Merging Diaries
Hello everybody,
Today I’ve put another diary utility live – the Import Diary facility. This utility allows you to import the entries and notes from another diary into your current one. You can find this utility on the Diary Maintenance menu, down at the bottom right.
Of course, the diary you import has to be one that you own – the first step in the import is to provide the name and password for the diary that is going to be imported. Once you have done that, the system will tell you how many entries you are about to import and let you confirm. The entries will be imported just as they are – text, links, and pictures should appear exactly as they did in the original. However, they will appear with the style and background of your current diary after they are imported.
Two things that will not transfer when importing entries are entry tags and friends group access (if you’re a Plus member). This is because tags and friends groups in your old diary are most likely different from those in your current diary, so they would not match up.
After the entries are imported, you will be given the option to import the notes from the other diary – like the entries, if you choose to import them, they will appear just as they did in the original diary.
One important thing to note is that running the import process will change nothing on the diary that is imported. The entries and notes will still be there – if you want to remove them or delete the diary after it is imported, you will have to do that separately. Also, the import will not move Plus subscription days from one diary to another – that is a separate utility that I am working on, but for now if you want to have that done you can contact the Admins through the Help menu and they will be happy to help.
The entries that are imported into your diary will merge with your current entries and display together in date order – they will become a seamless part of your current diary. For those of you who pay attention to entrycodes (those numbers in the URL that denote each entry to the system), the imported entries will be numbered higher than the current entries in your diary, starting with the next number after the highest current one. This way, none of the entrycodes on your current entries are changed by the import.
Hopefully, that is not too complex of an explanation – it’s really a simple process, and only takes a few moments to complete. I hope that some of you find it useful – it is something many people have asked for in the past.
P.S. – a few other things that are pretty new, that you should see if you haven’t: there’s also a TOD importer (see the front page for the link), Editor’s Choice is back (changed weekly, there’s a new one today – again, see the front page), the Geographic Index is back, and check out the OD Facebook page, if you haven’t already.
The DiaryMaster
I was in the kids’ high school for a field trip (research at Rutgers University library for a history term paper – great fun, no really) and while we were waiting to go to the bus some students I knew approached me with a survey they were doing.
There were only a couple questions, and one of them was: "If you could be one public figure in the government, who would you be?" I didn’t even really think about it and spurted out, "the head of NASA". Which resulted in perplexed faces from the students – I’m sure that was an answer they hadn’t heard before.
See, I don’t think there is enough government (or corporate or public) interest right now in space exploration. We’ve just spent hundreds of billions of dollars on various corporate bailouts and economic stimulus – while in the meantime, NASA is begging for (and not getting) an extra three billion dollars a year to revive their manned exploration program.
And I know, that’s a lot of money, and there are many, many things that it could be spent on that have an effect here on Earth. But the thing is – the money would get spent here on Earth. It would go into jobs, and materials, and new technology that would have to be developed to extend mankind’s reach back to the Moon and then beyond.
The real benefits of this sort of exploration have nothing to do with money – I think our country (and our world) could use the feeling of a huge "project" like going to the Moon (or Mars), to give us something that is larger than all of us to look up to.
It’s hard to describe, unless you’re of the proper age – but back in the 60’s and 70’s, amid all the turbulence and social upheaval of those times, the space program provided a bright light of courage, and exploration, and common purpose. It made everybody (I think) a little prouder to be human – knowing that we could reach for great things as a species, traveling beyond the confines of our own home planet. Back then, it seemed only natural that people of our generation and the next would be colonizing the moons and planets of our solar system.
It seems to me that our species could benefit from that sort of feeling these days. What are we reaching for now, forty years later? Sure, science is making great strides in medicine, and computers, and a million other things – but it’s all for incremental gains in technologies that already exist. Wouldn’t it feel great to make great leaps forward again, the kind that would be remembered generations from now?
ryn: do you think you could post a tribute to Dan for his family? they could use all of the prayers they could get.
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Thank you!!! 🙂
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How do I block someone on OD?
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Thank you thank you thank you!!!!
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I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU! This made my day =)
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AWESOME!!! Although I deleted some of my odlest diaries, some still exist. This is swell. You OD brainiacs are swell. Now you just have to work on that side box for when I use OD on my iPhone 😛
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that is a brilliant utility ,t hanks!!!
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EFF YEAH.
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…will there be a way to upload old OD files? i have older diaries saved to my computer that no longer exist on OD and I would love to be able to include those in my current diary.
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*MWAH* Fantastic!!! Thank you!
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Hi DM, I am yet another MDD refugee finding refuge in O.D. I am searching for old friends, which isn’t always easy, because sometimes they change their names from diary to diary. With my name remaining the same, I stand a good chance of running into them. Thanks for this service. May God richly bless you. Minty.
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Ooooo, the possibilities.
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Ooooo, the possibilities.
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The current generation is reaching for out planet to become a better place to live… Cleaner, greener. Space exploration might create jobs and a project, but earth repairation is much more worthy of those dollars.
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This is AWESOME! Thanks so much!
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you spend lots of time doing all these cool things but I’m still wondering when you are going to get rid of the note trail on the plus side so I can return from exile.
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how do you do that text box thing you have where you have the entry about OD and then the personal entry to the right with a green background?
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Space exploration is a very romantic idea but I agree with girl loves trees – we could use that money for bioremediation, funding alternative energy sources (including bacterial generated energy), etc. Not that I don’t think it is cool and we ARE missing something like the space program to look up to…but I don’t know that it is practical right now (although I do know a lot of those technologies trickle down).
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I really hate to bother you, but I am likely about to have some major issues with a fellow diarist here on OD. Her diary name is -syd (for now – she changes it frequently). I posted an entry about her a couple days ago if you care to read it. However, today I logged on and went to her diary and she has copied the decor of my diary. These are images I changed from the original – changed saturation levels, etc. – and hers is IDENTICAL to mine. I’ve deleted and blocked her – and told her I’d done so; however the last time I did this (for similar reasons) she posted an entry using my diary name (thankfully mis-spelled) blasting me. At now, nothing’s happened but I told her if she does that again and her ‘people’ start with me I WILL report her to you. This is STALKER stuff and frankly, she’s a nut job! Thanks! JFT
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This is what I noted The Nutjob: Did you SERIOUSLY lift the background and sidebar images from my diary to use on yours?! I have to tell you that this is MORE than a little creepy. And you wondered why I dropped and blocked you the first time? I am doing so again because quite frankly this just weirds me out. We are NOT that much alike. We have nearly NOTHING in common! And if you post an entry blasting me and sending your other Friends/Readers to my diary to harass me, I will report you to The DM. Please just go on about your business and live your life. DO NOT message me here or on Facebook. Thank you. I have blocked her here and on Facebook. I also have a screenshot of her Diary Front Page taken today if you need ‘proof’ that she had copied mine. Again, not asking for any action at this time, but if she starts note-bombing my friends or posts anything about me by name – I will.
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this new tweak is nice.
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RYN: I know right? it’s been quite hectic here in my neighborhood
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I’ll second your sidebar… thanks for sharing.
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what happens when you cant remember the password and you have no clue what email is attached to your old diary? My computer that used to have it saved is kaput. I have tried entering email addresses and gotten no retrieved password. I tried almost everything that I could possibly think of. I am pretty sure the first of my diary shows that ~hot~n~spicy~ is my original diary from OD. Just couldnt keep that one when pay od first started. Had to start the new one. I really would love to import and be able to delete the old one.
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Thanks for the note. Your diary is cool hopefully mine will look better soon xxx
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This has no relevance to this entry of yours, but I didn’t know who to go to to make this suggestion. I was just wondering if anyone had thought of having an OpenDiary chat?
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I just wanted to say that you’re awesome. That is all. =)
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I don’t know who or how to deal with this issue…there is a new diary as a member of the Abuse Survivors circle who seems to blatantly not belong and may be triggering some members…the diary name is Morgain Le Fay and I don’t know who the moderator/s for the circle are so am asking you to look into it somehow. Thanks.
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I’ve already used this feature. Love it. 🙂
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hi i have a suggestion. you know how you can keep your diary public but have various privacy settins for each entry, is there a way you can make individual selection boxes (like the checking entries you want to delete) except having the check box be for the whole page and then you can deselect certain ones and then between the action tabs at the bottom of the page. that might be handy for …
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someone who changes there settings a lot but wants to keep an open diary (for most part). hopefully that makes sense.
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ok that explanation sucked… *sigh* maybe you know what i mean? and this one too —> ? he got left behind somewhere up there in my other comment.
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Woot! I don’t know what you did, but I’ve been able to import my old TOD diaries today, with no weird filesize errors 🙂 Thank you!
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oh you can strike that oh so clever suggestion. that option is at the bottom of the list. yep. i’m an idiot.
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I successfully imported my older diary into my newer one, thanks for this new feature. I am sure lots of people will want to do this too 🙂
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oooh thanks thanks!!!
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how do I do clear the cache in my browser
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Fix the pop up over the log in box. It should not be able to block the log in box.
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Dear DM, I wanted to comment on a diarist that may have been slammed by a oouple of other diarists (very unfairly). Blinded by the Light is the ex-husband of “Kate”, and was attacked a couple of days ago by “At Last” for some kind of comment she was offended by, and she threatened to suggest you boot him from OD. Please consider the face that he has been a very good, creative, and kind diarist here for many years. To my knowledge, he has never intentionally harmed anyone on this site. His ex-wife, “Kate”, left him for another man, and the circumstances were very ugly. I don’t know everything, but I can tell you that At Last is a very catty person, gossips behind many diarist’s backs, me being on of them, and I would never make a judgement call on a diarist’s fate here, based on her, or his ex-wife’s opinion. Just wanted to add my two cents here. He really is a great person and never intends to hurt anyone. At Last tends to leave notes that are inflammatory at times, and can really hurt people’s feelings, and I don’t think she realizes it. Thanks for a great site, and I really appreciate all that you and the staff do to keep this a great place for all of us. Best regards,
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This is an awesome feature! If I still changed diaries like I did when I was younger, I’d be all over this feature. RYN: Thank you so much. 🙂
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for two days now i have been getting an http 500 internal server error–what does this mean? will it be fixed?
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This is awesome!!! I have 2 diaries to merge 😉
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Hello there again. I was just wondering now that I’ve become a life member, is it possible for you to add a “hit” counter on my diary? Or is that something I need to do? Thanks for the help, Michael.
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Keep doing sidebars like that and I may decide to stay in astronomy. :)–
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This is great. I really love your ideas in the yellow-green box, too!! I agree. We need to spend money to get more people to working and so on. I was a young woman in the 60’s & 70’s!!!! Golly, “One big step for man, one giant leap for mankind!” bighugz.
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hi.i’m sorry to leave a question here. i did use the help desk twice but.. idk. anyway i wanted to delete my diary but i didnt know if my comments to others would be deleted as well. i might want to start over but if the comments are left behind then its quite pointless. sorry to bother you.
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Sorry to bother you here but I’ve asked Help twice to have the Plus subscription transferred from my Taistealai diary (authorcode=D665070) to my Tai’m To Return diary (authorcode=A945832)with no success. I received no reply to my prior requests, not even the automated response – and I tried 2 different email addresses. Can you help please? Thank you 🙂 xx
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PS – I also merged the two diaries with no problems at all – thank you! I’ve had an OD in one form or another since 2002 and its awesome to have the entries all in one place 🙂 xx
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Hey thanks for the welcome back it’s really cool to still know I still have my diary!
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Q not pertaining to this entry: If I go back to my diary and add something, then change the title, will it show up on my friends as the most-recent posting? I know it used to, but I just did this, and it’s still showing up as an older entry.
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ryn: Thankyou, he seems to be on the mend. Vicks is amazing 🙂
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what’s the use in “stay logged in” of you never STAY LOGGED IN< and have to RE-LOG IN ever time, even after you check the box that say STAY LOGGED IN. I await your reply.
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that’s really cool =)
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Thank you for the welcome. Marseilles is wonderful 🙂 Importing is a good idea!
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Thanks for the welcome =) I like the options so far..it’s like Livejournal and Blogger all in one. About that Starbucks VIA micro brewed instant coffee, I sampled it, but I would never pay for it. Maybe you’ll have better luck. Have wonderful days.
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The copy and paste here needs to be fixed.. When I paste it appears as though it’s pasting it all, but when I go to save it, it cuts off half my entry. And I can’t get it back.
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I never realized you actually read people’s entries on here. Thank you for your note.
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I just wanted to let you know that I just used the Import Diary feature and it worked like a charm. I have been posting my entries that were deleted in the 2004 hacker attack (I keep copies of all my entries) to a separate diary and just merged them with my main diary. Thank you so much for giving us this feature. Wil
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My husband was able to merge his TOD and he’s very excited 🙂 I also wanted to let you know I just hit my 10 year OD birthday 😀 Thanks for everything 😀
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Thanks!
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i deleted my diary and then reopened it. i am utterly pissed to delete my diary only to find that other people get to keep any contents that i wrote in the notes sections. had i known that notes would not be deleted i would NEVER have left a SINGLE comment. this SHOULD be outlined SOMEWHERE when you begin a diary. NOW OTHER PEOPLE HAVE RIGHTS TO THINGS I WROTE. and of course their notes on private
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and now if i choice to leave this site indefinitely i cannot track who is using what material. this INFURIATES ME. AND NOWHERE, NOWHERE is this point clearly illustrated. i never agreed to allow others to keep personal content. ever. it almost defeats the purpose of writing entries if personal crap is scattered all abroad.
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Spam diary. Grr! 🙂 http://www.opendiary.com/entrylist.asp?authorcode=D806650
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DiaryMaster – Is it possible for you to find a way to make the Diary Style Change Screen compatible with Safari on Mac ?? I haven’t been able to change my diary style in AGES 🙁
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ok, so maybe you can help me. the last time there was a od problem i lost access to my old diary. it sent an email to my email that had been used to set the diary up, but unfortunately that was my college email that no longer exists – so i haven’t been able to access it. i have been going to my old diary (HappyHoo) and copying and pasting the entries into word, and then transferring them into..
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my new diary (Mrs.M). but this is obviously taking FOREVER. anyway we can make this easier? i don’t want to loose all those entries – they were from my first year of college through engagement and marriage and my first year of teaching. anything we can do other than my copying and pasting my old entries?
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I’d love you forever if you could somehow add an organization to bookmarks like you have for the friends lists.
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thanks for the advice 🙂
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