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Customize layout and views

⚠️ Available on iPhone only. Customize & Reorder is currently supported only in the iPhone version of Diarly.

You can customize how the Today and Journal tabs look in Diarly. Reorder widgets, choose a default view, and set a background to match your journaling style.

Customize view settings

Customize the Today view

In the Today tab, scroll to the bottom and tap Customize & Reorder.

You can show, hide, or reorder the following widgets:

  • This week — A short overview of entries for the current week
  • On this day — See what you wrote on this date in past years
  • Mood — Track how you’re feeling each day
  • Quote of the day — A daily quote to inspire your writing
  • Pinned Notes — Quick access to your pinned entries
  • Insights — Stats and trends from your journaling habits
  • Recent Tags — Your most recently used tags at a glance
  • Daily inspiration — Rotates through selected notes to spark ideas
  • Journaling Suggestions — Writing prompts powered by Apple
  • Latest thought — Highlights a different selected note each day
  • Calendar — Monthly view to browse past entries by date

Customize the Journal view

Each journal has its own layout. Scroll to the bottom of any journal and tap Customize & Reorder.

You can choose which widgets appear and adjust their order:

  • This week – A short overview of entries for the current week
  • Timeline – Your daily entries organized by date
  • Gallery – A visual layout for entries with photos or media
  • Calendar – A monthly calendar with visible entry highlights
  • Notes – Undated entries, great for drafts, ideas, or planning

Set the default view for a journal

Each journal can open directly into a view you choose — like Timeline, Gallery, or Notes — instead of the widget layout.

To set the default view:

  1. Open the journal
  2. Scroll to the bottom and tap Customize & Reorder
  3. Tap Default View
  4. Select the view you want to open first

Customize journal view

💡 You can still switch views using the view picker at the top of the journal.

Set a background

You can customize the background for both Today and Journal tabs.

Choose from:

  • Suggested background – Adapts automatically to light or dark mode
  • Custom background – Pick an image from your Diarly gallery

💡 The custom background picker only shows images that have been added to Diarly, not from your device’s Photos library. To use a custom image background, you need to add it to an entry first.