Editing and formatting entries in Day One for iOS

Tap an entry in the List view. Then tap anywhere in the body to place the cursor and begin editing. Screenshots show iPhone, but these functions are the same for iPad as well.

Tap the Aa icon at the top right of the keyboard to access Headers, Bold, Italics, Highlighting, Numbered Lists, Bullets, Checklists, Quotes, Horizontal Lines, Indent, Outdent.

Users can also manually type using Markdown and the text will convert to Rich Text automatically. For example, type a hashtag (#) and a space, and you will initiate a Header 1.

# Header 1
## Header 2
### Header 3

**Bold**
*Italics*

- [] Checklist

- Bullet list

1. Numbered list
2. Numbered List
3. Numbered List

> Quote block

*** horizontal line

Tap the paper clip icon 📎 to access options to add photos, open the camera, audio recording, video recording, open the scan tool, browse via Files (for PDFs, audio, video, photos), draw, entry info, add tags, or input a template.

Highlight text to add hyperlinks, Highlight, Bold, Italics, or tap ••• to access more formatting options. As of version 2025.5, both iOS and Mac support text formatting with strikethrough and underline.

Note about custom fonts:
If you’re using a custom font in your Appearance settings, you may experience a limitation of the font you’re using. Some custom fonts don’t include an italic variant, so italicized words will appear in bold instead. To use italics, select another font that supports italics.

Tap More (•••) at the top right to access the Undo button. Or tap with 3 fingers on the screen to bring up the iOS undo/redo menu.

Tap the down arrow at the top left of the keyboard, or simply swipe down to dismiss the keyboard. This will save/sync the entry.

The Done button closes the entry.

 

To disable spelling highlights and autocorrect on an iPhone or iPad:

1. Open the Settings app (not the Day One app settings).
2. Navigate to General.
3. Tap Keyboard.
4. Toggle off the following options as needed:
   • Auto-Correction – disables automatic word corrections.
   • Check Spelling – removes the red underline for misspelled words.

These settings can be re-enabled at any time if needed.

Styling formatted text

There is currently no way to apply different styles to formatted text. For example you can’t change the text color or size of individual elements such as headings, quotes etc.