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Getting Started
| Frequently Asked Questions
Below are answers to our most frequently asked questions. You can find more extensive help content in the following languages:
Frequently Asked Questions:Getting StartedHow do I create a Blogger account?
On the Blogger homepage, click "Create Your Blog Now," and create a Google Account. Keep in mind that you might already have a Google Account if you've previously used Google products such as orkut, Google Groups, Gmail, and others - if that's the case, go ahead and just sign in. Then, choose your display name and accept Blogger's Terms of Service. Once that's all set, you're ready to start blogging!
How do I create a Blogger blog?
Once you've created a Blogger account, sign in to www.blogger.com and click "Create a Blog." On Step 2, enter a title and an address (URL) for your blog. Type the letters in the word verification box to prove you're a real person, and click "Continue." On Step 3, you can choose a template for your blog; this is how it will appear to your readers. Blogger then creates your new blog, which appears at the address you chose in Step 2.
How do I post to my blog?
On your Dashboard, click "New Post" next to the blog to which you'd like to post. Start by giving your post a title (optional), and then enter the post itself. When you're done, click the "Preview" link to preview what it will look like once it's published. Once you're satisfied with your post, click "Publish."
How do I post pictures?
You can upload photos using the image icon in the post editor's toolbar. When you click this icon, you'll get a window that allows you to select an image or multiple images from your computer. Just click "Browse" to locate the ones you want. Alternatively, you can enter the URL of an image that is already online to insert it into your post. If you click on the link for choosing a layout, you can customize the way your images will appear in your post. The left, center and right options will determine how the text of your post flows around the pictures. This size option lets you scale the pictures to different sizes within this posting area.
How do I add my photo to my profile?
First, click the "Edit Profile" link on your dashboard. Scroll down to the "Photograph" section, where you can either choose a file from your computer or enter the URL of the image if the photo you want can be found online. Please note that the image must be 50k or smaller in size.
Where does my blog's title appear?
Your blog's title, as set in the Settings | Basic tab in Blogger, can appear in multiple places: on your published blog, on your Dashboard, and in your profile. So make sure it's creative!
What's a URL?
A URL is the address of a file on the Web, such as
www.example.com, or foo.example.com. During the blog creation process, you'll have to select a URL for your blog. Visitors can access your blog by typing this URL into the address bar of their browsers. Since there are already a large number of Blogspot blogs, you'll need to get creative and possibly try a few different URLs before you find one that's available. The format for your URL will benameyouchoose.blogspot.com. When selecting your blog's URL, remember that you can only use letters, numbers, and hyphens. Special characters such as $, #, &, etc. are not permitted.You can also host your blog on a custom domain. Your AccountI can't sign in. What should I do?
You can recover your Google Account sign-in information by clicking "Can't access your account?" on the Blogger sign-in page, or you can use the Google Accounts Password Assistance page. Remember that your Google account username is the full email address you used to create your account (e.g. yourname@example.com). If you can sign in to your account but don't see the appropriate blog(s) on your Dashboard, it's likely that you're signed in to the wrong account. In this case, try signing in with all of your email addresses, using the Password Assistance form if necessary. Please try this even if you think you only have one account. We see many cases where people have accidentally created an extra account without realizing it, so checking this on your own is usually the fastest way to get your blog back.
How do I delete a blog?
To delete your entire blog, go to the Settings | Basictab. Make absolutely sure that you're on the right blog and that you want to permanently remove that blog from your account. Then click "Delete This Blog." Everything will be deleted, except for photos that you've uploaded to your blog. These will still remain in Picasa albums, which you can access by going to picasaweb.google.com.
How do I cancel my account?
To delete your Google Account, which will delete your blogs, please sign in on the Google Accounts homepage. Then click "Edit" next to the "My Products" list, and you'll get to a page that allows you delete your account. Remember that deleting an account will delete all the Google services associated with that account, such as your orkut profile, your iGoogle page, and your Blogger blogs.
Blogger FeaturesHow do I use Blogger's Design feature?
Find the name of your blog on your dashboard, and click the "Design" link next to it. Here you can arrange the elements in your template the way you want them displayed by dragging and dropping them to another location. In most templates, you can move all elements except your navbar, blog posts, and header. If you want to add gadgets to your blog page or sidebar, click on "Add a Gadget." This action opens a pop-up window where you can browse through gadgets, then add and save them to your blog.
Can I have a blog to which more than one person posts?
Yes, these are called "team blogs." Basically, one person initially creates the blog, then invites others to join it. Team members can either be administrators or regular posters. Administrators can edit all posts (not just their own), add and remove team members (and grant administrative access), and modify blog settings. Non-administrators can only post to the blog.
To invite people to join a blog, first go to the Settings | Permissions tab and click "Add Authors." Next, type the email addresses of the people you're inviting; they'll receive an invitation email soon. You need a Google Account to blog on Blogspot, so if the authors you want to invite don't already have Google Accounts, they'll be prompted to create one. When you're ready to send the invitations, click "Invite." You'll receive an email when a new team member has successfully joined the blog.
How do I label my posts?
When you're writing a post, you'll have a space at the bottom of the form marked "Labels for this post." Enter whatever labels you like, separating them with commas. You can also click the "show all" link to display a list of labels you've used previously. Then just click on the labels to add them. When you publish your post, the labels will appear at the bottom. Clicking any of the labels will take you to a page containing only posts with that label. You can also add a list of all your labels in the sidebar of your blog, sorted alphabetically or by frequency of use.
How do I put AdSense in my blog?
To place AdSense on your blog, click Monetize on your Dashboard. You'll be able to choose a size for your ads and then customize how they'll look on your blog.
What's a site feed and how can I enable it for my blog?
Enabling the site feed setting for a blog lets authors easily syndicate their content to the world. With the site feed enabled, readers can then subscribe to the latest updates for that blog by adding the feed to their favorite feed reader. As a blog author, you can decide whether this excerpt will be the first few lines of your post, the complete post, or just until the jump break, if you have one. The default on your blog should be that a site feed is enabled, and all subscribers will receive a full update. If you don't have it enabled, go to theSettings | Site Feed tab. Here, you'll have one simple option, where you can select how much of your content you want to syndicate. The "None" option turns your site feed off entirely.
How does Blogger Mobile work?
To start a mobile blog, just send a message (which can be a photo, some text, or both) to go@blogger.com and we'll start a blog for you. You'll then receive a reply with your mobile blog's URL and a token (a one-time passcode) with which you can claim your new blog. To claim your blog, simply enter the token into http://go.blogger.com. Claiming your mobile blog will give you full access to Blogger.com settings and features, allow you to associate your blog with a Google Account, and let you merge your mobile blog with an existing blog.
Why do I have word verification on my posting form?
Word verification on the posting form is meant to be a spam reduction mechanism for Blogspot in general. There are two potential causes:
Potential SpamIn this case, an automated system applies word verification to certain potential spam blogs. We're continually working to improve this system to avoid mislabeling real blogs. Having the word verification on your posting form doesn't prevent you from publishing and doesn't mean that your blog will be deleted or otherwise punished if it's not actually in violation of our policies. To avoid further inconveniences when publishing, click the "?" icon next to the word verification on your posting form. That will take you to a page where you can request a review for your blog. We'll have someone look at it, verify that it isn't spam, and then take the word verification requirement off of your blog.High Posting RateIf you create a large number of posts in a single day, you'll be required to complete a word verification for each one, regardless of whether or not your blog has been cleared as a potential spam. If this happens, simply complete the word verification for each post, or wait 24 hours, at which point the word verification will be removed automatically. This restriction is in place both to control the load on our servers and to prevent explicit spam.Can I use keyboard shortcuts while posting?
Yes, Blogger has several keyboard shortcuts to use while editing posts. They definitely work in Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 8+, and Mozilla Firefox 3+, and might work in other browsers. Here they are:
How do I use the transliteration feature?
Blogger offers an automatic transliteration option for converting Roman characters to non-Roman characters used in Hindi, Greek, Russian, and a handful of other languages. To enable this feature, go to the Settings | Basics page and select "Yes" for the transliteration option. This setting will affect all blogs on your account.
How do I use Blogger's post editor?
Blogger's post editor has three modes:
To switch between these modes, simply click the appropriate link. The formatting buttons are only available in certain browsers.
Features, from left-to-right:
How do I use a custom domain on my blog?
If you don't care to have
blogspot.com in your blog's address, you can get a domain of your own. We'll continue to host all your content as before, but it will be displayed at your new address. There are three components to setting this up:Your DomainThe first thing you'll need to do is to choose a domain name, likewww.mysite.com and register it. You can register domain names from any of a number of different registrars.DNS SettingsNext, you need to create a CNAME record for your domain with the DNS, associating your domain withghs.google.com. The exact procedure for doing this varies depending on your domain registrar, so contact your registrar directly and they'll be able to help you out. Please be patient, as the new DNS record may not take effect right away.Blogger SettingsAt this point, the DNS servers know to direct people to Google when they want to see your blog, so we have to make sure Google associates the right blog with your domain. You'll do this on the Settings | Publishing tab for your blog in Blogger. If you're publishing on Blogspot, you'll see a link near the top offering to switch you to a custom domain. Go ahead and click that link. The Blogspot Address setting now changes to Your Domain. Fill in the domain you registered at the beginning of this process, then save your settings.Notes:
Where can I buy a custom domain name for my blog?
The easiest method is to simply buy from us via theSettings | Publishing tab. However, there are many companies you can buy domain names from, usually for very reasonable annual fees. A Google search fordomain registrar will turn up numerous options. You can also shop around through this list:
How do I change the format of the dates displayed in my blog?
You can change the date format for both posts and archive links by editing your blog settings. On theSettings | Formatting page, there are fields for "Date Header Format" and "Archive Index Date Format." Both fields include drop-down menus that list the format options for displaying dates. Date Headers usually go above your posts and the Archive Index is usually the list of archive links in your sidebar. Click "Save Settings" at the bottom of the page when you're done.
What's a post template?
Post templates help users save time by pre-formatting the post editor. Some users like their posts to be formatted in a certain way. For example, someone might want to link to an article on the first line, then quote it below. In this case, the link and blockquote tags can all be entered in the post template and they'll appear, ready to be filled in, on every new post. Just copy and paste the code or text you'd like to appear in every post in the Post template, located underSettings | Formatting.
What are backlinks and how do I use them?
Backlinks enable you to keep track of other pages on the web that link to your posts. If your friend links to one of your posts, for example, the post will automatically show that someone else has linked to it, and it will provide a short snippet of your friend's text and a link to your friend's post. The backlinks setting can be found under the Settings | Commentstab, and consists of a single, simple option to switch it on or off. If it's enabled, you'll see a link marked "Links to this post" next to the comment link for each post.
What's the word verification option?
The word verification option can be found on theSettings | Comments tab for your blog. If you choose "yes" for this setting, then people leaving comments on your blog will be required to complete a word verification step, similar to the one presented when you create a blog. Enabling this option prevents automated systems from adding comments to your blog, since it takes a human being to read the word and pass this step. If you've ever received a comment that looked like an advertisement or a random link to an unrelated site, then you've encountered comment spam. A lot of this is done automatically by software which can't pass the word verification, so enabling this option is a good way to prevent many unwanted comments.
Can I edit the HTML of my blog's layout?
Sure, just go to the Design | Edit HTML tab. You'll see an option to download a copy of your template to a text file on your hard drive. We highly recommend doing this so you can revert easily by uploading the same file again. Next comes the actual code for your template. You'll notice it looks somewhat like regular HTML and CSS, but also includes lots of custom tags that make it compatible with our drag-and-drop layout editor, and a font and color picker.
What does the "listing" setting do?
The "Add your blog to our listings?" setting determines whether or not your blog will be promoted across various channels within Blogger. You can find this setting on the Settings | Basic page. If your blog template is using the BlogMetaData tag, turning this off also means that your blog won't be crawled by search engines.
Blog ModerationWhy is my blog disabled?
Disabling is a result of our automated classification system marking a blog as spam. If your blog isn't a spam blog, then it was falsely classified by our automated system and we apologize. If your blog is disabled, the blog will still be listed on your Dashboard, but you won't be able to click on the blog to access it. If this is the case, there will be a grace period during which you can request that your blog be reviewed and recovered.
What is the "Flag" button?
This feature is called "Flag As Objectionable" and it's accessible via the Blogger navbar. The "Flag?" button allows the blogging community to easily note questionable content, which in turn helps us take action when needed. When a reader clicks "Flag?" in the Blogger navbar, it means they believe the content of the blog may be potentially offensive or illegal. We track the number of times a blog has been flagged as objectionable and use this information to determine what action is needed. Users may click this button a second time to retract their flag.
How do I moderate comments on my blog?
You can find the comment moderation setting on theSettings | Comments tab, where you have the option to Always moderate, Never moderate, or customize the setting to moderate comments on older posts. If you choose to moderate your comments, you'll be given a space to enter in your email address so that you can do so via email. Keep in mind that no matter what your settings are, you can always moderate comments through the Blogger interface.All incoming comments will now go to a special "Awaiting Moderation" page, which you can find under the Comments tab. On this page, you'll see a list of all the comments that have been created but haven't yet been approved or rejected. This list excludes any comments made by admin members of the blog. Each line in the list displays the beginning of the comment, the author's name, and the time it was created. You can click the box next to the comment and decide whether you want to publish the comment, delete it, or mark it as spam.
This entire process can also be done via email. If you entered an email address for moderation, you'll get a message for each comment containing "Publish" and "Reject" links, as well as a link to the main moderation page for the blog.
Where can I report a legal issue?
Please contact us if you would like to report an legal issue.
updated 06/14/2011
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