Hatena Blog Help

Get started with Hatena Blog

  1. What is Hatena Blog?
  2. Start using Hatena Blog

Simple access statistics

Click on "Settings" in the page header to access the Dashboard for your blog. Click on the name of the blog that you wish to see the access statistics for, then click on "Access log".

  • Access log
    • You can view either "Daily" or "Hourly" access data for your blog.
  • Recently linked
    • The 1,000 most recent referrer to your site are recorded and displayed.

Add photos or images to your blog entries

Use the sidebar on the right side of the entry window to add images to your blog entries. You can upload new images, or select previously uploaded images to use in your blog entries.

With "WYSIWYG Mode" you can see exactly how your images will appear in your blog as you edit. "Hatena Notation Mode" will allow you to edit the Hatena Notation code to modify how your images are displayed.

Upload a new image to use in your blog

  • Click the "Upload photo" button and choose a photo to upload from your computer. The photo will automatically be added to your blog entry and uploaded to Hatena Fotolife, Hatena's free online photo sharing service. You can upload a maximum of 30 MB of images per month to Hatena Fotolife.
  • When using some browsers such as Internet Explorer, a "Select" button may appear in place of the "Upload photo" button. In this case, please use the "Select" button to upload your photos.
  • Hatena Blog will upload your photos to a directory named "Hatena Blog" unless you specify otherwise. The privacy settings for the "Hatena Blog" folder are set to "Private". You can upload your photos to other folders by choosing a different one from the pulldown menu directly below the "Upload photo" button.
Tip
The latest versions of Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari allow you to drag and drop images to the "Upload photo" button, or to the list of photos to upload them.

Use previously uploaded images in your blog

  • If you have previously uploaded images to Hatena Fotolife, you can use them in your blog entries too. Click the "Upload photo" button on the sidebar on the right side of the entry window, and a list of your previously uploaded images will be displayed. You can choose photos from different folders by using the pulldown menu directly below the "Upload photo" button.
  • To add previously uploaded images to your blog, click on the photo(s) that you wish to use, and then click on "Post the selected images" button to add them. You can select more than one image at a time.

Community Guidelines

The following Community Guidelines are here to help you understand what it means to be a member of the Hatena Blog community. Your use of Hatena Blog is subject to these Community Guidelines and the Hatena Terms of Use.

About Hatena Blog

Hatena Blog is a place to post original content to express yourself, inspire others, and share useful information with people around the world.

Recommended Uses of Hatena Blog

  • Write about things that are important to you.
    • Share your everyday feelings or thoughts with others.
    • Tell readers about things that you are interested in.
  • Document your daily life or things that happen to you.
    • Share special events and information with your friends or colleagues.
    • Write about family and relationships, or about times you want to remember.
    • Let others know about your future plans or dreams.
    • Documents your daily routines, hobbies or pastimes.
  • Share information with the general public.
    • Share your writing or art with others.
    • Let people know about events that are taking place.
    • Share useful knowledge or information to help others.
    • Make public announcements for your organization.

Advertising Policy

We do not allow Hatena Blog to be used solely for advertising, publicity, solicitation for commercial purposes, or to drive traffic to third-party commercial websites except as expressly allowed by Hatena. However, the following limited commercial uses of the Hatena Blog service are permitted:

  • Advertisements by groups or individuals on their blog that are related to promotion of their own group or individual activities.
  • Introducing products or links to products or services in a blog is allowed only in cases where the blog contains an entirely original review or content specifically related to those products or services, written solely by the author of the blog.

For more information about advertisement and publicity permitted on Hatena Blog, please see the "Prohibited Advertisement and Commercial Usage Types" section below. In addition, Hatena allows users to make use of affiliate programs on Hatena Blog, under the condition that usage of these programs does not violate any of the rules in these Community Guidelines and the Hatena Terms of Use.

Use of Google AdSense on this Site

Google AdSense advertisements are displayed on Hatena Blog. The display of these ads cannot be disabled.

Important Notes

  • Hatena Blog is accessed by people of all ages, including minors. Please do not post images, videos or text which contain pornographic or sexually explicit content, graphic or gratuitous violence, or content that promotes hate or violence towards specific groups or individuals.
  • Hatena does not tolerate bullying or harassment. Repeatedly targeting other users with unwanted comments, or misusing the add star or blog subscription feature is a form of harassment.
  • Claiming to be another person, creating a false presence for an organization, or creating blog URLs that are offensive to public order and morals violates Hatena's terms.
  • Creating multiple accounts or blog URLs for illegitimate purposes, or use of multiple accounts to abuse Hatena's online services is prohibited when using the Hatena Blog Website.

Prohibited Uses

The following activities are prohibited when using Hatena Blog:

  • Posting illegal or dangerous content, content that infringes on the intellectual property rights of others, or any other content that is prohibited in the Hatena Terms of Use.
  • Installing or distributing scripts or code which may cause annoyance to other users.
  • Selling or otherwise transferring your account or blog URL without the consent of Hatena.
  • Hatena, in its sole discretion, may also prohibit actions, other than those listed here, which are determined by Hatena to be unacceptable.

Prohibited Advertisement and Commercial Usage Types

Users must ensure that any advertisement and commercial usage of Hatena Blog does not contain any of the following types of prohibited content:

  • Inclusion of ads which promote illegal items or activities, or ads which contain false, misleading, fraudulent, or deceptive claims or content.
  • Inclusion of content which promotes multi-level marketing or pyramid schemes.
  • Content which directs or incites prospective buyers to contact sellers directly, or inclusion of contact information such as email addresses, postal address or telephone numbers for sellers.
  • Ads may not promote the sale or use of adult products or services, nor contain any content which may be offensive to public order and morals.
  • Inclusion of ads or hyperlinks which have no connection to the content of blog entries.
  • Inclusion of keywords which have no connection to the content of blog entries.
  • Use of meaningless computer-generated text, or reposting content from other blogs or sites for commercial purposes.
  • Use of any text, images, product descriptions or reviews from other websites or sources which were not written by yourself for commercial purposes.
  • Ads must not violate the rights of any third parties, advertising provider or sponsor.
  • Multiple cross linking or posting of the same hyperlinks by individuals, groups, or organizations for commercials purposes.
  • Use of hidden or deceptive links, or links to sites that contain spyware, malware, or any software that performs actions hidden to the user.
  • Inclusion of content which directs users to third party websites solely to generate revenue, or content posted only for the purpose of search engine optimization to generate revenue.

Other Precautions

Protection of Users Aged 18 and Under

  • Attempting to exchange contact information, propositioning or suggesting real-life encounters with individuals under the age of 18 is not allowed on Hatena's online services and may result in the immediate removal of your blog and termination of your Hatena account.
  • Hatena may involve and cooperate with law enforcement in cases of suspected bullying, physical abuse, harassment, or sex crimes involving users under the age of 18.

Account Warnings and Account Termination

  • Hatena may attempt to contact you at the email address associated with your Hatena account if you post content which violates these Community Guidelines or the Hatena Terms of Use. Hatena reserves the right to terminate accounts of users if no response is received when an inquiry is made to the email address associated with their Hatena account, or if the user has provided false or outdated contact information. Please check and update the email address associated with your Hatena account regularly.

Changes to these Community Guidelines

These Community Guidelines may be updated from time to time, so please check this page regularly.

Policy Enforcement

The standard of behavior we expect of Hatena Blog users is set out in these Community Guidelines and the Hatena Terms of Use. The following actions may be taken when users violate any of these rules:

  • Blog entries may be removed from popular blog lists and recommended blog lists.
  • Blogs may be permanently set to private mode and/or removed from public view.
  • Blogs may be permanently removed from the service.
  • Users may have their IP addresses temporarily or permanently blocked from the service.
  • Users may be temporarily or permanently suspended from accessing, possessing or creating any other Hatena account.

In appropriate cases, referrals will be made to outside law enforcement agencies for content posted to Hatena Blog which is illegal, or may harm, threaten, or violate the rights or the safety of any person.

Editing Modes

Hatena Blog has three different editing modes.

Tip

When you first create your blog, WYSIWYG mode will be enabled. If you don't understand Hatena Notation or know how to use HTML tags, we recommend that you use this mode.

If you are accustomed to using Hatena Notation and HTML tags in your blog entries, we recommend you use Hatena Notation Mode.

WYSIWYG Mode

Preview how your blog will look when it is published as you make it with WYSIWYG Mode. You can switch between the "WYSIWYG Mode", "Edit HTML" and "Preview" tabs when using this mode

Hatena Notation Mode

This mode is for experienced users who wish to use Hatena Notation and HTML tags in blog entries. You can switch between the "Edit" and "Preview" tabs when using this mode.

Using Hatena Notation

You can use Hatena's original syntax,Hatena Notation, with this mode.
For examples about what you can do with Hatena Notation please see Hatena Diary Help (in Japanese only).

  • Not all types of Hatena Notation can be used on Hatena Blog.
  • Some Hatena Notation may have different results on Hatena Blog than on other Hatena online services.。

Markdown Mode

You can use Markdown notation on Hatena Blog. Markdown is commonly used for making web documents on services including Github and Tumblr.

Blog Groups

Blog Groups connect blogs with common themes into communities where people can share their thoughts and ideas.

Features of Blog Groups

Blog groups have the following useful features:

  • A "Blogs in this group" list is displayed
  • A list of recently updated blogs in the group is displayed.

Joining and leaving groups

You can freely join or leave groups as you wish. Click on the "Join" or "Leave" buttons to associate or disassociate your blog with a group.

How to join a group

Joining a group is easy. Choose the blog that that you wish to associate with a group, and then click the "Join" button.

How to leave a group

Access your "Groups joined" list and click on the "X" next to the name of the group that you wish to leave .

Groups you have joined

View a list of the groups that you have joined by accessing your Dashboard and clicking on the "Groups joined" tab.

Create your own blog group

All users of Hatena Blog can create their own groups.

  1. Select the "Groups joined" tab on your Dashboard
  2. Click on "Create new group"
  3. Choose a group name, description, icon, and blogs to associate with the group.
  4. Click on "Create group" to finish.

Managing groups

You can change the group name, description, and icon at any time from "Group settings" on the group's page.

Important notes about privacy

  • Groups can be viewed by anyone on the internet. It is not possible to make a private or secret group.
  • Please use only groups with "Public" privacy settings in groups. If you add a group with a privacy setting other than "Public" the title and the URL will become visible to third-parties.

Use blog widgets and social media plug-ins

You can use all sorts of blog widgets and social media plug-ins with Hatena Blog. Access the "Settings" menu at the top of your blog page, then choose "Design" and click on the Customize tab to get started.

Change the design of your blog

Add blog widgets and plug-ins to individual blog entries

You can enable social media plug-ins such as a Facebook "Like" button, Hatena Bookmark button (B! button), and more by clicking on the "Entry" item found in the "Customize" tab.

Default social media plug-ins

Some commonly used social media plug-ins have been provided for you to use. By default all of the plug-ins are disabled. Click the checkboxes to enable or disable the plug-ins you want to use.

Design → Customize → Entry → Social Options

Choose the buttons that you wish to display and click on the "Update Design" button at the top of the sidebar. The items you have selected will then appear in your blog.

Blog widgets and social media plug-ins will also be shown on the top page of your blog. Use of many different widgets takes some time to process, and they will be displayed as they load when you scroll pages.

Use third party blog widgets and plug-ins

You can also install third party blog widgets and social plug-ins.

Add widgets to display links related to your blog entries, comments posted on other social networks, or install other plug-in types by clicking on the "Customize" tab, then selecting the "Entry" tab, and modifying the "Entry footer" section.

  1. Copy the HTML code for the blog widget or plug-in from the site that provides it.
  2. From the design settings page for your blog, choose "Customize" and then click "Entry".
  3. Paste the HTML code into the "Entry footer" box, and then click on the "Update Design" button.

The blog widgets that you install into the "Entry footer" section will only be displayed on the individual blog entries that you have installed them for. The install process has been designed in this way to prevent large-scale errors that may occur when blog widgets do not function properly.

Variables that can be used in the "Entry footer"

The "Entry Footer" section uses the following variables to send unique URLs and entry titles to social media plug-ins:

Variable Description
{Title} Entry title
{Permalink} Entry URL
{URLEncodedPermalink} URL encoded entry URL

Add blog widgets or plug-ins to the sidebar

You can add blog widgets and plug-ins to the sidebar of your blog as a "HTML Module" .

  1. Copy the HTML code for the blog widget or plug-in from the site that provides it.
  2. From the design settings page for your blog, choose "Customize" and then click "Sidebar".
  3. Click on "+ Add module"
  4. Select "HTML"
  5. Paste the HTML code for the blog widget or plug-in in the area where "<p> ... </p>" is displayed.
  6. Add a title for the module and then click "Apply". The new module will then appear in the sidebar for your blog.
  7. You can change the order of your modules to position them as you like with your mouse.
  8. Click on "Update Design" to save your changes.

Please note that with certain design themes, sidebar modules may appear below blog entries instead of in the sidebar.

Add blog widgets or plug-ins to all of your blog entries

If you wish to install blog widgets or plug-ins to all of your blog entries, click on "Customize" to add HTML code to the "Header", "Below the title" or "Footer" sections of your blog.

You can install code in these parts of your blog for purposes such as changing the user cursor type, or to perform modifications that affect all pages of your blog.

Blog settings

Basic settings

Access the management screen for your blog, by clicking on the "Settings" link in the page header. Next, click on the "Settings" button to the right of the name of the blog you wish to modify, or click the name of the blog you want to modify and click on the "Settings" button on the left side of the screen.

Blog URL This is the URL for your blog. You cannot change this once you have set it.
Title Create or change the title for your blog.
Description Create or change the description for your blog.
Language Choose either Japanese or English as the language setting for your blog.
Editing mode You can choose either WYSIWYG Mode, Hatena Notation Mode or Markdown Mode. For more information please see our help section about Editing modes.
Comment settings Choose who can post comments on your blog, or show only comments that you approve

Advanced settings

Blog icon You can set the icon that is used to identify your blog, which is displayed in browser tabs, bookmarks, smartphone home pages and other locations.
Entries per page Choose how many entries are displayed on each page of your blog. You can choose from 1 - 15 entries per page.
Entry URL Choose the style of URLs that are used for your blog.
Posts by email You can post blog entries by sending emails to the email addresses that are displayed here. You can also post draft versions of blog entries to edit later by sending emails to the "Draft posting address".
Analysis tools Add analysis tools to your blog such as Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools or Bing Webmaster Tools.
Search Engine Optimization Add a summary, meta keywords, or your Google + Profile to your blog to optimize how your blog appears within Internet search engines.
Delete blog Clicking this button will delete your blog. This process cannot be undone, so please use this button with caution. The name of the blog that will be deleted is displayed at the top left of your screen. Please make sure that you are deleting the correct blog if you have more than one.

Link to other online services

Connect your Hatena Blog to social media services such as Twitter, Facebook and mixi to let your friends or followers know when you have updated your blog. You can also link your Instagram and Evernote accounts to use data from those services in Hatena Blog.

You will need to enter your username and password for other social media services in order to link them to your Hatena account. You can also choose to activate of deactivate links to other services at any time.

Change the design of your blog

Click on the "Design" button on the left side of the management screen for your blog. The design settings sidebar will appear, and you can preview how your blog will look as your make changes.

The "Back to Admin" and "Update Design" buttons are displayed at the top of the design settings panel. Your changes will not be applied until you click on "Update Design".

There are two tabs in the design settings panel which are "Themes" and "Customize". Change the entire look of your blog by setting a theme displayed in the "Themes" tab, or customize the sidebar and other specific parts of your blog in the "Customize" tab.

Design themes

Hatena Blog themes designed by Hatena are displayed under the "Design" tab. You can also see themes designed by Hatena Blog users by accessing the "Theme Store".

Customize

You can customize various parts of your blog. Click on the item name for the part of your blog that you wish to modify to make changes.

Item Description
Background image/ Background color Customize your blog by changing the background color or background image.
Header Upload an image to display in the header, or customize the HTML in the header. (Use blog widgets and social media plug-ins)
Entry Add or remove social media plug-ins or blog widgets to your blog, or customize the HTML used in the section below your blog entries. (Use blog widgets and social media plug-ins)
Sidebar You can install modules such "Search" or "Recent Entries" here. Click on "+ Add module" to install new modules, or rearranging the order modules are displayed by moving them with your mouse. (Add sidebar modules to your blog)
Footer You can freely modify the HTML used in the footer section of your blog entries. (Use blog widgets and social media plug-ins)
Stylesheet Modify the CSS stylesheet to fully customize the look of your blog.

Get started with Hatena Blog

Access the Create Blog page to make your blog in three easy steps.

1. Choose the URL for your blog

Select a domain that you would like to use from the domain list.
The text that appears before the domain, is called the subdomain. The subdomain is by default your Hatena ID, but you may change it to anything that you like. Please note that Hatena Blog has the following restrictions on subdomains that you can use:

  • You can only use alphabetical letters (A-Z), numbers (0-9) and hyphens (-) in your subdomains. Subdomains are not case-sensitive, so use of upper or lowercase will not affect the URL.
  • Hyphens cannot be used as the first or last characters for your subdomain. Hyphens cannot be used in series in your subdomain either.
  • Your URL will be displayed with the format "subdomain.domain". You cannot use a subdomain that another user has already created.
  • Certain subdomains which contain trademarked or inappropriate names cannot be used.

2. Choose who can read your blog

You can choose from two privacy settings when you create your blog.

  • Public: Anyone on the internet can read your blog.
  • Private: Only you can read your blog.

You can change your privacy settings at anytime, or customize the settings so that only certain people you can read your blog from the settings page of your Dashboard.

3. Click on the "Create Blog" button

After you click the "Create Blog" button, your blog will be created.

You can create a maximum of 3 different blogs with your Hatena account.

Add sidebar modules to your blog

Click on the "Customize" tab on the Design settings page then click on the "Sidebar" item to modify or add modules to the sidebar section on your blog.

  • Click on the "+ Add module" button to install more modules.
  • Use your mouse to arrange modules in the order that you like, by dragging and dropping them.
  • Click on "Edit" to edit modules, or "Delete" to remove them.
Module Description
Profile Display your Hatena Blog profile.
Search Display a search box for your blog entries.
Links Display links related to your blog.
Recent entries Display blog entries in the order that they have been posted (most recent first). You can also access your domain name followed by /archive to see a list of your entries.
Monthly Archive Display a monthly or yearly summary of your blog entries. Click on the month or the year to see a list of what you posted during that time. The list can be displayed or hidden by clicking on the triangular icon to the left of the year. Monthly entries from the most recent year will be displayed when users first access the page.
Category Display a list of categories for blog entries that you have posted. You can choose to display the order in three ways: "Recently Used Categories", "Most Used Categories", or "Alphabetical".
Recent Comments Display the most recent comments that have been posted on your blog. Choose to display either the most recent 5, 10, 15, or 20 comments.
HTML Use HTML here as you like, or paste the HTML for blog widgets. (Use blog widgets and social media plug-ins) You can also use HTTP Notation (a Hatena format for displaying URLs in non-traditional way) or ASIN Notation (a Hatena format for introducing items on Amazon.jp) here, or other types of Hatena notation code for displaying inline formats.
Groups Joined Displays the Hatena Blog groups that you have joined. (Blog Groups)

Details of the "Profile" module

The following settings can be made with the "Profile" module.

Item Description
Title You can set a custom title for the profile area.
Profile image Show your Hatena profile icon that is set in your "My Hatena" settings.
Hatena ID Choose to display your Hatena ID in the profile section or not. Please note that your Hatena ID is also displayed at the end of your blog entries, and on the footer of your blog pages which is not changed by this setting.
Blog description You can display a description for your blog. Hatena Notation can also be used here. The initial settings for this will be taken from the description you entered on the "Settings" section of your blog's Dashboard. Please note that the description here and on the "Settings" section of your blog's Dashboard are different, and editing one will not change the other.
Subscribe button Display a button to allow readers to subscribe to your blog (Subscribe to blogs)
Add Friend button Allow readers to add you as a friend on Facebook with this button.
Facebook Subscribe button Allow readers to subscribe to you on Facebook with this button.
Follow button Allow readers to follow you on Twitter with this button.

Facebook and Twitter functionality can only be enabled if you have turned on your External Service Settings. If you wish to enable the Facebook "Subscribe" button, you will need to change your settings on Facebook to "Allow subscribers".

About page

If you add /about after the URL for any domain name on Hatena Blog, you can view information about the person who posted that blog. The page shows the Hatena ID of the user and their profile image. This function cannot be disabled.

Post blog entries by email

Every blog on Hatena Blog has a unique "Posting address" that you can use to create blog entries by sending emails. You can find your posting address by accessing the Advanced tab on the settings page for your blog.

  • The title of your email will be the blog entry title, and the email text will be the blog entry text.
  • Images attached to emails will be displayed at the top of the blog entry.
    • Images attached to emails will be uploaded to your "Hatena Blog" folder on Hatena Fotolife, with a privacy setting of "Private",
  • Use WYSIWYG mode to send HTML encoded email messages and pre-format your blog entry as you like in your email client.
  • Use Hatena Notation mode to include Hatena Notation in emails and format your blog entry as you like in your email text.
  • Add ".hatena" to the posting address before the @ symbol to enable use of Hatena Notation in WYSIWYG mode.
  • You can also create drafts for future blog entries by sending emails to the draft posting address.
  • You can send your blog entries from email addresses other than the one you used for your Hatena registration.

Change the privacy settings for your blog

When you first create a blog you can choose a privacy setting to control who is able to access and read your blog.

You can make more adjustments to who can or cannot view your blog by accessing the Privacy Settings page.

You can choose from the following three privacy settings for your blog:

  1. Public: Anyone on the internet can read your blog.
  2. Private: No one can read your blog but you.
  3. Custom: Create or specify a custom privacy setting.

Public

If you set your blog to "Public", it can be accessed by anyone on the internet.
Please be aware that if your blog was previously set to a different privacy setting such as "Custom" or "Private", and you then choose to change it to "Public", all of your previous entries will become viewable by anyone on the internet.

Private

If you set your blog to the "Private" setting it can only be accessed by you. After you apply this setting, all of your previous entries will also be hidden and will only be viewable by you.

Create a custom privacy setting

Choose "Custom" from the privacy settings selection area to create your own custom privacy setting.

Click on "Edit this privacy setting" to customize the settings. The default setting here is "Show friends".

Show friends

Friends that you have made on other Hatena online services, such as Hatena Coco will be the only people who can access your blog. You can see who is on your friends list on Hatena by accessing your Hatena Coco Friends List page. Please note that most of the functions of Hatena Coco are only available in Japanese.

Create a new privacy setting

To create a new privacy setting, select "New Privacy Setting" from the pull-down menu, and the click on "Create a new privacy setting"。

When you create or edit privacy settings, you will be directed to a page where you can manage privacy settings that can be used on all of Hatena's online services. You can create new privacy settings here, modify privacy settings, or give privacy settings names for your own reference.

Types of Privacy Settings you can use

Show friends/Friends of friends

You can choose to limit access to your blog to only your friends on Hatena Coco, or allow friends of those friends to access your blog too.

Allow friends on other online services such as Facebook, mixi, etc., to access your blog

You can also allow friends from other online services such as your Windows Live Contacts (People), Facebook Friends, mixi Friends, People you follow on Twitter, or Twitter Followers to be able access to your blog entries.

In order to enable these functions for external services you will need to link these services with your Hatena account. Access your External Application Authentication page to link other services with your Hatena ID. Please note that people on other services you allow to access your blog must also have their external accounts (such as Facebook/mixi/Twitter accounts) linked to their Hatena ID in order to access your blog.

Alllow specific users access to your blog

You can also grant access to your blog to specific users who you have connections with on other Hatena online services (such as Hatena Groups).

Block specific users from accessing your blog

If you want to block someone from accessing your blog, you can choose to block them from your list of users who you have connections with on other Hatena online services (such as Hatena Groups).

Require users to answer a question to access your blog (Question Authentication)

You can have a question displayed that needs to be answered for users to access your blog. Only people who can answer the question correctly will be able to read your blog with this setting.

Question Authentication can be used together with other privacy settings to allow certain users to not have to answer the question in order to view your blog.

Display an access rejected message to users

If you have applied a "Custom" or "Private" privacy setting to your blog, you can choose a message to display to users who do not have permission to access your blog. Enter the message you wish to be displayed in the "Rejection message" section.

Writing blog entries

Access the editing window for your blog at anytime

Preview exactly how your blog will look as you edit or create it.

  • Click on the "New Entry" link in the page header to create a new entry.
  • Click on the "Edit" button when viewing your own blog to make changes to an existing entry.

Use the "New Entry" button on your Dashboard

You can create a new blog entry from the blog management screen, also known as the "Dashboard".

  • Select the blog you wish to create an entry for from the list under "My Blogs" on the Dashboard page. Next, click on the "New Entry" button. The editor window will appear and you can start entering your text.
  • You can also click on the name of the blog you wish to create an entry for from the list under "My Blogs" to open it's management page. You can then use the "New Entry" button on the left side of your screen to create a new entry.
  • You can edit entries you have already posted from the blog management page. Click on "Manage Entries", then click on the "Edit" button for the entry you wish to edit.

You can also use the "New Entry" button on the top header of the Dashboard screen to create a new entry.

More tools for making blog entries

Categories

Click on the category tab Category on the sidebar on the right of your screen to create a category or choose an existing one for each blog entry you write.

  • Categories you have created previously will be displayed. You can click on the category name to set the category for your entry.
  • Click on the "+ New Category" button to create a new category.
  • After you have set a category for your blog entry, the category name will be displayed under the blog title.
    • Users can click on the category name to see all blog entries in that category.

Change post time and use custom URLs

Access the Editing Options tab Editing options to modify the post times and URLs for your blog entries.

  • Date/time posted setting: You can change the date/time that is displayed as the post time for your blog entry.
    • This function will not allow to you set a date/time in the future and have your entry be automatically posted at that time. The entry will be posted at the time that you choose to make it "Public" from the editor screen. In the future, we may develop a way to automatically post blog entires at user specified times.
  • Custom URL: You can specify the text to displayed after "/entry/" in the URL for each of your blog entries.

Reading blogs

Several different privacy settings can be used on Hatena Blog

  • Blogs set to "Public" mode can be accessed and read by anyone.
  • Blogs with custom privacy settings can only be accessed and read by authorized users.
  • Blogs which require Question Authenication can only be accessed and read by users who can answer a question correctly.

All of your blog entries will be searched when a user enters terms into the search tool.

Subscribe to blogs to check them easily

You can subscribe to blogs that interest you on Hatena Blog. Check the latest updates to blogs you are subscribed to on your "Dashboard".

The Dashboard can be accessed by clicking on "Settings" in the page header.

Subscribe to blogs

Click on the "Subscribe" button in the blog sidebar (in the Profile module) to subscribe to a blog. After you have subscribed, you can easily check the latest entries in the blog from your Dashboard.

For certain blog designs, the "Subscribe" button may appear at the bottom of the sidebar.

When someone subscribes to your blog, you will be notified in the "Your notifications" section of the page header.

Blog subscribers list

A list of a blog's subscribers can be viewed on the blog's "About" page. The subscribers list is displayed to all users.

Example: http://staff-en.hatenablog.com/about

If you click on the icons displayed for subscribers you can see the main blog posted by those users. Please note that if a subscriber does not have their main blog set to "Public", then the subscriber will not be listed in the subscribers list.

Unsubscribe from blogs

If you wish to unsubscribe from a blog, access the blog's page. The "Subscribe" button in the sidebar changes to "Subscribed" for blogs that you had subscribed to. Simply click on the "Subscribed" button to unsubscribe from a blog.

Hatena Blog Theme Creation Guide

You can use your own CSS to create original theme designs on Hatena Blog. Post your designs to the Theme Store to share your creations with other Hatena Blog users. The information here is intended for web designers who wish to learn how to create original theme designs for Hatena Blog.

Prior knowledge of CSS is recommended if you want to create original themes for Hatena Blog.

Preparing to create a theme

Before you start creating a theme, make sure you have the proper system environment in place to facilitate viewing your design.

Create a blog for checking your theme

We recommend that you create an entirely new blog for the purpose of checking your theme. Set the privacy setting for your blog to "Private" so it can be viewed by only you, unless you are creating a theme together with someone else who needs to access the blog.

You can make up to 3 blogs with your Hatena account. (Get started with Hatena Blog)

Copy the sample entry

We have prepared a Sample Entry which contains all of the necessary items to check your design.

Copy the content from the sample entry, and paste it into the edit window for the blog you are using to check your design. Next, post this as a new blog entry. As you edit the CSS for your theme, you can use this entry to check your work.

Sample Theme

Please see the sample theme "Boilerplate" created by Hatena, and use it as a reference for creating your customized CSS design.

If it is difficult for you to create your now CSS theme from scratch, you can build upon the CSS in the sample theme to get started quickly.

How to use the Boilerplate theme

The Boilerplate theme source code (CSS and LESS file) can be obtained on GitHub.

View the source code for the Boilerplate theme on GitHub

This Boilerplate CSS and LESS file is distributed under the MIT License, and permission is granted to copy and redistribute this sample theme and works based upon it.

Feel fee to copy the entry text style, comment box style, etc. and use them as necessary.

Hatena Blog page structure

Hatena Blog uses the following types of pages and structure. Your design needs to display properly on all of these page types.

Top page
┣ Permalink
┣ About page
┣ Archive page
┣ Archive/Category page
┗ Category page

CSS checklist

When creating an original theme, you will need to at least write CSS for the following places. Make sure that you have written code for all of the places on this checklist.

  • Blog title
  • Blog description
  • Entry
    • Date
    • Category
    • "Edit" link
    • Keyword link
    • Advertisement below the blog entry
    • Comments field
  • Sidebar module
    • Profile, Recent Entries and various other modules
  • Pager (page changer)
  • Footer
  • About page
  • Archive page
  • Category page
    • Category breadcrumb list

Important points about design and coding

Before you post your theme to the Theme Store, please make sure that you have followed the guidelines below:

  • Make sure that your theme displays properly on IE8 and above, Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Opera web browsers.
  • Do not move or hide the header.
  • Make sure that all of the functions of Hatena Blog work properly with your design.
    • If your theme has any bugs, or certain Hatena Blog functions cannot be used with it or are disabled, please be sure to let users know about this in the theme description you provide when posting to the Theme Store.
  • We recommend that you host the images that you use in your themes on Hatena Fotolife, which is a free image hosting service provided by Hatena.

How to apply custom page designs

Use the "Customize" tab in Design settings to customize designs.

Background images

  • Users can choose from provided images, or upload their own.
  • When the user specifies a background image, a style like the one below is used in the "Design CSS" field.
/* <system section="background" selected="bg1"> */
body{ background-color:#3e2d1b; background-image:url('/images/theme/backgrounds/theme1.jpg'); background-repeat:no-repeat; background-attachment:fixed; background-position:center top; background-size:cover; }
/* </system> */

Title Image

  • The user can upload their own image.
  • The default header height is 200 pixels and the maximum width is 1,000 pixels.
  • When you specify a title image, you can specify the following inline styles with div#blog-title-inner:
<div id="blog-title-inner" style="background-image: url('http://example.com/20121206113746.jpg'); background-position: center [user specified number] px;">
   <h1 id="title"><a href="/">Hatena Blog Developers Validation Checker Blog</a></h1>
   <h2 id="blog-description">Blog description</h2>           
</div>
Title image class
  • When you specify a title image, the following classes will be assigned to the body tag:
  • This is basically adjusted in advance. Minor modifications are made for each theme.
Ways to display title images class assigned to body
No title image -
Show images and text header-image-enable
Show only images header-image-only

Places where HTML can be freely added

  • Users can freely add HTML under the title, under the entry, and in the footer.
  • No style is required in these places, and it can be left blank.
Places where HTML can be added Description
Under the title div#top-editarea can contain any type of HTML.
Under the blog entry div.entry-footer-html can contain any type of HTML. You can use this to add features such as "zenback"
Footer div#bottom-editarea can contain any type of HTML.

Useful tip

Change the header background color and text color
  • The header is the area above the blog, which is a bar that contains the Hatena Blog logo and the menu for user operations.
  • The header contains an iframe, and you can use the CSS below to change the color inside of the iframe. The logo color will change along with the text color.
#globalheader-container {
    color: #333;
    background: #fff;
}

Sample Entry

This is a sample entry that can be used as a reference when making custom themes for Hatena Blof. Copy the following text and create a new entry with it.

This entry contains Hatena Notation code. Please make sure to enable Hatena Notation Mode for your blog before you create your entry by accessing "Settings" -> "Editing Mode" -> "Hatena Notation Mode" .

** Paragraph
How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.

Six big juicy steaks sizzled in a pan as five workmen left the quarry.

** Fotolife
*** Left
[f:id:hatenablog:20101106100658j:image:w300:left]How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.
<br style="clear:both">

*** Right
[f:id:hatenablog:20101106100658j:image:w300:right]How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.
<br style="clear:both">

*** Block
[f:id:hatenablog:20101106100658j:image:w300]How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.

*** Large image
[f:id:hatenablog:20101106100658j:image]How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.

<h1>h1 heading</h1><p>How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.<br/>ABCDEFGHIJKLMabcdefghijklm1234567890</p>

<h2>h2 heading</h2><p>How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.<br/>ABCDEFGHIJKLMabcdefghijklm1234567890</p>

*h3(*)
How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMabcdefghijklm1234567890

** h4 heading(**)
How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMabcdefghijklm1234567890

*** h5 heading(***)
How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMabcdefghijklm1234567890

<h6>h6 heading</h6><p>How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.<br/>ABCDEFGHIJKLMabcdefghijklm1234567890</p>

** asin
How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.
[asin:4798110523:detail]
How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.

** Citation
>http://d.hatena.ne.jp/hatenadiary/20071112/1194858362:title=The Hatena Theme Design Content has Started - Hatena Diary Official Blog>
From Novemer 12 -  November 27, the contest will be taking place. Anyone can enter, and there are no fees to submit your entries. We are looking forward to seeing your designs and will announce the winners on December 10.
<<

** List(ul,ol,dl)
How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.
-1 First prize: 5,000 Bagels
-9 Runner-ups: 10 Baguettes
--1 First prize: 5,000 Bagels
--9 Runner-ups: 10 Baguettes

How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.
+1 First prize: 5,000 Bagels
+9 Runner-ups: 10 Baguettes
++1 First prize: 5,000 Bagels
++9 Runner-ups: 10 Baguettes

How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.
:1 First prize: 5,000 Bagels
:9 Runner-ups: 10 Baguettes

** Table
How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.
|*Name|*Color|*Amount|
|Apples|Red|1|
|Oranges|Orange|2|
How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.

** PRE
>|css|
.XXX {
  width:999px;
  height:999px;
}

.propA, .propB, .propC {
  width:999px;
  height:999px;
}

#YYY {
  width:9px;
  height:999px;
}
||< 

What is Hatena Blog?

Hatena has built upon years of experience as one of the top blogging sites in Japan to bring you a highly advanced and easy-to-use blog service. We look forward to your enjoyment of Hatena Blog!

Four of the main features of Hatena Blog are as follows:

  1. Easily edit your blog entries as you view them, even after you have published them online.
  2. Publish your blog on a domain name that you choose.
  3. Hatena Blog is fully optimized for smartphones.
  4. Hatena Blog is always being improved upon based on feedback from our user community.

Supported browsers

Hatena Blog has been tested to work with the latest versions of Internet Explorer (version 8 and above), Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and Opera.