Best ways to keep a personal diary

[geek84]

Hi Folks

I have been keeping a personal diary for the last 30 years all on A4 sized note pads. This has resulted in me having loads of note pads in by house!

Can you kindly advices the best ways to keep a personal diary in future and also the old diaries that I already have?

Thanks in advance

[Jonboy_t]

If you can get access to a scanner, scan each year/month/week in and save them as a .PDF. You can do what you want with them then in future - print them, email them to your kids, leave them on a hard drive where no one will ever find them and you’ll be forgotten in the annals of time as your once vibrant body leaches its nutrients back in to the Earth and every memory your loved ones ever had slowly fades until you become a passing conversation topic every third Christmas.

The world’s your lobster, really.

[xx99xx]

There are lots of diary apps available as going digital is probably the way forward.

Do you read through old diaries ever? Are they just for you or do others need to see them? This may determine how you handle the archive.

[bitchstewie]

My life's way too boring to keep one but one thing with paper is it's tactile and if you are the next Samuel Pepys future generations aren't going to find your life's works have disappeared when your cloud provider disappears or they get a "file format not recognised" message when trying to decipher what you've written.

There's something nice about a pile of books I think.

[hyphen]

geek84 said:

Hi Folks

I have been keeping a personal diary for the last 30 years all on A4 sized note pads. This has resulted in me having loads of note pads in by house!

Can you kindly advices the best ways to keep a personal diary in future and also the old diaries that I already have?

Thanks in advance

What is the purpose of the diaries? How will they be used in the future and by whom.

[vixen1700]

Kept a diary from 1983 through to about 1989 and tried to fill it in religiously each night whatever state I was in and whoever I was with.

Missed out a few days at the end and just tore them up in case they were found and were read by anybody. Namely my parents. A bit too much information in them.

[Funk]

bhstewie said:

My life's way too boring to keep one but one thing with paper is it's tactile and if you are the next Samuel Pepys future generations aren't going to find your life's works have disappeared when your cloud provider disappears or they get a "file format not recognised" message when trying to decipher what you've written.

There's something nice about a pile of books I think.

Digitisation will make things almost impossible for future archaeologists or historians a thousand years from now...

[hyphen]

vixen1700 said:

Kept a diary from 1983 through to about 1989 and tried to fill it in religiously each night whatever state I was in and whoever I was with.

Missed out a few days at the end and just tore them up in case they were found and were read by anybody. Namely my parents. A bit too much information in them.

Such a shame.

You could have set it up so a lawyer gave them to someone after you died.

[vixen1700]

hyphen said:

Such a shame.

You could have set it up so a lawyer gave them to someone after you died.

Yeah, 1985 and fumbling around with Northern lasses in Blackpool would have been a worthwhile read for future generations.

[geek84]

Hi Folks

Thanks for your replies.

I like the idea of using a scanner and loadng them up. However, it seems that this is going to take ages !

There is 30 years of diaries to go through !!!

[bitchstewie]

There are companies you can pay to digitise documents.

Not sure of exact costs or whether at (relatively) low volume if it'll be worth it though.

[hyphen]

geek84 said:

Hi Folks

Thanks for your replies.

I like the idea of using a scanner and loadng them up. However, it seems that this is going to take ages !

There is 30 years of diaries to go through !!!

If A4 and not cheapest paper, you may be able to use a printer with a feeder so it pulls them all in automatically.

And if your handwriting is clear, OCR will recognise text so you can search and find.

[Last Visit]

vixen1700 said:

fumbling around with Northern lasses in Blackpool

Subscribed.

Looking forward to further updates.

[Johnspex]

Who keeps a diary?
By the way, I think you mean journal
A girlfriend , when I was a teenager, kept a diary until her Dad found it!
16 stone of police dog handler.
Either your life is boring, or you don't care who knows.

[bristoltype603]

bhstewie said:

My life's way too boring to keep one but one thing with paper is it's tactile and if you are the next Samuel Pepys future generations aren't going to find your life's works have disappeared when your cloud provider disappears or they get a "file format not recognised" message when trying to decipher what you've written.

There's something nice about a pile of books I think.

Yes, don't just store them on a hard disk somewhere. Scan them to PDF then use an online bindery to produce a high quality sewn book (or several volumes). Have done this a few times as gifts for people. Works out somewhere between £50 to £80 (obviously you can go much more high end if you want).

[hyphen]

bhstewie said:

My life's way too boring to keep one ...

Start one . It may encourage you to think of new things to do

[Sway]

Moving forward, you might like an A5 William Hannah notebook, with prior months/years being archived using a set of archive rings and board covers.

They are objects of visual and tactile beauty, the paper is utterly lovely to use (with pencil, ballpoint or fountain pen) and David will print it in pretty much any configuration/colour/etc. you could want.

[geek84]

Hi Folks

Many thanks for your replies.

Any further suggestions on how I can get my handwritten diaries 'safe' online, will be much appreciated.

Thank you