Short answer
These home education app settings let you make Willowfolio look and feel the way you want, choose how often the app emails you, and pick how activities get logged. Everything is under Settings in the sidebar, and most changes take effect the moment you save.
How do I update my account details?
Head to Settings, then Account to update three things: your display name, your email address and your password. When you set a new password, a strength meter appears as you type. It needs to be at least eight characters, and the meter shows you how strong it is before you save.
If you share Willowfolio with a co-parent, each of you has your own account. Changes you make here apply only to your login.
How do I customise themes and dark mode in the home education app?
Willowfolio comes with six themes. Each one changes the colour palette and the typography inside the app, so you can pick whichever feels most comfortable for long planning sessions. Your choice is per-user, which means that if two parents share a family account, each of you can pick a different theme and it will be remembered next time you sign in.
To switch themes, go to Settings, then Appearance and choose from the six options. The change is instant.
Dark mode has its own toggle in the sidebar, separate from the theme picker. You can switch to a darker theme for comfortable evening planning. Your choice is remembered next time you sign in, so you do not need to toggle it again each morning if you prefer to leave it on.
One thing worth knowing: emails from Willowfolio and any exported PDFs (including your Local Authority report, called the Council Report inside Willowfolio) always use the standard Willowfolio styling. Your chosen theme changes what you see inside the app, but it does not carry through to documents or emails. This keeps your council reports looking clean and consistent regardless of which theme you happen to prefer.
How do I manage email preferences?
Under Settings, then Account, then Email Preferences, you choose which gentle email summaries you want. The options are:
- A forward-looking weekly schedule for the week ahead.
- A weekly note on the past week, looking back at what was logged.
- A monthly reflection summarising the month.
- A quarterly termly check-in with a broader view of the term.
- An ad-hoc note when the logs suggest a sensitive period may be opening (a sensitive period is a window when a child is naturally drawn to a particular skill, like language or movement).
You can preview each one or send a test to yourself before committing. Tick the ones you want, untick the ones you do not, and you are done. If you change your mind later, come back and adjust.
How does activity logging mode work?
Under Settings, then Account, then Activity Logging, you choose how activity entries are created.
- Auto-generate means the app drafts activity entries from your schedule for you to confirm. You still review and edit them before they are saved, so nothing is logged without your say-so.
- Manual means you log each activity yourself when you are ready.
You can switch between the two at any time. There is no wrong choice here. Some homeschool parents like auto-generate because it saves time on busy days, especially if you are logging in five-minute windows between shifts or after the children are in bed. Others prefer manual because they want to log in their own words, in their own time.
How does this look in practice?
Priya, in Sheffield, usually plans after her two children are in bed. She switched to dark mode early on because the bright screen was hard on her eyes at 9pm, and she has left it on ever since.
When she first set up Willowfolio, auto-generate was turned on by default. She tried it for a fortnight but found she preferred writing her own notes in the evening rather than editing suggested entries. She switched to manual under Settings, then Activity Logging, and that was that.
For emails, Priya only ticks the weekly look-back. She likes having a short summary land in her inbox on Sunday evening so she can glance at the week behind her without opening the app. The monthly and quarterly emails felt like too much for now, so she unticked those. She knows she can turn them on later if she wants a bigger-picture view at report time.
Her theme is one of the warmer palettes, chosen because it felt less like a spreadsheet. Her co-parent, who logs activities on Saturday mornings, picked a different theme entirely. Both choices stick to their own logins.
Settings are reversible. If a choice does not suit, change it and move on.
If anything in Willowfolio settings is not doing what you expect, write to us at [email protected] and a real person will sort it out.
Frequently asked.
- Will my theme show up on my Local Authority report?
- No. All exported PDFs and emails use the standard Willowfolio styling, regardless of your chosen theme. Your theme only changes what you see inside the app.
- Can I change my activity logging mode back again later?
- Yes, at any time. Go to Settings, then Account, then Activity Logging and switch between auto-generate and manual whenever you like.
- If my co-parent also has an account, do they get the same theme as me?
- No. Themes are per-user. Each parent picks their own from the six available options, and each choice is remembered separately.
- Can I turn off all the emails?
- Yes. Under Email Preferences, untick every summary type and you will not receive any. You can always turn them back on when you are ready.