Help:User style

The user can customize: fonts, colors, positions of links in the margins, and many other things! This is done through custom stylesheets stored in subpages of the user's "User" page.


 * If you want a quick change, that someone else made, you may also be interested in Skins.

General
For each user-definable style, a skin is first selected, and a corresponding style sheet (CSS). For each skin, the user can make various choices regarding fonts, colors, positions of links in the margin, etc. Css is specified with reference to selectors : HTML elements, classes and id's specified in the HTML code. Accordingly, what the possibilities are for each skin can be seen by looking at the HTML source code of a page, in particular looking at these classes and id's: the more there are, the more versalitity there is.

For example in the English Wikipedia, the defaults are in


 * http://en.wikipedia.org/style/monobook/main.css and en:MediaWiki:Monobook.css
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/style/wikistandard.css and en:MediaWiki:Standard.css
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/style/cologneblue.css and en:MediaWiki:Cologneblue.css
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/style/nostalgia.css and en:MediaWiki:Nostalgia.css
 * en:MediaWiki:Myskin.css

and here on wikinews we have:


 * http://en.wikinews.org/style/monobook/main.css and MediaWiki:Monobook.css
 * http://en.wikinews.org/style/wikistandard.css and MediaWiki:Standard.css
 * http://en.wikinews.org/style/cologneblue.css and MediaWiki:Cologneblue.css
 * http://en.wikinews.org/style/nostalgia.css and MediaWiki:Nostalgia.css
 * MediaWiki:Myskin.css

The files in the style directory are for a given skin probably the same in each project. The name of the style directory is set on installation, see LocalSettings.php.

In the monobook skin, you can now change any aspect of the UI specified in http://en.wikipedia.org/style/monobook/main.css and en:MediaWiki:Monobook.css or similar using your own Javascript or CSS. The changes are in a subpage of your user page called monobook.css and monobook.js.

Also you can change the classic skin; your subpages should be named User:username/ standard.css and User:username/ standard.js (and similar for the other skins).

Just enter some css/js in that page. The preview works here in a special way: it allows viewing of the margins of the page (not the contents) on the basis of the style info in the page, provided that the skin used is the skin for which the page applies. This has limitations. E.g., one can preview how links in the margin will look, but these may not be of all the types one would want to check. After saving, while still on the page or while on any other page, do a forced reload (shift-reload/ctrl-f5) to get the new files.

The HTML source contains lines like

 @import "/style/wikistandard.css"; @import "/w/wiki.phtml?title=User:username/standard.css&action=raw&ctype=text/css";

for the project-wide CSS for the particular skin (in this case here on Meta referring to /style/wikistandard.css ) and the personal JS and CSS for a particular skin.

For "MySkin" there is no main.css applicable. The applicable personal css page is User:username/ myskin.css (all lowercase!).

See also Help:Sitewide css wiki page.

Css in user subpages vs. css in a local file
In addition to the above, or alternatively, a local CSS can be set on the browser. If one uses multiple browsers, each can be set to a different CSS. Each applies to the whole world wide web, not just a MediaWiki project (and does not depend on being logged in). However, a setting only affects other webpages if they use the same class name; e.g. a setting for the selector a.extiw affects fewer pages on the web than one for h2.

For lines of CSS which should be different on different MediaWiki projects, e.g. for a different background color for easy distinction, clearly the local CSS can not be used; at least these lines should be put in the user subpages.

Some computers, e.g. in internet cafes, do not allow users to set preferences for the browser. In that case the user subpages allow the setting of a user style anyway.

When the browser has been set to the option to ignore the font size specified in the webpage or external CSS, CSS lines regarding font size have to be put in the local CSS.

Css selectors
The css selectors, expressed in terms of elements, classes and id's, relevant for the style of the page body include:


 * a - note that "a" is not always a link, in particular, the "Special page" tab is not (see Help:Namespace)
 * a:link, a:visited - together these are all the links, as opposed to "a" elements which are just anchors - example: help:index
 * a#contentTop
 * a.external - http://example
 * a.extiw – interwiki link in page body - example
 * a.image – link from full image to image description page
 * a.internal – link to file itself (Media:), and links from thumbnail and magnifying glass icon to image description page (note that color and font size specified for a.internal are only applicable in the first case) - [[Media:example]]
 * a.new example
 * body.ns-0, ..., body.ns-15 (namespaces)
 * div#bodyContent
 * div#column-content
 * div#editsection
 * div#globalWrapper
 * div#tocindent
 * div.tocline
 * h1.firstHeading
 * h2
 * h3
 * img.tex TeX image
 * small - example
 * table.toc

Normal internal links are not in class internal (they used to be, and still are on sites that use an older version of the software, e.g. ); they can be styled referring to a:link and a:visited in general, after which styling of a.extiw etc. can provide for exceptions to this general style for links.

For interlanguage links:


 * #p-lang a

One may also have the style depend on the value of an attribute, e.g. with the selectors:


 * a[title ="User:username"]
 * a[title ="pagename"]
 * a[href ="full url "]

to color-code or highlight particular users (including oneself) and/or links to particular pages (like the bolding of watched pages on Recent Changes). This works in Opera, but not in IE. See also Help:Watching pages.

The watchlist and Recent Changes use two classes:


 * autocomment example
 * new (see below)

The page history has classes autocomment and:


 * user
 * minor

Thus the font specified for user applies in the page history, but not in the watchlist or Recent Changes.

Edit page
example example
 * Edit box: textarea#wpTextbox1
 * Edit summary box: input#wpSummary

Template parameters
A class or id can be a template parameter, an element as template parameter does not work.

Samples
/* make the background behind the content area and the tabs a light grey */
 * 1) content, #content table
 * 2) p-cactions ul li a { background: #f5f5f5; }

/* stop background image from scrolling with content area */ body { background-attachment: fixed; }

/* replace the book in the background with something else */ body { background: Purple; }

/* changes the colour of pre areas */ pre { background: White }

/* change the logo */
 * 1) p-logo a { background: url(http://en.wikipedia.org/upload/wiki.png) 35% 50% no-repeat !important; }

/* don't use any logo, move the boxes onto that area instead */
 * 1) p-logo { display: none }
 * 2) column-one { padding-top: 0; }

/* suppress the person icon by your username */ li#pt-userpage { background: none }

/* use browser prefs for text size and font */ body, #globalWrapper { font: inherit !important; }

/* always underline links */ a { text-decoration: underline; }

/* change colour of unselected tabs */
 * 1) p-cactions ul li a { background: #C7FDC7; }

/* change colour of selected tabs */
 * 1) p-cactions ul li.selected a { background: white; }

/* change border colour of selected tabs */
 * 1) p-cactions li.selected { border-color: #aaaaaa; }

/* tab bottom not removed on hover */
 * 1) p-cactions li a:hover { z-index: 0; text-decoration: none; }
 * 2) p-cactions li.selected a:hover { z-index: 3; }

/* style the search box and the buttons below it */ input.searchButton { background-color: #efefef !important; border: 1px outset !important; }
 * 1) searchInput { border: 1px inset !important; }

/* standard link colors */ a { color: #0000FF; } a:visited { color: #7F007F; } a:active, a.new { color: #FF0000; } a.interwiki, a.external { color: #3366BB; } a.stub { color: #772233; }

/* put scrollbar on pre sections instead of ugly cutoff/overlap in firefox */ pre { overflow: auto; }

Rounded corners in Mozilla
/* make a few corners round, only supported by moz/firefox/other gecko browsers for now */ -moz-border-radius-topleft: 1em; -moz-border-radius-topright: 1em; } -moz-border-radius-topleft: 1em; -moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 1em; } div.pBody { -moz-border-radius-topright: 1em; -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 1em; }
 * 1) p-cactions ul li, #p-cactions ul li a {
 * 1) content {

/* same following the css3 draft specs, any browsers supporting this? */ border-radius-topleft: 1em; border-radius-topright: 1em; } border-radius-topleft: 1em; border-radius-bottomleft: 1em; } div.pBody { border-radius-topright: 1em; border-radius-bottomright: 1em; }
 * 1) p-cactions ul li, #p-cactions ul li a {
 * 1) content {



Rounded corners/tabs links

 * Moz: see the rules above
 * http://www.vertexwerks.com/tests/sidebox/ -- sidebox formatting
 * http://www.alistapart.com/articles/slidingdoors2/ -- rounded tabs with rollover effect
 * http://www.alistapart.com/articles/customcorners/ -- another variant for rounded box corners
 * http://alistapart.com/articles/customcorners2/, Demo of this
 * http://www.alistapart.com/articles/mountaintop/ -- even weirder corner variants
 * http://www.virtuelvis.com/gallery/css/rounded/ -- simple freestyle variant using the :before and :after pseudo-elements (only css2 browsers, not in IE)

Print view tweaks
/*
 * Place all print-specific rules in an @media print block.

/* save ink and paper with very small fonts */ @media print { #footer, #content, body { font-size: 8pt !important; } h1 { font-size: 17pt } h2 { font-size: 14pt } h3 { font-size: 11pt } h4 { font-size: 9pt } h5 { font-size: 8pt } h6 { font-size: 8pt; font-weight: normal; } }

/* Advanced things: using :before and :after it's possible to add formatting this here adds the full href of a link after it (not needed in the current version): */ @media print { #content a:link:after, #content a:visited:after { content: " ( " attr(href) " ) "; } }

Make the user toolbar a sidebox
Tested to work in Camino and Safari. /* Transform the user toolbar into a sidebox */ position:relative; z-index:3; width: 11.6em; }
 * 1) p-personal {

width: 10.7em; border: none; margin: 0 0 0.1em 0em; float: none; overflow: hidden; font-size: 95%; background: White; border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid #aaaaaa; padding: 0 0.8em 0.3em .5em; }
 * 1) p-personal .pBody {

line-height: 1.5em; list-style-type: square; list-style-image: url("/style/monobook/bullet.gif");
 * 1) p-personal ul {

font-size:95%; margin: 0 0 0 1.5em; padding:0; text-align:left; text-transform: none; }

display: list-item; padding:0; margin: 0 0 0 0; margin-bottom: 0.1em; }
 * 1) p-personal li {

/* suppress the person icon by your username */ /* needed if not already in place */ li#pt-userpage { background: none } See the monobook main.css for the full styles in use by default.

Make the quickbar float / sideboxes have fixed position
''Kludgy version available. See talk page.''

Monobook menus with serif fonts in the content area
I've hacked together a q&d combinaton of monobook menus with serif fonts in the text area; there are some quirks and bugs (some because the css scheme of wikipedia doesn't seem to be soo thoughtful), but if you want to give it a try or have a look, go to and copy the first part. No warranty; works on Netscape7/Win98 for me ... -- Tillwe 14:05, 30 May 2004 (UTC)

Update (01.06.04): Now also displays table formated things more or less correctly. -- Tillwe 17:45, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Moving category links
Moves category links in the upper right corner of content area, and paints them gray -- Tillwe 21:22, 31 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Small fix --Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 22:05, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC)

/******************************************************************/ /* moving catlinks to the right                                  */ /******************************************************************/

/* move the catlinks box */ position:absolute; z-index:1; /* border: 1px solid #aaaaaa; background: #fafaff; */ right:1em; top:-0.25em; width:10.5em; float:right; margin: 0.2em; padding:0.2em; }
 * 1) catlinks {

/* format the catlinks itself */ p.catlinks { color: #aaaaaa; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size:67%; line-height: 1.5em; text-align:left; text-indent:0; text-transform: none; white-space:normal; margin: 0.2em; }

display: inline; }
 * 1) p-personal h5 {

/* format links in the catlinks (as distinguished from ":" and "|") */ p.catlinks a { color:#888888; }

Diff view styling
/* don't use a smaller font */ td.diff-addedline, td.diff-deletedline, td.diff-context { font-size: 100% };

/* underline just the text that's different */ span.diffchange { text-decoration:underline; }

External links on css

 * http://www.csszengarden.com/ -- inspiration
 * http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ -- highly concentrated info, very comprehensive
 * http://www.alistapart.com/ -- great articles
 * http://www.positioniseverything.net/ -- some entertaining ie bugs and more

Javascript
As mentioned above, the page to add is called monobook.js in this case. Want to have the same links as in the tabs also at the bottom of the page? - Clone it onload and drop it somewhere near the bottom. Want to add personal links/boxes/whatever ? You can do it.

Duplicate edit links at the bottom of the content area
See User Styles/bottom tabs

Changing access keys
These are now defined/set from js, you can easily customize them by changing some elements in the 'ta' array (see ). Example line: ta['ca-nstab-main'] = new Array('c','View the content page'); Just change 'c' to something else to change the access key. To disable all access and tooltips, drop ta = false; in your monobook.js.

Moving categories to top
The following code moves the category box to the top of the article. Of course, you might want to apply some CSS to make it look prettier:

function catsattop { var cats = document.getElementById('catlinks'); var bc = document.getElementById('bodyContent'); bc.insertBefore(cats, bc.childNodes[0]); }

An alternative that, when coupled with an appropriate stylesheet, will put the text up at about the same line as the title:

function categoryToTop { var thebody = document.getElementById('contentTop'); var categories = document.getElementById('catlinks');

if (categories != null) { categories.parentNode.removeChild (categories); thebody.parentNode.insertBefore(categories, thebody); } }

Some CSS to go with that...

/* move the catlinks box */ right:1em; top:-0.25em; max-width: 50%; /* this limits the box size, but doesn't set strictly */ float: right; margin: 0.5em; padding: 0.2em; }
 * 1) catlinks {

/* format the catlinks itself */ p.catlinks { font-size:67%; text-align:left; text-indent:0; text-transform: none; white-space:normal; margin: 0.2em; }

External links on JS

 * http://www.quirksmode.org/ -- see the Javascript and DOM section
 * http://www.alistapart.com/
 * http://www.quirksmode.org/dom/domform.html -- form cloning (might be possible to upload a few images at once using this, also a good starting point for the structure cloning)
 * http://www.quirksmode.org/dom/links.html -- more links with good summaries