setting later from a Settings page; it's a one-time choice per device.
If you close the tab and return, the editor will offer to restore your draft. Drafts are device-specific — they don't sync across browsers.
Entry privacy
Each entry has its own privacy, independent of the diary:
| Setting | Who can read it |
|---|---|
| Private | Only you |
| Followers only | Approved followers of this diary |
| Public | Anyone, including non-logged-in visitors |
The entry privacy defaults to the diary's current privacy level but can be changed per-entry from the privacy dropdown before saving. DearDiary.Net always uses the most restrictive privacy setting to decide who can see an entry - so a public diary with a private entry means only you can see the entry. A private diary with a public entry means only you can see the entry.
Editing an entry
- Navigate to the entry (from the sidebar list, Writing Activity, or On This Day).
- Tap the pencil icon in the toolbar at the top of the entry. On desktop you can also use the Edit Entry option from the username dropdown menu in the header. On mobile, tap the DearDiary Logo button to pop up the main menu and tap New Entry while interacting with your own diary. If you are reading somebody else's diary the option will be greyed out until you return to your own dashboard.
- Make your changes in the editor.
- Click Details / Save, then click Save.
Deleting an entry
- Open the entry in the private view.
- Click Delete Entry (in the entry action buttons).
- Confirm the deletion.
The entry will be removed from your diary immediately.
Viewing past entries
- Sidebar entry list — scrollable list of all entries in the active diary; toggle between list and calendar view using the view switcher.
- View by date — click a date in the sidebar calendar to jump to all entries on that day.
- On This Day card — on your Dashboard, see entries written on today's date in previous years.
- Search — full-text search across your own diaries (and public diaries) via the
/searchpage. Powered by Meilisearch.