Why Keep a Journal?

Keeping a personal journal with Penzu can change your life

Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

What is Penzu?
Penzu is an online journal service that focuses specifically on personal and private journals or diaries. You can sign up for free and keep a secure record of your thoughts and entries.

Why is it so great?
Most blogging services focus on the public journal or diary. Penzu is all about privacy and sharing your entries only if you want to. It is extremely intuitive and easy to use, not requiring you to have a separate environment to view your past entries. To learn more about why Penzu is the best way to keep a journal on the web, click here.

What does it cost to keep a journal at Penzu?
Nothing! It’s free.

Who can sign-up?
Anyone with a first name and email address.

Is there anything I can’t write about?
Nope. Write away. Your thoughts are for you only. For more information, please read our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

What is the difference between Penzu and a blog?
A blog is more commonly read by others, whereas Penzu is primarily for you. So feel free to write and do anything – no one is watching!

How do I start?
Simply start by signing up at the top right of the screen. If you have already signed up, then click the “New” button above the Help bar. A new entry will be created for you to start typing your first entry! All you have to do is type, Penzu saves your work automatically. To see some tips on getting started, click here.

Do I need to login before I start writing?
If you have something you want to write down urgently, simply navigate to Penzu.com and you can start typing right away. If you land on the feature page, just click “Try It Out” and you will see the pad. When you are finished writing, log in (or sign up) if you don’t have an account and your entry will be saved!

What is an entry?
An entry is anything you want it to be! Simply, it is words on a page. But depending on what type of journal you are creating, it could be a day in your life, or a moment you want to capture and save, or an expression of any kind. To see some samples entries, click here.

Can my entries be read by anyone else?
No! Unless you specifically share your entry, it is completely private and accessible only by you. So long as you keep your password safe, your entries will never be read by anyone else. You can even lock your entries with a second password for increased security!

Are my entries secure?
Your entries are secured through premium security practices used by our hosting company. Each entry is kept safe in our database and not read by anyone but you.

What does locking the entry do?
Locking prevents other people from seeing an entry if they somehow get access to your account. For example, if someone managed to guess the password to your Penzu account, they would need to enter another password to unlock your locked entries.

Browser Support
We currently support Firefox 2, but using Penzu on other browsers shouldn’t be too bad. Please be patient while we fully support other browsers.

How do I…

Account

Create an account?
To create an account, you must sign up. You can do this by clicking the red Sign Up button at the top right of the page when not logged in. You will receive an email to confirm your account with Penzu.

Log in?
To log in, click the Log In link at the top right.

Deactivate my account?
To deactivate your account, go to your account page by clicking on your name at the top right of the screen once logged in. Near the bottom of the account options you will find a “Deactivate Account” button. Click it and your account will no longer be accessible until reactivated.

Reactivate my account?
Once your account is deactivated, it can be reactivated by clicking the link sent to you in the reactivation email.

Access my account page?
To access your account page, simply click on your name in the top right of your screen. Here, you will be able to change account related settings.

Access the settings page?
To access your settings page, simply click on settings in the top right of your screen. Here, you will be able to change settings related to entry composing.

Change the email associated with my account?
Changing your email account is easy. Just go to the account page and click “change” below “Email:”. You will be prompted to enter a new email address to associate with your account.

Composing

Create a new entry?
Click on the “New” button above the main pad. You can always click that button to create a new entry from any page it appears.

Save an entry?
Entries are saved automatically, so you don’t need to save all the time. But if you want to make sure your work is saved, simply click “Save” above the pad. You must be logged in to save an entry.

Lock an entry?
To lock an entry, simply click the lock button at the top left of the pad. Enter and re-enter a password that you won’t forget. Once the entry is locked, it can’t be read or edited until the correct password has been entered and it has been unlocked. In order to lock entries, you must be logged in.

Print an entry?
Simply click “Print” above the pad and your entry will print. The ruled lines you see on the page will not print. The entry title, body, and date will, however, be printed. You can also print multiple entries at once from the My Entries page.

Share an entry?
Click the share icon above the pad to drop down the share menu. Enter in the recipient’s email, an optional message that will be displayed in the notification email the recipient receives, and who you want the message to be sent from. You can “share as” yourself, or “anonymous", in which case your identity will remain hidden from the person you are sending the entry to.

Share an entry with multiple people?
We are currently working on supporting this- sit tight!

Insert an image?
To insert an image or picture, click on the Insert icon above the pad. The drop down will appear and you can browse your computer’s local drive. Select the file and then click upload. Once the page is finished loading, your image will appear in the drop down image tray. To add it to the current entry, click “insert”, a pop-up will prompt you to enter a caption if you like, and then it will appear in the margin of the entry. Rollover to zoom the image and reveal the caption if entered.

Delete an image?
Simply click delete below the image in the image tray. If an image is inserted, it has to be removed from the entry to be deleted.

Remove an image?
To remove an image inserted in an entry, rollover the desired image thumbnail and click remove in the bottom right corner. It will still be available in the image tray for reinsertion.

How do I change the caption on a photo I have uploaded?
To change the caption below an image, you must remove it and then reinsert it into the entry.

How do I move a picture around in the margin?
Pictures can be moved up and down in the margin by clicking and dragging the thumbnail.

How do I change the title of an entry?
To change a title of an active entry, all you have to do is click on "Today" on the top line of the tab. It should disappear and allow you to enter any title you want.

Can I change the date of an entry?
Currently, you cannot change the date on an entry. The date is set to when the entry was first composed.

Can I change my time zone?
To change the time zone associated with your account, go to your account page (click on your name at the top right of the screen) and scroll down to Time Zone. Select your zone and click "change".

My Entries

Delete an entry?
To delete an entry, you must select it in the My Entries page and then click the delete button. To delete more than one entry, just select multiple entries and click delete.

Rename an entry?
Renaming an entry must be done from the My Entries page. Select the entry (or entries) you would like to rename and click the rename button.

Search through entries?
Just start typing in the search field. As you type, the entries containing the entered term will start to appear. Clear the search field to display all of your entries.

Troubleshooting

Why can’t I create a new entry?
You can always create a new entry by clicking the New button at the top of the pad. If the button isn’t working, make sure your browser is supported.

I saved an entry and now I can’t find it.
You must be logged in to save entries. When you are logged in, all of your saved entries should be in the My Entries section. You can get there by clicking the blue My Entries tab at the top right of the pad. Make sure to clear the search field by clicking the large “X”. If your entries still aren’t saving, make sure your browser is supported.

I have forgotten my main account password.
If you have forgotten your password and are unable to login to your account, simply click “Forgot Password?” in the log in drop down menu. Enter your email in the pop-up and you will be sent a link with a reset password code. Follow the link and you will be asked to fill out a form to reset your password.

I have locked an entry and forget the password.
If you are unable to unlock an entry because you have forgotten the password, try a few more times to make sure you aren’t typing it incorrectly and turn the CAPS LOCK off. Otherwise, a locked entry cannot be unlocked without the password!

Why can’t I print?
You must type something on the pad in order to print. A blank entry is not allowed to be printed. If you are trying to print from the My Entries page, make sure you have selected one or more entries.

Why can’t I share?
You must type something on the pad in order to share an entry. Otherwise, make sure you have filled out the fields correctly. If you still can’t share an entry, make sure your browser is supported.

Can I find out the identity of the sender of an anonymous message?
No. Unless the message you have received violates our Terms of Use or Privacy Policy, the sender’s identity will remain unknown.

What if I have been threatened?
If you have received or are receiving hate mail or spam, please contact us at support@penzu.com.