How to set up your diary

I typed up these instructions for a gardening friend and thought they may be useful for others who would like to set up a diary in Dave's Garden:

1. To get to your diary, click on the tab that says Journals. Next click on "Manage your own garden diary." Now you should see your diary.

2. The first thing you might want to do is set up some tabs. The tabs you create will show up in the box on the lower right side of your screen called "Your diaries" and will serve as categories for the daily entries you make into your diary. Here are some examples of the names I used for my tabs: Daily Weather, Garden Journal, Front Yard Photos, Late Spring Garden, etc. To set up tabs in your diary:

A. Click on Add a new tab (located on the right side of your screen in a box called Tasks).

B. Type the tab name (Example: Pet Photos).

C. Click on Finished

D. A message will appear saying, "The tab has been added! You may now see it at your diary homepage." Click on "Return to your Dairy Homepage."

E. A message will appear saying, "You have 1 entry in your diary, but this tab is empty."

F. If you would like to make your first entry under the new tab you have created, click on Add a new entry (located on the right side of your screen in a box called Tasks) and proceed to steps G through K (see below). If you would rather set up all of your tabs before you make entries, repeat steps A through E.

G. After you have clicked on Add a new entry (located on the right side of your screen in a box called Tasks), type a subject in the Subject line (Example: Ralph Chasing Squirrels).

H. Enter the text of your entry (Today my dog, Ralph, saw a couple of squirrels in the yard and took off after them. They were to fast for him and got up a tree, but not too fast for me...I was able to catch the whole ordeal on film.)

I. If you would like to attach a photo, click on Choose File under "Image." Click on the image you have saved, and click on Choose.

J. Click on Preview. If it all looks ok, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click Finished.

K. To view your entry, click on the tab title you created on the right side of your screen in the box titled "Your diaries." Now you can add more entries under this tab by following steps F through J.

L. If you would like to add another tab, repeat steps A through J.

3. If you would like to edit an entry later on, click on the tab under "Your diaries" (right side of screen). Scroll down to the end of the entry you would like to edit, and click on Edit. Change the text you would like to edit, and click on Finished when you are done.

4. Anytime you are in another part of the website, you can get to your diary by clicking on the tab that says Journals and then clicking on "Manage your own garden diary."

If you need to see a sample of a diary, you can view mine at: http://davesgarden.com/journal/d/m/hgurule/. I encourage you to look at several of the other DG diaries to see how different people utilize this wonderful tool.

thank you sooo much for sharing these! I know they'll be helpful to other journal users!

I too thank you hgurule! We've met in the past and I haven't "spoke" to ya in a while. I'll holler at ya later though because I'm goin now to take a look at your garden diary.

You can see mine here http://davesgarden.com/journal/ed/index.php?tabid=1047
I just created it so there's only one entry.

Again, thanks for the great instructions on how to set up a garden diary.

(Hello Terry)

TC

Glad to see that you are using this new feature, TC. I'll be happy to help you any way that I can.

Im going to try this... i think my making a journal can help me keep better track of what im actually doing in my gardens.. :) and just to keep ideas flowing for myself.. (and for others too)

Yes, it can be a wonderful tool to help keep track of things in the garden. Let me know if you need any help.

Thanks so much for all the detailed instructions, hgurule. Your step by step instructions got me going on my diary, but now I have a question:

Is there an easy way to rearrange the Diary (tab) headings that appear on the right side of my diary page (when I am adding to it)?

Mine appear to show up in a random order and I would like to re-organize them into something logical.

Thanks for your thoughts....?

Hello, Tabasco. I'm not sure that there is a way to do this. This may be a question for Terry:

http://davesgarden.com/members/Terry/

It's better not to dmail Terry or myself directly, as it could sit in our inboxes for a long time if we're out of town. It's better to click on "Contact Us" at the bottom of any page of the site.

As for your question, there's not currently a way to reorder them. Right now it just orders them by the order in which they were created (I think). I'll put on ye olde todo a feature to re-order them however you like.

dave

Oh, Dave, a way to reorder would be wonderful. Thank you very much!

Thanks for the tip about e-mails, too.

Take care. t.

The reordering of diary tabs is now finished. When you are looking at your diary, click on "Change Tab Order".

best,
dave

Wow! Thanks, Dave!

That was quick! Thanks, Dave!

The 'reorder tabs feature is a welcome addition, thank you Dave.

My question relates to reordering diary entries. Since the current
methodology is apparently the preferred way, would it be possible
to have the ability to move entries around within a tab as desired
by the 'diarist' ?

balvenie, it'll be a challenge to program, but yes, I definitely think that's worth it. I hope to get to it soon!

dave

That would be wonderful Dave. Thank you.
A very happy and joyous New Year to you,
family and friends.
robert

Robert,

As I'm looking at this, I wonder if a good solution is if I allowed the member to choose for themselves if they wanted the entries to be sorted by date up or down? Would that work?

dave

I think that would be a workable solution Dave. My desire was to have the entries start at one point and continue sequentially in one direction, up or down. Now, as an example, if on Jan.1st I make 4 entries on a topic they start with #1 on top, then #2 below it, etc. but on Jan.7th I post 3 more entries #1 is on top, #2 under it and # 3 below that, with #3 ending up on top of #1 from the Jan 1st entry. It makes the sequence into separate blocks by date rather than starting at the beginning and flowing smoothly from start to finish. Each dated block has the same sequence, top to bottom and "sits" above the previous dated block as opposed to continuing in a 1,2,3,4 fashion. I hope I'm not being too confusing or picky, if so I do apologize. It seems that rational explanations are not my forte.
Thank you,
robert

Robert,

I think I understand. What I have done is added the ability for you to customize, on a tab by tab basis, whether they show oldest first, or newest first. The setting you choose is how you and others will view that tab. You can access it by, when you are in a tab of your "Edit Diary" area, click on "Edit this tab" and it's on that page.

Give that a try and let me know how that works for you!

Dave

It works fine in the "oldest on top" mode but not the "newest on top". A test in my Diary on the 'stained glass' tab indicates 'oldest on top' entries continue in the order submitted with the latest being #3, but in the 'newest on top' entry # 1 is on top instead of # 3. However you worked your magic, the "oldest on top' does just what I was hoping for, Thank you. I'm sure it is just a little peculiarity that no one else is interested in, but it will help immensely in Diary tabs where a step by step procedure over a lengthy period of time is involved.Thank you again Dave, you are indeed a marvel.

I've seen other people request the ability to re-order entries in the diary before and there never seemed to be universal agreement on whether oldest or newest should come first, so it sounds like this is the perfect way to make everyone happy!

Great!! Thank you for your patience in waiting for this feature!

What is the TODO function and how do you work it?

I assume you're talking about the TODO in the journal? I don't think there is one in the diary but if there is one and I missed it, I imagine it would work very much the same way. In the journal, it's a way to keep track of things you need to do, maybe you want to remind yourself that such and such a plant needs to be pruned next weekend, you can put that in as a to do entry. Or maybe you want to remind yourself to take a picture of it and upload that. Etc, etc The way to do it is go to the plant you want to make a to do for, add an entry to it, and in the entry type drop-down box you'll see TODO as an entry type. Then put in whatever you want, and afterwards you can access that item directly from your front journal page, there's a link to go right to your TODO items.

I am computer challenged so I haven't taken advantage of setting up a diary or journal. Really don't know the difference but I have read member's diaries to see what they put in there so I'll know how to do mine when I learn. I am not stalking anybody but trying to learn all I can about gardening. I have been gardening for 30 plus years but have always gone to the garden center/nurseries and bought my starter plants,etc. I tried wintersowing for the first time this year and I really wished I'd started a garden diary then. I think you can add valuable information in your diary for your own use. Where you purchased certain seeds or plants, when planted, when you experienced germination of those seeds, where they were finally located and date. So much information could be input into the journal. What flowers were blooming at specific times, growth experiences or problems or concerns even. Disappointments of certain plants or just to remind you later what you wanted to change later, what you seeds you wanted to buy or even where you saw certain flowers blooming in somebody's photo albums or posted pictues. It's a shame more people don't set up a diary. Now what's the difference between garden diary and garden journal here?

The diary is like a blog, where you can keep a running commentary on whatever you want about your garden. The journal is more like a database where you keep track of individual plants.