Help:Preferences

Clicking on the  link in the upper right while logged in allows you to change your preferences. You will be presented with the section, as well as a bar of tabs across the top for changing other types of settings.


 *  your user name. Only bureaucrats can change your username.
 *  a number assigned to your account when you created it (for example, if your number is 42 you are the 42nd user to sign up at ). This number is used for internal purposes.
 * Member of groups: the names of the user groups you belong to. These provide you with certain "rights" (powers to carry out certain actions). See Help:Sysops and permissions.
 *  how many edits you have made.
 *  time and date you created your account.
 *  if provided, this will be used for attribution (rather than using your username). Providing your real name is entirely optional.
 *  used for gender-correct addressing by the software. This information will be public.
 *  to change your password, click, enter your old password in the first box and your new password in the last two. If you want this site to remember your login, check
 * : this option is equivalent to the "Remember my login" or "Remember me" option on the login page. You can use this option to create (if selected) or delete (if de-selected) a cookie that will remember your login details, so you do not need to log in every time you visit the wiki. The cookie expires automatically after 30 days, for security reasons.
 * Note: that browser remembering your login requires you to have cookies enabled in your browser, and if your cookie is cleared or expires you will no longer be remembered.


 *  shows a preview of your current signature.
 * ' when you sign your name (using ), what you enter here will be used at the start instead of a simple link to your user page. By default, anything you enter here will be wrapped with  ; if you want to use special linking, enable '.


 *  this controls what language certain parts of the interface is displayed in. Page text will not be translated, nor will templates. There are some limitations:
 * 's sidebar contains some hard-coded custom labels, these are in effect for all interface languages, and will not change according to this setting.
 * Note that using a left-to-right as interface language in right-to-left wikis, such as Arabic, shows all checkboxes and form elements reversed.
 * The interface language does not affect namespace names; they are determined by 's main language. However, in links and in page names entered in the address bar of the browser, English namespace names, being the generic namespace names, are automatically converted to the local names.


 *  your email address, if you have supplied one. You can also change or remove your address here.
 * ' if you have supplied an email address, you will need to click the ' button in order to use these functions. You will receive an email; simply open it and follow the link to enable the following functions.
 * ': this allows other registered users to send you an e-mail using ' link on the sidebar of your user page. Emails are sent using a web interface, and your e-mail address is not revealed to a sender (that is, unless you decide to reply by email).
 * ': This option is helpful for keeping track of messages you have sent using the ' link.


 *  this setting lets you choose how big image previews will be on the    : pages. If you know what your current screen resolution is you may like to set this to one or two sizes smaller than your own screen. If you have a slow connection (such as dial-up) you may want to limit them to 320×240.
 *  define how big you want thumbnails to appear. This setting will not affect thumbnails with dimensions determined by an editor, nor can it increase images beyond their original dimensions.

Here you can control how mathematical equations described using the  tag will be displayed. Mathematical formulae uploaded as images or written outside the math tag will not be affected by this setting.
 * : always display formulas as an image.
 * : if the formula is very simple, like $$x = 3$$, display it as normal text (HTML). For more complex code, display the formula as an image.
 * : this option tries really hard to use normal webpage text (HTML), but if it's too complicated, then an image is displayed.
 * : doesn't convert the formula, showing the mathematical TeX code. This is primarily for text-based browsers like Lynx.
 * : if you use a web browser that was released recently, this is the recommended setting to use.
 * : this option attempts to use MathML code, which offers a good-looking display of mathematical data. But only some browsers can display it.


 *  here, you can choose whether links will be underlined. the "browser default" option means the site will honor your browser's setting. Having underlining on means you can differentiate between two links side-by-side, like Abraham Lincoln and Abraham Lincoln. However, underlining means underscores may get lost in the underline, which can pose a problem, particularly with URL links.
 *  a wikilink to an existing page will be in class 'stub' if the page is in the main namespace, it is not a redirect, and the number of bytes of the wikitext is less than the "threshold for stub display". This allows users to immediately identify links to very short pages that probably need to be expanded, and links to short disambiguation pages.
 * Format broken links like this (alternative: like this?): a link to a page that doesn't exist will normally be coloured red. You can turn this option off to have the link displayed as a question mark after the linked text. Note that with the trailing question mark link, one cannot distinguish between a single word being linked, or a phrase of more than one word.
 * : you can use this option to switch off the table of contents on all pages that you visit.
 * : this turns off page caching. Use this option only if you know what you are doing - it puts unnecessary strain on the Wikimedia servers.
 *  shows categories which are normally hidden, at the bottom of the page. See Help:Categories.
 * : if set, article paragraphs will be formatted to avoid jagged line endings. If unset, the paragraphs will be formatted as-is.
 * : this adds hierarchical outline-style numbering to headers in articles.
 * : if you would prefer to see all links on the left sidebar at once, without having to open the different sections, you can turn this option off.
 * : if you would prefer to see all links on the left sidebar at once, without having to open the different sections, you can turn this option off.

On this tab, you can control the appearance of some dates and times, and you can select your time zone.
 * : This setting affects the appearance of timestamps on all special pages, including page histories (as listed below). They appear just the various options, except in ' and ', where date and time are shown in different places. Note that the last option, although rather arcane, provides the only way to see seconds. This setting also affects the appearance of links produced by wikitext for which the date formatting feature applies.
 * : "Offset" is the number of hours to be added or subtracted from the server time to your time zone. It may become temporarily incorrect from time to time if you observe Daylight Saving Time.

These two options are used to display your local date and time on all special pages, i.e. the pages that are generated automatically and cannot be directly edited:
 * Recent changes, Related changes, Watchlist
 * Special:Log, Special:Newpages, Special:Imagelist
 *  at the bottom of pages
 *  at the bottom of pages

These are the settings to control editing pages, including the size of the edit box displayed, and whether to automatically watch pages that you have edited or created.

Here you can set up your preferred dimensions for the textbox used for editing page text. ' refers to lines of text (height), and ' means the number of characters that will fit across the box (width). The exact size will vary depending on your browser's font size, screen resolution, and other factors.


 *  you can change the font family of text in the edit area. The browser will determine exactly which font to use, depending on which fonts are available on your computer. browser default will normally provide a monospaced font.
 * ': if you select this option, the edit preview will be displayed above the edit box when you click the ' button while editing a page.
 * ': when pressing the ' button or otherwise following a link to an edit page, a preview will appear, just like after pressing .
 * : an edit link will appear beside each sub-heading on a page to allow editing of that subsection only.
 * : in compatible browsers, if this option is checked, a right-click on the section title will bring up the edit box for that section only, just as if you had clicked the small [edit] link beside the heading.
 * ': in compatible browsers, if this option is checked, a double click anywhere on the page will bring up the edit box for the entire contents of the page, just like what happens when you click on the ' tab at the top of the page.
 * : in compatible browsers, a toolbar with editing buttons can be displayed.
 * ': This option automatically selects the ' checkbox when you edit pages.
 * : this feature allows you to edit pages in an external program, rather than using the wiki editing form in your web browser. It requires a special set-up on your computer.
 * : this is an advanced feature that requires a special set-up on your computer.
 * : if selected, the editor will display a warning message when no edit summary is provided. This can help you remember to provide edit summaries, as they help other editors greatly.
 * : this is an experimental feature that speeds up the retrieval of edit previews. When you click the "Show preview" button, the browser will retrieve a preview from the wiki server and display it above the edit box, without needing to reload the page.
 * : this option will give you the chance to go back and save your work if you accidentally close or leave an editing page.


 *  here you can specify how far back the recent changes pages will go.
 * Note: that the list will stop prematurely if the number of edits is exceeded (see below).


 *  here you can specify how many edits should be displayed.


 * : enhanced recent changes condenses edits into a per-page list. As indicated, this requires JavaScript to be enabled. See Help:Tracking changes for more information on this feature.
 * : this enables you to hide edits marked as minor (see Help:Editing pages). Since some users will rapidly make a lot of tiny tweaks to update templates or fix spelling errors you may find enabling this to be useful. You can also turn this on temporarily from the recent changes page (see Help:Tracking changes).
 * : this option affects Special:RecentChanges. When it is set, all patrolled pages are hidden by default.
 * : this option affects Special:NewPages. When it is set, all patrolled pages are hidden by default. You can easily show or hide patrolled pages (highlighted in yellow) from the New Pages page.

These are the settings to control the behaviour of the watchlist (See Help:Watchlist). Most of these options are also available on the watchlist display itself, but by setting them in your preferences, you control the default behaviour of the watchlist i.e., it will perform the same actions every time you visit the page.


 *  the number of days worth of changes to show in your watchlist. Maximum 7 days.
 * ' this controls how many recent changes to show for each watched article when ' is switched on under . Maximum 1000 changes.


 *  this option will expand the watchlist to include all changes made to an article within the time-frame of your watchlist, up to a maximum number (as set in ). Normally, only the most recent modification is shown.
 * : use this option to filter out patrolled edits (edits made by administrators and so forth). This is particularly useful when monitoring vandalism, as patrolled edits can only be made by trusted users.
 *  if you want an RSS feed to be generated from your watchlist, you can input a secret token here. Anyone who knows this token can use it to access your watchlist. You don't actually need to store this value; when you subscribe to the RSS feed, the browser will store it for you. A randomly-generated token is provided under the field if you need inspiration.
 * : use this option to filter out patrolled edits (edits made by administrators and so forth). This is particularly useful when monitoring vandalism, as patrolled edits can only be made by trusted users.
 *  if you want an RSS feed to be generated from your watchlist, you can input a secret token here. Anyone who knows this token can use it to access your watchlist. You don't actually need to store this value; when you subscribe to the RSS feed, the browser will store it for you. A randomly-generated token is provided under the field if you need inspiration.
 * : use this option to filter out patrolled edits (edits made by administrators and so forth). This is particularly useful when monitoring vandalism, as patrolled edits can only be made by trusted users.
 *  if you want an RSS feed to be generated from your watchlist, you can input a secret token here. Anyone who knows this token can use it to access your watchlist. You don't actually need to store this value; when you subscribe to the RSS feed, the browser will store it for you. A randomly-generated token is provided under the field if you need inspiration.
 *  if you want an RSS feed to be generated from your watchlist, you can input a secret token here. Anyone who knows this token can use it to access your watchlist. You don't actually need to store this value; when you subscribe to the RSS feed, the browser will store it for you. A randomly-generated token is provided under the field if you need inspiration.


 *  you may choose the number of results returned on each page of search results.
 * : The small search box in the top-right of the page, will provide a pop-up menu of search suggestions whenever something is entered into the box. The process of retrieving these suggestions can slow down the system on older machines, and it may waste bandwidth. If you don't need this service, you can turn it off.
 * ': if this option is turned off, the Search box reverts to its traditional look, with separate ' and  buttons.
 * : The small search box in the top-right of the page, will provide a pop-up menu of search suggestions whenever something is entered into the box. The process of retrieving these suggestions can slow down the system on older machines, and it may waste bandwidth. If you don't need this service, you can turn it off.
 * ': if this option is turned off, the Search box reverts to its traditional look, with separate ' and  buttons.


 *  shows a list of all namespaces, allowing one to select which ones are searched by default.
 *  shows a list of all namespaces, allowing one to select which ones are searched by default.


 * : normally, when viewing a diff, the page content as of the second revision is presented. You can turn off this display using this option, to allow for faster loading of diff pages.
 * : when rolling back edits, a diff will be shown. This option will prevent the display of that diff page.