text:
Help:Turkish characters

 * Note: The information on this page applies only to Wikis that do not use the UTF-8 encoding yet. All Wikimedia wikis now use UTF-8.

The Turkish alphabet contains six letters not present in ISO 8859-1, and that will therefore present problems for Wikipedia use: Dotted uppercase "I", dotless lowercase "i", upper- and lowercase "G" with breve accent, and upper- and lowercase "S" with cedilla.

Turkish computers may use character set ISO 8859-9 ("Latin 5"), which is identical to Latin 1 except that the rarely-used Icelandic characters "eth", "thorn", and "y with acute accent" are replaced with the needed Turkish characters. If you are reading Turkish text in Wikipedia, when you see these Icelandic characters they are probably meant to be the Turkish ones (users with Turkish computers may or may not see them properly). If you are entering Turkish text into Wikipedia, be aware that the Bomis server identifies web pages as ISO 8859-1, and there is no way to override this, so even if these characters appear correct to you, they are not properly encoded from the point of view of a non-Turkish Wiki reader.

Further, HTML 4.0 does not specify named character entities for these characters, so they cannot be entered into Wikipedia text in any portable way except 16-bit Unicode numeric character entity references, which only work in recent browsers, despite being the official standard. If using Turkish text on a non utf-8 wiki consider anglicizing these characters. If you really must enter Turkish words with these characters into such wikis, to maintain data integrity at the expense of readability, use the following codes (the characters themselves appear after each code so you can see what your browser does with them):

These codes will probably appear correctly on most current browsers, but fail in archaic versions, even though they are according to standards. They are, however, totally unambiguous, and so will appear correctly as users upgrade to more compliant software. IE 5.0 on Windows NT, for example, does display these using the standard supplied Unicode fonts, as do Mozilla and Opera. Their incorrect appearance on older browsers such as older versions of netscape (4.x had problems with unicode entities in non-unicode pages) may be acceptable in some situations, such as when an anglicized name is followed by a parenthesized Turkish equivalent as extra information not crucial to the article itself.

See also Help:Special characters

Next page: Help:Romanian characters >

title: Help:Turkish characters


text:
Help talk:Turkish characters

Meta:Help:Turkish characters authors and history
= From Meta:Help talk:Turkish characters =
 * 19:24, 27 November 2005 User:82.41.62.184 (sp)
 * 18:38, 17 November 2005 User:Uncle G (Fixed hyperlinks that break when this page is copied to other projects.)
 * 00:31, 20 August 2005 User:Plugwash (rm misleading text block that seems to assume meta is in ISO-8859-1)
 * 00:27, 20 August 2005 User:Plugwash
 * 23:28, 21 April 2005 User:TheDJ (add h:h and h:f)
 * 11:58, 22 December 2004 User:Erdal Ronahi
 * 08:32, 14 July 2004 User:217.81.71.96 (show decimal version in table)
 * 21:02, 25 May 2004 User:193.29.77.111
 * 00:51, 15 April 2004 User:Jroes m (Added a link to the next page in the guide)
 * 14:03, 25 March 2004 User:80.56.93.143 (Will probably appear correctly these days, new table code)
 * 09:22, 16 January 2004 User:Daniel Mayer
 * 08:28, 9 December 2003 User:Nixdorf (notes on browsers)
 * 04:19, 7 September 2003 User:Daniel Mayer (converted from en.wikipedia)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Help talk:Turkish characters


text:
Help:URL

URLs in external links
A link in external link style can be of the forms:
 * target: http://meta.wikimedia.org/ is rendered as http://meta.wikimedia.org/
 * [ target label ], with a blank space in between: wikimedia gives wikimedia (see also Help:Piped link)
 * [ target ] - these are automatically labelled with serial numbers 1, 2, 3, ...: gives

The target is a URL which can start with " http:// " or " ftp:// "; "file://" does not work (by default; and if enabled, it only works in MSIE).

All characters of the URL must be among: A-Z a-z 0-9 ._\/~%-+&#?!=@

If a URL contains a different character it should be converted; for example, ^ has to be written %5e, the hexadecimal ASCII value with a percent sign in front. A blank space can also be converted into an underscore.

Conversion:

"  #   $   %   &   '   *  ,   :   ;   <   >   ?   [   ^   `   {   |   } %22 %23 %24 %25 %26 %27 %2a %2c %3a %3b %3c %3e %3f %5b %5e %60 %7b %7c %7d

For the other characters either the code or the character can be used in internal and external links, they are equivalent. The system does a conversion when needed. E.g.

%C3%80_propos_de_M%C3%A9ta

is rendered as %C3%80_propos_de_M%C3%A9ta, almost like À propos de Méta, which leads to this page on Meta with in the address bar the URL

http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%80_propos_de_M%C3%A9ta

while http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/À_propos_de_Méta leads to the same.

See also (in Wikipedia): Internationalized domain names and Punycode.

URLs of pages within the projects
See w:Wikipedia:URLs. On other projects everything works the same, except that the domain names vary:

 * xx.wikipedia.org with xx the language code, see Complete list of language Wikipedias available
 * meta.wikimedia.org (meta.wikipedia.org redirects there)
 * xx.wiktionary.org
 * xx.wikiquote.org
 * xx.wikibooks.org
 * wikisource.org
 * he.wikisource.org
 * sep11.wikipedia.org

A URL starting with www.wikipedia.org redirects to the corresponding one starting with en; only www.wikipedia.org itself leads to a portal page instead of the main page of the English Wikipedia: http://www.wikipedia.org

In projects outside Wikimedia the "w/" in URLs like http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Main_Page&action=history is sometimes not used, sometimes different, e.g.:
 * http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Disinfopedia_Main_Page&action=history
 * http://wikitravel.org/en/index.php?title=Main_Page&action=history

The default is /wiki/wiki.phtml, with in DefaultSetting.php :

$wgScriptPath = "/wiki"; $wgScript    = "{$wgScriptPath}/wiki.phtml";

There may be other variations, compare:
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver
 * http://wikitravel.org/en/Vancouver

Use in templates
For use in templates, note that all URLs on e.g. the English Wikipedia can be written in the form

http:// en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=

This requires to be written with underscores and escape codes (if applicable). To benefit from the conversion carried out by localurl, two parameters are needed:

http:// en.wikipedia.org

This works for a link in external link style to a page in the same project or a project which uses the same string in the URL between the server name and the question mark ($wgScript, on Wikimedia "/w/index.php"), but not for links to other projects.

Old versions of pages
All old versions of all pages are numbered (with oldid) approximately in the order of becoming an old version, i.e. in chronological order of the next edit of the same page.

 * http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Help:Link&oldid=53587 - normal link to old page
 * http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?oldid=53587 - no page name in the URL, goes to the correct page
 * http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Help:Link&oldid=53588 - number and name do not correspond; the name is ignored
 * http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=abc&oldid=53587 - non-existing page name; oldid is ignored, works like going to a non-existing page, except for the links to assumed previous and next versions, and on editing, for the warning of editing an old version of a page.

See also Linking to specific versions of articles.

New pages
New pages are numbered (with curid) chronologically.

 * http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=x&curid=9906 - gives the page with correct full name

See also Multiple titles.

Edit
Examples:

 * Edit the whole page: http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Help:URL&action=edit
 * Edit the 5th section: http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Help:URL&action=edit&section=5
 * Add at the end: http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Help:URL&action=edit&section=1000 (use large section number)
 * Ditto with "Post a comment" feature: http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Help:URL&action=edit&section=new

Purge
In some cases of caching problems, to update a page it can help to use "action=purge", in a URL like

Kinds of dead links
There can be various kinds of errors in the URL. With some the server is not even reached, with others the server takes some action. The server may also go to the correct page and just ignore a wrong parameter or anchor.

 * http://meta.wikimedia.or/
 * abc
 * http://met.mediawiki.org
 * /abc
 * http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Help:URL&action=abc
 * http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Help:URL&act=abc
 * http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Help:URL#abc
 * http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Help:URL#abc

title: Help:URL


text:
Help talk:URL

Meta:Help:URL authors and history
= From Meta:Help talk:URL =
 * 03:39, 25 November 2005 User:Uncle G (Changed initial template.)
 * 05:51, 16 November 2005 User:Uncle G (Interwiki to internal link.)
 * 05:28, 16 November 2005 User:Uncle G (Replacement of with )
 * 04:00, 16 November 2005 User:Uncle G (Fixed hyperlinks that break when this page is copied to other projects.)
 * 12:59, 27 October 2005 User:HappyDog m (point config settings to new home on mediawiki)
 * 22:11, 11 October 2005 User:Thnidu (→URLs in external links - force character list to be preformatted)
 * 17:20, 26 August 2005 User:204.122.8.2
 * 17:20, 26 August 2005 User:204.122.8.2
 * 12:01, 18 August 2005 User:141.93.32.117
 * 12:00, 18 August 2005 User:141.93.32.117
 * 15:16, 29 July 2005 User:199.107.164.126 (→URLs in external links)
 * 08:07, 15 July 2005 User:Patrick m (Reverted edits by 198.144.192.42 to last version by Patrick)
 * 04:52, 15 July 2005 User:198.144.192.42 (→URLs in external links)
 * 06:48, 4 July 2005 User:Patrick m (→URLs in external links)
 * 06:46, 4 July 2005 User:Patrick (→URLs in external links)
 * 06:42, 4 July 2005 User:Patrick (→URLs in external links)
 * 01:08, 4 July 2005 User:Comprookie2000 (→URLs in external links)
 * 07:53, 29 June 2005 User:Patrick (→URLs in external links -%3f)
 * 07:48, 29 June 2005 User:Patrick (rm sidebar, it may overlap text)
 * 08:40, 21 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Use in templates -$wgScript)
 * 07:58, 21 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Use in templates)
 * 07:46, 21 May 2005 User:Patrick (This works for a link in external link style to a page in the same project or a project which uses the same string in the URL between the server name and the question mark (on Wikimedia "/w/index.php")
 * 07:39, 21 May 2005 User:Patrick (→URLs of pages within the projects - mv new part to separate section)
 * 07:36, 21 May 2005 User:Patrick (→URLs of pages within the projects)
 * 07:23, 21 May 2005 User:Patrick (→URLs of pages within the projects -To benefit from the conversion carried out by localurl, two parameters are needed:)
 * 07:16, 21 May 2005 User:Patrick (→URLs of pages within the projects)
 * 06:38, 21 May 2005 User:Patrick m (→See also)
 * 06:38, 21 May 2005 User:Patrick m (→See also)
 * 16:20, 15 May 2005 User:69.47.74.212
 * 16:20, 15 May 2005 User:69.47.74.212
 * 08:40, 6 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Old versions of pages -update)
 * 08:02, 5 May 2005 User:Patrick m (→New pages)
 * 08:01, 5 May 2005 User:Patrick m (→New pages)
 * 08:00, 5 May 2005 User:Patrick ({{new| page versions get a number "oldid" as soon as they are created; it is produced by variable <nowiki>{{REVISIONID}}</nowiki>, currently giving {{REVISIONID}} here. The URL is like in the previous)
 * 17:16, 20 April 2005 User:AnyFile
 * 17:13, 20 April 2005 User:AnyFile
 * 17:11, 20 April 2005 User:AnyFile (serious visualization problems)
 * 17:07, 20 April 2005 User:AnyFile (h:h h:f)
 * 10:26, 19 April 2005 User:AnyFile (→See also)
 * 09:25, 19 April 2005 User:Jni m (rv. spam)
 * 09:21, 19 April 2005 User:81.213.168.54 (→See also)
 * 10:49, 22 March 2005 User:Patrick (→URLs of pages within the projects)
 * 10:47, 22 March 2005 User:Patrick (→URLs of pages within the projects)
 * 10:47, 22 March 2005 User:Patrick (→URLs of pages within the projects - update)
 * 00:52, 11 March 2005 User:Patrick (→Old versions of pages - See also Linking to specific versions of articles.)
 * 18:10, 19 February 2005 User:83.31.189.90 (→oh)
 * 18:05, 19 February 2005 User:83.31.189.90 (oh)
 * 11:05, 10 February 2005 User:Patrick (→URLs of pages within the projects -*http://wikitravel.org/en/Vancouver)
 * 11:02, 10 February 2005 User:Patrick (→URLs of pages within the projects - http://wikitravel.org/en/index.php?title=Main_Page&action=history)
 * 13:48, 5 February 2005 User:Patrick (→Kinds of dead links)
 * 13:20, 5 February 2005 User:Patrick (→Kinds of dead links)
 * 13:11, 5 February 2005 User:Patrick (There are various kinds of dead links. With some the server is not even reached, with others the server takes some action.)
 * 06:28, 27 January 2005 User:24.79.95.11 (update link to Internationalized domain names)
 * 14:10, 22 January 2005 User:Patrick (A URL starting with www.wikipedia.org redirects to the corresponding one starting with en; only www.wikipedia.org itself leads to a portal page instead of the main page of the English Wikipedia: http:)
 * 14:01, 22 January 2005 User:Patrick (→URLs of pages within the projects - *meta.wikimedia.org (meta.wikipedia.org redirects there))
 * 13:56, 22 January 2005 User:Patrick (→URLs of pages within the projects - Complete list of language Wikipedias available)
 * 10:13, 2 January 2005 User:62.84.26.237 (m)
 * 09:55, 6 November 2004 User:Patrick (In some cases of caching problems, to update a page it can help to use "action=purge", in a URL like {{SERVER}}{{localurl:{{NAMESPACE}}:{{PAGENAMEE}}|action=purge}})
 * 08:24, 15 October 2004 User:Patrick (→URLs in external links -External links can start with "<nowiki>http://</nowiki>" or "<nowiki>ftp://</nowiki>"; (more?) "file://" does not work.)
 * 00:53, 15 October 2004 User:219.106.246.112 (→URLs in external links)
 * 14:08, 28 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Edit -*Ditto with http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Edit_summary#.22Post_a_comment.22_feature "Post a comment" feature: http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Help:URL&action=edit&sect)
 * 13:46, 28 August 2004 User:Patrick (*Add at the end: http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Help:URL&action=edit&section=1000 (use large section number))
 * 11:50, 18 August 2004 User:Patrick m (→Old versions of pages)
 * 11:35, 18 August 2004 User:Patrick m (→New pages)
 * 09:30, 17 August 2004 User:Patrick (See also Multiple titles.)
 * 10:43, 16 August 2004 User:Patrick (New pages are numbered (with curid) chronologically.)
 * 10:29, 16 August 2004 User:Patrick (==Old versions of pages==)
 * 08:25, 21 July 2004 User:Patrick (→URLs of pages within the projects - Rewrite rules.)
 * 08:12, 21 July 2004 User:Patrick
 * 13:02, 10 July 2004 User:Patrick m (→URLs in external links)
 * 23:35, 7 July 2004 User:Patrick m
 * 20:48, 7 July 2004 User:Patrick m (→URLs in external links)
 * 20:43, 7 July 2004 User:Patrick (Conversion)
 * 16:14, 7 July 2004 User:Patrick m (→URLs in external links)
 * 16:04, 7 July 2004 User:Patrick (→URLs in external links -For the other characters either the code or the character can be used in internal and external links, they are equivalent. The system does a conversion when needed. E.g.)
 * 15:22, 7 July 2004 User:Patrick (→URLs in external links -%20%22%23%24%25%26%27%2a%2c%3a%3b%3c%3e%5b%5e%60%7b%7c%7d "#$%&'*,:;<>[^`{|})
 * 14:47, 7 July 2004 User:Patrick (==URLs in external links==)
 * 12:06, 21 June 2004 User:Patrick m
 * 12:06, 21 June 2004 User:Patrick (Make non-ugly URLs)
 * 21:08, 25 May 2004 User:193.29.77.111
 * 12:49, 19 March 2004 User:Patrick m
 * 12:32, 19 March 2004 User:Patrick (sources.wikipedia.org sep11.wikipedia.org)
 * 11:50, 29 September 2003 User:Patrick (<-MediaWiki User's Guide)
 * 11:45, 29 September 2003 User:Patrick (See also MediaWiki User's Guide: Namespaces)
 * 14:13, 27 September 2003 User:Patrick
 * 13:46, 27 September 2003 User:Patrick (In projects outside Wikimedia the "w/" in URLs like)
 * 13:40, 27 September 2003 User:Patrick (In projects outside Wikimedia the "w/" in URLs like http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Main_Page&action=history is not always used. )
 * 13:15, 27 September 2003 User:Patrick

title: Help talk:URL


text:
Help:User contributions

User contributions are lists of edits that a particular user has done.

Listing the edits of a particular user

 * if it is a user with a user page: bring up the user page, click "User contributions" in the sidebar or bottom bar.
 * if it is a user with a login name but without a user page: clicking on the name in Recent Changes or Page History brings up an edit box for a user page; press Cancel and click "User contributions" in the sidebar or bottom bar.
 * if it is a user without a login name, two methods are:
 * click on the IP address in Recent Changes or Page History
 * put the IP address in the search box and press Go

Restricting to one namespace is possible: select it after obtaining the full list, or use the URL directly (see below).

URL
Also, you can copy the URL:

or

(for this wiki)

where XX is the user name or IP address.

If you make a link you can also use the shorter form Special:Contributions/XX.

With interwiki link e.g. w:Special:Contributions/XX.

Restricting to one namespace (in this example number 4) can be done with the long form only:

Parameter "offset": e.g. edits nr. 201-210, counting backwards in time, from user Jimbo Wales:

/w/wiki.phtml?title=Special:Contributions&limit=10&offset=200&target=Jimbo_Wales？

Composition of the lines
The edits are shown from new to old. There is one line per edit, showing time, date, an M if the edit was marked "minor", the page name, and the edit summary (but not a marking for "new").

An edit is marked "(top)" if, at the time of producing the list, there are no more recent edits by anybody to the article concerned. Sysops also have a rollback link on these lines, see Help:Reverting.

Due to this last item, applying "User contributions" to oneself is not only useful for refreshing one's memory and easily accessing pages one has been working on again, but also for finding out whether there have been any subsequent edits. Thus "watching" a recently edited article can be done by looking on one's user contributions list for edits without "(top)" or "(rollback)", which have not been followed by subsequent edits by oneself.

Also shown

 * the creation of a new page

Not shown
Not shown are:
 * edits of a page that has been deleted afterwards (unless it has been restored)
 * uploading an image with the same name as one that already exists, thus replacing it
 * the deletion or restoration (undeletion) of a page (if the user is a sysop)

Privacy
Check the privacy policy, if any, of the site you use; for Wikimedia: Privacy policy

title: Help:User contributions


text:
Help talk:User contributions

Meta:Help:User contributions authors and history
= From Meta:Help talk:User contributions =
 * 08:11, 27 November 2005 User:Uncle G (Fixed capitalization of template name.)
 * 03:49, 25 November 2005 User:Uncle G (Fixed capitalization of template name.)
 * 18:59, 17 November 2005 User:Uncle G (Fixed hyperlinks that break when this page is copied to other projects.)
 * 18:57, 17 November 2005 User:Uncle G (Fixed hyperlinks that break when this page is copied to other projects.)
 * 22:40, 1 November 2005 User:Patrick m (Reverted edits by 66.1.147.40 to last version by Blackcap)
 * 21:48, 1 November 2005 User:66.1.147.40 (→Not shown)
 * 21:15, 2 October 2005 User:Blackcap m (→Composition of the lines - bolded (top))
 * 22:07, 15 September 2005 User:Patrick m (Reverted edits by 141.149.39.15 to last version by Patrick)
 * 01:53, 15 September 2005 User:141.149.39.15
 * 09:35, 20 June 2005 User:Patrick m (→URL)
 * 09:34, 20 June 2005 User:Patrick (→URL -Parameter "offset": e.g. edits nr. 201-210, counting backwards, from user Jimbo Wales:)
 * 07:54, 9 May 2005 User:80.63.213.2 (→Also shown)
 * 07:53, 9 May 2005 User:80.63.213.2 (→Also shown)
 * 15:15, 21 April 2005 User:AnyFile
 * 14:11, 21 April 2005 User:Patrick (→Not shown)
 * 14:08, 21 April 2005 User:Patrick m
 * 10:11, 13 April 2005 User:Patrick m (→Composition of the lines)
 * 06:37, 25 February 2005 User:Aphaia m (→Privacy)
 * 06:38, 27 December 2004 User:Patrick (Restricting to one namespace is possible: select it after obtaining the full list, or use the URL directly (see below).)
 * 06:34, 27 December 2004 User:Patrick (→URL)
 * 06:28, 27 December 2004 User:Patrick (→url)
 * 03:03, 14 November 2004 User:Patrick (→Composition of the lines)
 * 06:47, 29 October 2004 User:Jean-Christophe Chazalette m (Reverted edits by 221.194.206.191 to last version by Borislav)
 * 05:37, 29 October 2004 User:221.194.206.191
 * 09:28, 12 October 2004 User:Borislav m (reverted edit)
 * 09:01, 12 October 2004 User:219.134.14.7
 * 07:00, 23 September 2004 User:AaronPeterson m
 * 12:08, 8 September 2004 User:Patrick m (→Privacy)
 * 12:07, 8 September 2004 User:Patrick (Check the privacy policy, if any, of the site you use; for Wikimedia:draft privacy policy))
 * 20:55, 5 September 2004 User:Patrick m
 * 19:55, 5 September 2004 User:Patrick
 * 12:06, 5 September 2004 User:AaronPeterson (merge the newly redirected page's orthagonal content (all of it...) into this page)
 * 07:00, 15 August 2004 User:Patrick m
 * 08:34, 29 April 2004 User:Patrick (put the IP address in the search box and press Go)
 * 09:27, 16 January 2004 User:Daniel Mayer
 * 20:42, 19 December 2003 User:Patrick (Thus "watching" a recently edited article can be done by looking on one's user contributions list for edits without "(top)" or "(rollback)", which have not been followed by subsequent edits by onesel)
 * 20:08, 19 December 2003 User:Patrick m
 * 20:07, 19 December 2003 User:Patrick (Due to this last item, applying "User contributions" to oneself is not only useful for refreshing one's memory, but also for finding out whether there has been any subsequent edits. )
 * 20:38, 14 December 2003 User:Patrick (If you make a link you can also use the shorter form Special:Contributions/XX.)
 * 09:49, 14 December 2003 User:Minesweeper (contribs now have an M if the edit was marked minor)
 * 20:29, 13 November 2003 User:Daniel Mayer (from EnWikipedia)

title: Help talk:User contributions


text:
Help:User style

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

E.g. To create your own css modifications for the default monobook skin, create a page at User:YourUserName/monobook.css containing the CSS you want to use.

General
Note: In the default configuration, any User Style code will be ignored. To enable User Style, the following to settings have to be enabled through LocalSettings.php: $wgAllowUserJs = true; $wgAllowUserCss = true;

For each user-definable style, a skin is first selected, and a corresponding Cascading 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 versatility 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 Meta we have:

 * http://meta.wikimedia.org/style/monobook/main.css and MediaWiki:Monobook.css
 * http://meta.wikimedia.org/style/wikistandard.css and MediaWiki:Standard.css
 * http://meta.wikimedia.org/style/cologneblue.css and MediaWiki:Cologneblue.css
 * http://meta.wikimedia.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 the following. As far as possible examples are given, which show the result for the current style settings:

 * :link - links - example: help:index (See a vs :link)
 * :link:link
 * :link:visited
 * :link#contentTop
 * :link.external - http://example
 * :link.extiw – interwiki link in page body - example
 * :link.image – link from full image to image description page
 * :link.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) -
 * :link.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

 a vs :link - It's a common mistake to use " " instead of " " to style links. Whereas " " applies only to links, " " applies to both links and named anchors (e.g. ).

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 :link and :link:visited, in general, after which styling of :link.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:

 * :link[title ="User:username"]
 * :link[title ="pagename"]
 * :link[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
example1 example2
 * Edit box: textarea#wpTextbox1
 * Edit summary box: input#wpSummary

Major style blocks

 * column-content - overall space within the margins of which the content exists.
 * content - the white background, thin bordered box which contains the main page content.
 * firstHeading - the class of the heading tag at the top of every page
 * bodyContent - the main page content within the content box
 * contentSub - the name of the wiki immediately underneath the main heading, but above the body text

The portlet class is the style used by all the div blocks around the main content. Identified blocks using that class:
 * p-cactions - id for the list of tabs above the main content
 * p-personal - id for the list of links that include the login or logout page at the top of the page.
 * p-logo - id for the block that contains the logo (in the top left)
 * p-navigation - id for the block that contains the navigation links on the left of the page
 * p-search - the block that contains the search buttons
 * p-tb - the block that contains the toolbox links

The footer at the bottom of the page includes blocks with the following ids
 * footer - overall footer container block
 * f-poweredbyico - the powered by mediawiki image that normally resides to the right of the page
 * f-list - id for the list that contains all the bits of text at the bottom of the page

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 background 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 */
 * link { text-decoration: underline; }

/*Display body content in a narrower column for easier reading*/ /*adjust percentages as desired*/ div#bodyContent { width: 50%; line-height: 105%; }

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

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

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

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

/* strikeout Upload File link as a reminder to upload to Commons instead */ li#t-upload { text-decoration: line-through; }

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
The Cologne Blue skin has an option for a floating quickbar, which causes the navigation links and toolboxes and such to stay in the same position while you scroll. This attempts to mimic that functionality for the Monobook skin:

Problems
It is usable, but please edit this section or discuss if you know how to fix the code.
 * The position of each box is set with an absolute em height, instead of each box being positioned relative to the others.  This is not optimum and means the position of the boxes changes after the links are changed or software upgraded.  (Note that this version assumes  is also in place.)
 * The footer ends up at the top of the page, so it has been turned off.
 * If the article has many interwiki equivalents, they may run off the screen and are non-scrollable.

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
 * http://meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/ -- great ideas for advanced css

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'); The access key is the first value in the array. An example which changes this accesskey to '0': ta['ca-nstab-main'] = new Array('0','View the content page'); Since alt-d is also a shortcut to the address bar in most browsers, you might want to disable the alt-d shortcut for Delete, by entering an empty string as access key this way: ta['ca-delete'] = new Array('','Delete this page'); Finally, 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; }

Unfortunately, if the category box is large (such as on entries on U.S. presidents and other major figures), it can push an infobox off to the side. To correct this, the "clear: right" attribute can be added to an infobox.

Wikitext-controlled CSS
CSS can be controlled through JS by wikitext. For example, a HTML element "span" without content can, through its class and id, provide parameters for JS specifying CSS for any parts of the page. For example, if a page contains a "span" element with class FA and id lc, w:en:MediaWiki:Monobook.js specifies the style and title of elements "li" of class interwiki-lc, thus controlling the style and title of the interlanguage link of language code lc in the margin, provided that the skin specifies this class interwiki-lc (E.g., Cologne Blue specifies class='external' for each language, so it does not work for that skin.) See also Link FA.

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

title: Help:User style


text:
Help talk:User style

Meta:Help:User style authors and history
= From Meta:Help talk:User style =
 * 08:11, 27 November 2005 User:Uncle G (Fixed capitalization of template name.)
 * 03:48, 25 November 2005 User:Uncle G (Fixed capitalization of template name.)
 * 15:22, 10 November 2005 User:Patrick m (Reverted edits by 80.209.1.92 to last version by Who)
 * 09:38, 10 November 2005 User:80.209.1.92 (→Problems)
 * 05:34, 15 October 2005 User:Who (change cat)
 * 09:17, 13 October 2005 User:80.202.218.145 (Practicle example for removing an access key)
 * 09:10, 13 October 2005 User:80.202.218.145 (Reinserted example link, in corrected format)
 * 08:30, 13 October 2005 User:Gwicke (→Changing access keys - more elaboration)
 * 10:58, 3 October 2005 User:80.202.218.183 (removed nonsense link)
 * 10:57, 3 October 2005 User:80.202.218.183 (→General)
 * 14:24, 1 October 2005 User:85.224.231.141 (→CSS selectors - fix link)
 * 10:29, 17 September 2005 User:Gywst
 * 02:16, 17 September 2005 User:68.197.168.206
 * 15:43, 13 September 2005 User:Patrick (→Wikitext-controlled CSS - Cologne Blue specifies class='external' for each language, so it does not work for that skin.)
 * 15:30, 13 September 2005 User:Patrick m (→Wikitext-controlled CSS)
 * 15:22, 13 September 2005 User:Patrick m (→Wikitext-controlled CSS)
 * 15:16, 13 September 2005 User:Patrick (if a page contains a span element with class FA and id id,w:en:MediaWiki:Monobook.js specifies the style and title of elements of class interwiki-id, for controlling the CSS of interlangua)
 * 15:02, 13 September 2005 User:Patrick (a HTML element span without content can, through its class and id, provide parameters for JS specifying CSS for any parts of the page, see e.g. Link FA for controlling the CSS of interl)
 * 14:21, 13 September 2005 User:Patrick m (→Wikitext-controlled CSS)
 * 14:16, 13 September 2005 User:Patrick (CSS can be controlled through JS by wikitext. For example, the CSS of interlanguage links in the margin can be controlled by wikitext which is not rendered in-page, see e.g. w:en:Template:Link FA.)
 * 01:25, 13 September 2005 User:HappyDog (Nowhere does it actually tell you how to create your own CSS style, so I added basic instructions.)
 * 01:32, 8 September 2005 User:Omegatron (→Make the quickbar float / sideboxes have fixed position)
 * 01:26, 8 September 2005 User:Omegatron (→Make the quickbar float / sideboxes have fixed position - oops)
 * 01:24, 8 September 2005 User:Omegatron (→Make the quickbar float / sideboxes have fixed position)
 * 01:23, 8 September 2005 User:Omegatron (→Make the quickbar float / sideboxes have fixed position)
 * 01:23, 8 September 2005 User:Omegatron (→Make the quickbar float / sideboxes have fixed position - maybe someone will see it here?)
 * 10:30, 31 August 2005 User:62.252.224.15 (Typos)
 * 08:49, 4 August 2005 User:Danielwang (→Samples - use ":link" instead of "a")
 * 08:35, 4 August 2005 User:Danielwang (→CSS selectors - Never use "a", use ":link" instead. (And whoever said that  always have no content?))
 * 21:09, 2 August 2005 User:84.162.204.1
 * 21:08, 2 August 2005 User:84.162.204.1
 * 18:14, 30 July 2005 User:Datrio m (Reverted edits by 80.3.160.7 to last version by DCLXVI)
 * 18:13, 30 July 2005 User:80.3.160.7
 * 04:31, 10 July 2005 User:DCLXVI (→Major style blocks - p-nav -> p-navigation)
 * 08:57, 22 June 2005 User:62.175.230.18
 * 08:55, 22 June 2005 User:62.175.230.18
 * 08:54, 22 June 2005 User:62.175.230.18
 * 01:20, 16 June 2005 User:Omegatron (some of us need these)
 * 07:03, 15 June 2005 User:PEZ (→See also - Added link to info about settings variables enabling this feature)
 * 04:51, 12 June 2005 User:Patrick m (→Major style blocks)
 * 04:43, 12 June 2005 User:Patrick (→See also - Customization:Explaining skins)
 * 04:40, 12 June 2005 User:Patrick (→Css selectors - ==== Major style blocks ==== copied from Customization:Explaining Skins)
 * 00:57, 29 May 2005 User:68.67.170.26 (→Samples -  add narrower-content sample)
 * 18:05, 18 May 2005 User:24.26.179.194 (→Moving categories to top - "clear: right" helps correct formatting problems when using this)
 * 07:54, 27 April 2005 User:134.58.253.114 (→General)
 * 07:52, 27 April 2005 User:134.58.253.114 (→General)
 * 15:20, 21 April 2005 User:AnyFile
 * 20:58, 19 April 2005 User:Patrick m (→See also)
 * 11:20, 19 April 2005 User:AnyFile (→See also)
 * 00:30, 30 March 2005 User:Astronouth7303 (→See also - Added langs to template.)
 * 21:53, 29 March 2005 User:Shir
 * 13:39, 22 March 2005 User:Patrick m
 * 13:37, 22 March 2005 User:Patrick m
 * 13:30, 22 March 2005 User:Patrick (→See also - *w:Cascading Style Sheets)
 * 13:28, 22 March 2005 User:Patrick m (→Css selectors)
 * 13:24, 22 March 2005 User:Patrick (→Css selectors - As far as possible examples are given, which show the result for the current  style settings:)
 * 13:19, 22 March 2005 User:Patrick (→Css selectors - update)
 * 19:01, 13 March 2005 User:217.159.67.206 (→General)
 * 13:52, 23 February 2005 User:153.106.49.64 (→Edit page)
 * 14:11, 2 February 2005 User:Verdlanco m (changed the "skin" link)
 * 21:05, 30 January 2005 User:DanielVonEhren m (sp)
 * 03:59, 19 December 2004 User:216.177.2.112 (→Samples)
 * 06:49, 29 October 2004 User:Jean-Christophe Chazalette m (Reverted edits by 221.194.206.191 to last version by 67.173.247.242)
 * 05:43, 29 October 2004 User:221.194.206.191
 * 22:09, 27 October 2004 User:67.173.247.242 (→General - briefly define skin, css)
 * 20:40, 15 October 2004 User:Omegatron (→Make the quickbar float / sideboxes have fixed position - NO one cares about this???)
 * 10:33, 15 October 2004 User:Patrick m (→General)
 * 10:33, 15 October 2004 User:Patrick (→General - looks like this has changed)
 * 18:58, 2 October 2004 User:66.245.206.239
 * 11:03, 23 September 2004 User:AaronPeterson m (stupid space at beginning of line error, I'm never going to learn, for my own wiki i don't want that "feature"!!!)
 * 11:01, 23 September 2004 User:AaronPeterson ( and a brief description before the page toc)
 * 09:42, 10 September 2004 User:Patrick m (dummy edit to put it on the new category page)
 * 04:46, 29 August 2004 User:24.26.179.194 (→Moving categories to top)
 * 17:41, 20 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Css in user subpages vs. css in a local file - 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)
 * 06:35, 20 August 2004 User:Patrick (→General -The name of the style directory is set on installation, see LocalSettings.php#Stylesheet_Location.)
 * 07:02, 17 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Css selectors - class or id can be a template parameter, an element as template parameter does not work.)
 * 00:18, 17 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Css selectors -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)
 * 22:19, 15 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Css selectors - *img.tex TeX image)
 * 22:07, 15 August 2004 User:Patrick (→General - See also Help:Sitewide css wiki page.)
 * 09:42, 14 August 2004 User:Patrick m (→Css selectors)
 * 09:28, 14 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Css selectors -*a:link, a:visited - together these are all the links, as opposed to "a" elements which are just anchors - example: help:index)
 * 09:12, 14 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Css selectors - misc)
 * 09:04, 14 August 2004 User:Patrick (Css selectors)
 * 09:02, 14 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Css selectors -a[href ="full url "] { .. })
 * 08:48, 14 August 2004 User:Patrick m (→Classes)
 * 07:47, 14 August 2004 User:Patrick m
 * 13:14, 11 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Classes - color-code particular users (including oneself) and/or links to particular pages (creating a kind of alternative watchlist).)
 * 12:59, 11 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Classes -color-code particular users (including oneself). This works in Opera, but not in IE.)
 * 11:09, 11 August 2004 User:Patrick m (→General)
 * 14:04, 10 August 2004 User:Patrick m (→See also)
 * 14:01, 10 August 2004 User:Patrick m (→Make the user toolbar a sidebox)
 * 13:55, 10 August 2004 User:Patrick m (→Classes)
 * 13:50, 10 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Classes - *a - use this in addition to a:link and a:visited to distinguish an internal link from the "Special page" tab, which is not a link (see Help:Namespace#Tab_labels))
 * 13:42, 10 August 2004 User:Patrick (→General - The files in the style directory are for a given skin probably the same in each project.)
 * 13:39, 10 August 2004 User:Patrick (→See also - *Help:Namespace#Tab labels)
 * 21:45, 7 August 2004 User:Omegatron (→Samples)
 * 17:32, 7 August 2004 User:Omegatron (→Make the quickbar float / sideboxes have fixed position - please help me finish this!)
 * 17:20, 7 August 2004 User:Omegatron (→Samples - - →put scrollbar on pre sections instead of ugly cutoff/overlap in firefox)
 * 17:17, 7 August 2004 User:Omegatron (small tweaks of the personal tools box (use a border to see the differences))
 * 09:55, 7 August 2004 User:Patrick (→General)
 * 09:39, 7 August 2004 User:Patrick (→General)
 * 09:34, 7 August 2004 User:Patrick m (→General)
 * 00:35, 5 August 2004 User:Patrick m (→General)
 * 00:28, 5 August 2004 User:Patrick (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 t)
 * 00:12, 5 August 2004 User:Patrick (preview)
 * 20:11, 4 August 2004 User:Patrick m (→Edit page)
 * 20:08, 4 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Classes -Edit box: textarea#wpTextbox1, etc.)
 * 10:12, 3 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Classes)
 * 09:20, 3 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Classes -examples)
 * 09:02, 3 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Classes)
 * 08:51, 3 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Classes -The elements, classes and id's relevant for the style of the page body include:)
 * 05:49, 31 July 2004 User:Patrick (misc; For "MySkin" there is no main.css applicable. However, confusingly, MediaWiki:Monobook.css is imported. (is this a BUG?))
 * 22:07, 27 July 2004 User:Patrick (→Print view tweaks - save ink and paper (ink is usually more expensive than paper))
 * 20:04, 27 July 2004 User:Omegatron (dont forget subpages)
 * 21:51, 26 July 2004 User:Patrick m (→Some JS links)
 * 21:46, 26 July 2004 User:Patrick m (→Css Links)
 * 09:43, 26 July 2004 User:Patrick m (→Css in user subpages vs. css in a local file)
 * 09:42, 26 July 2004 User:Patrick (== Css in user subpages vs. css in a local file ==)
 * 09:36, 26 July 2004 User:Patrick (js)
 * 09:17, 26 July 2004 User:Patrick m
 * 08:49, 26 July 2004 User:Patrick m
 * 08:47, 26 July 2004 User:Patrick (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 shou)
 * 08:39, 26 July 2004 User:Patrick ((and does not depend on being logged in).)
 * 08:32, 26 July 2004 User:Patrick m
 * 08:31, 26 July 2004 User:Patrick m (→See also)
 * 08:20, 26 July 2004 User:Patrick (In addition 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 pr)
 * 07:58, 26 July 2004 User:Patrick (rm MediaWiki:standard.css,)
 * 07:53, 26 July 2004 User:Patrick (HTML source)
 * 10:58, 25 July 2004 User:61.95.133.170 (→Alternative)
 * 20:50, 23 July 2004 User:Jredmond (→Diff view styling -  added span.diffchange item)
 * 09:57, 23 July 2004 User:Patrick (Also you can change the classic skin; your subpage should be named User:username/ standard.css (and similar for the other skins).)
 * 17:45, 30 June 2004 User:Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason (→See also - added a link to Skin projects)
 * 11:19, 26 June 2004 User:Patrick (→Alternative - A difference is that a local css is applicable for all Wikimedia projects and all other webpages.)
 * 11:08, 26 June 2004 User:Patrick (When the browser has been set to the option to ignore the font size specified in the page or external css, css commands regarding font size do not work when specified on a Wikimedia page. In that case)
 * 14:00, 24 June 2004 User:Gwicke (diff view styling sample: full-size font)
 * 15:33, 21 June 2004 User:Omegatron
 * 11:31, 16 June 2004 User:83.114.178.148 (interlanguage link (fr))
 * 22:05, 15 June 2004 User:Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason (→Moving category links)
 * 01:37, 14 June 2004 User:Gwicke (→Changing access keys - another example)
 * 22:20, 13 June 2004 User:Gwicke (→Changing access keys - update to ta array, changing/disabling access keys now easy)
 * 10:19, 13 June 2004 User:Patrick m (→Classes)
 * 10:17, 13 June 2004 User:Patrick (→Classes - (see the HTML source code of the webpage).)
 * 17:49, 12 June 2004 User:Patrick (The watchlist and Recent Changes use two classes: autocomment and new (broken links). This allows specifying separate colors and fonts for each class.)
 * 17:24, 12 June 2004 User:Patrick m
 * 17:24, 12 June 2004 User:Patrick m
 * 13:00, 12 June 2004 User:Patrick (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)
 * 01:59, 12 June 2004 User:Timwi (Moving categories to top)
 * 22:04, 4 June 2004 User:Nealmcb (js=>javascript)
 * 08:30, 2 June 2004 User:Lupo m (mv image to correct section)
 * 17:45, 1 June 2004 User:Tillwe m (→Monobook menus with serif fonts in the content area)
 * 09:24, 1 June 2004 User:Plop m (→Samples - change the bg color for tables)
 * 07:18, 1 June 2004 User:Dori (→See also)
 * 21:33, 31 May 2004 User:82.32.36.152 (→Rounded corners in moz)
 * 21:23, 31 May 2004 User:Tillwe m
 * 21:22, 31 May 2004 User:Tillwe (moving category links)
 * 13:03, 31 May 2004 User:Patrick (MediaWiki User's Guide: Setting preferences)
 * 16:32, 30 May 2004 User:Patrick m (→Css)
 * 14:05, 30 May 2004 User:Tillwe (serif fonts with monobook)
 * 11:24, 30 May 2004 User:Patrick (Is this supposed to work in other skins? I tried standard, but it did not work.)
 * 01:00, 30 May 2004 User:DopefishJustin (→Samples)
 * 22:38, 29 May 2004 User:Cyrius (→Make the user toolbar a sidebox - fixed Safari)
 * 22:34, 29 May 2004 User:Cyrius (→Make the user toolbar a sidebox - +suppress person icon, note about testing)
 * 21:01, 29 May 2004 User:Cyrius (+Make the user toolbar a sidebox (ugly hack because I don't really know CSS))
 * 21:00, 25 May 2004 User:193.29.77.111
 * 12:15, 24 May 2004 User:Gwicke (→Javascript - + === Changing access keys ===)
 * 11:56, 24 May 2004 User:Gwicke m (→Javascript - subpage now)
 * 11:35, 24 May 2004 User:Gwicke (import from test)

title: Help talk:User style


text:
Help:Variable

This is a list of variables that can be used in the wikitext. The way they are rendered depends on the time, on the project, or on the page in which it occurs.

On the left is the variable, on the right how it is rendered at this time, in this project, on this page.

The names of the variables form part of the set of so-called "magic words" the system uses.

Constant, only depending on the project and parameters
The variable localurl replaces spaces by underscores and special characters by escape codes, e.g. gives. The purposes are:
 * for a given page name, creating a link in external link style to a page in the same project or a project which uses the same string in the URL between the server name and the page name (on Wikimedia "/wiki/" and "w/index.php?title=") (but see also m:Template talk:Pi).
 * allow the same wikitext to be used in a project that uses a different string, if the target is in that other project or a project which uses the same string

The pagename in localurl should not be written with escape codes: e.g. use giving, not  giving.

Note that localurl does not convert page names and user names after "target=". This syntax can be avoided by putting the target in the first part of localurl, after the "/":

 * fr:Special:Whatlinkshere/Économie de Monaco
 * http://fr.wikipedia.org gives:
 * http://fr.wikipedia.org
 * http://en.wikipedia.org gives:
 * http://en.wikipedia.org

Localurle (and its counterpart, fullurle) perform additional character escaping on the resulting link, and are intended for internal use only, and work in wikitext only for backwards-compatibility reasons. The unescaped versions should always be used in wikitext.

The variable introduced in recent versions allows the entire link to be specified in one go, without also using. This also means it can be used in the same way for local and interwiki links (it being clearly inappropriate to add before the latter)

"INT:" is used to get text from the Mediawiki: namespace. If the user's interface language, as specified in Special:Preferences, is the wiki's default language, it will display the contents of Mediawiki:pagename. If the user has selected another language, it will display the contents of Mediawiki:pagename/languagecode (e.g. Mediawiki:fromwikipedia/fr for French) if such a page exists, and of Mediawiki:pagename if it does not. It is short for "internal".

Varying with time
NUMBEROFARTICLES: number of pages in the main namespace which contain a link and are not a redirect, i.e. number of articles, stubs containing a link, and disambiguation pages.

This depends on system variable $wgUseCommaCount If true, article count will only include those with commas (","). If false, will only count those with links ("DefaultSettings.php is false, this can be changed in LocalSettings.php. See also Help:Article count.

CURRENTWEEK is not supported in earlier versions of MediaWiki. It ranges from 1 to 54.

CURRENTDOW is the day of the week, Monday=1, etc.

CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN: is the genitive grammatical form of the month name (used in Finnish).

Depending on page
PAGENAMEE displays the page title in the form that is used in URLs, i.e. with underscores for spaces, and escape codes for special characters, and is therefore used for constructing URLs. For example, on a page called "Grand café", PAGENAMEE would produce "Grand_caf%C3%A9". Do not use PAGENAMEE as the pagename in first part of the variable localurl, see above. See also Variables PAGENAME and PAGENAMEE

When used in a template, these three variables refer to the page in which the template is included, not to the template page.

  [url=][/url]

  [url=][/url]

title: Help:Variable


text:
Help talk:Variable

Meta:Help:Variable authors and history
= From Meta:Help talk:Variable =
 * 03:48, 25 November 2005 User:Uncle G (Changed initial template.)
 * 23:31, 21 November 2005 User:Patrick (→Examples of combinations - fullurl)
 * 23:22, 21 November 2005 User:Patrick (rm sidebar, overlaps text)
 * 23:19, 21 November 2005 User:Patrick (→Depending on page - etc.)
 * 13:26, 17 October 2005 User:67.50.187.192 (→Varying with time)
 * 10:02, 9 October 2005 User:Gangleri (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters - see bugzilla:01825)
 * 01:50, 24 September 2005 User:Jossifresco (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters - wiki table format)
 * 14:42, 23 September 2005 User:IMSoP (new variable: ; also, Tim just explained why localurle seems redundant)
 * 13:30, 6 September 2005 User:194.112.157.126
 * 21:32, 29 August 2005 User:Sysy m (linking magic words)
 * 04:41, 24 July 2005 User:24.9.89.158 (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters - what 'int:' really does)
 * 07:40, 19 July 2005 User:Patrick (→Examples of combinations)
 * 07:29, 19 July 2005 User:Patrick (→Examples of combinations)
 * 07:22, 19 July 2005 User:Patrick (As a link the last example is not useful in the page itself, but it gives useful info in a paper or HTML copy of the page, about the original, and provides a link to that in the HTML copy.)
 * 00:51, 19 July 2005 User:CatherineMunro (→Examples of combinations -  + REVISIONID example)
 * 12:08, 14 July 2005 User:Zigger m (→Varying with time -  Avoid main ns redir.)
 * 07:05, 8 July 2005 User:Patrick (→Depending on revision)
 * 07:02, 8 July 2005 User:Patrick (→Depending on revision - The page history page also uses such a URL.)
 * 06:53, 8 July 2005 User:Patrick m (→Depending on revision)
 * 06:51, 8 July 2005 User:Patrick (→Depending on revision - (if not logged in: UTC))
 * 06:35, 8 July 2005 User:Patrick (When applying such a URL, at the top of the page the date and local time are displayed, with a link to the previous version, and a link to next version (unless at the time of loading the page there is)
 * 06:21, 8 July 2005 User:Patrick m (→Depending on revision)
 * 06:19, 8 July 2005 User:Patrick m (→Depending on revision)
 * 01:16, 8 July 2005 User:Sunborn (Changed wording around REVISIONID as is actually works now)
 * 00:57, 8 July 2005 User:70.51.60.242 (fixed out of place template)
 * 10:47, 11 June 2005 User:Patrick (→Depending on page)
 * 10:20, 11 June 2005 User:Patrick m (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters)
 * 13:35, 3 June 2005 User:Patrick (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters - w/index.php?title= / (but see also m:Template talk:Pi).)
 * 09:44, 22 May 2005 User:Patrick m (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters)
 * 09:42, 22 May 2005 User:Patrick m (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters)
 * 09:40, 22 May 2005 User:Patrick m (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters)
 * 09:39, 22 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters)
 * 09:25, 22 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters)
 * 08:56, 22 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters)
 * 08:04, 21 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Depending on page)
 * 06:31, 21 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters)
 * 06:10, 21 May 2005 User:Patrick (The variable localurl replaces spaces by underscores and special characters by escape codes, e.g. <nowiki> gives .)
 * 17:24, 19 May 2005 User:IMSoP m (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters - rm spurious colons)
 * 08:09, 19 May 2005 User:Patrick m (→Examples of combinations)
 * 08:04, 19 May 2005 User:Patrick (Using, instead of using SERVER and localurl, one can also use e.g. <nowiki>undefinedabc&action=edit</nowiki> giving undefinedabc&action=edit)
 * 07:46, 19 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Depending on page - Do not use PAGENAMEE as the pagename in the variable localurl, see above.)
 * 07:44, 19 May 2005 User:Patrick m (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters)
 * 07:42, 19 May 2005 User:Patrick (The pagename in localurl should not be written with escape codes: e.g. use <nowiki>:</nowiki> giving :, not : .)
 * 08:23, 6 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Depending on revision)
 * 08:12, 6 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Depending on revision)
 * 07:58, 6 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Varying with time -CURRENTMONTHABBREV)
 * 07:49, 6 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Varying with time -CURRENTDOW is the day of the week, Monday=1, etc.)
 * 07:40, 6 May 2005 User:Patrick (The names of the variables form part of the set of so-called "magic words" the system uses. )
 * 23:16, 4 May 2005 User:Patrick (→See also - *Template:Wikivar)
 * 17:18, 1 May 2005 User:70.203.83.203 (→Varying with time)
 * 02:50, 29 April 2005 User:ABCD (→Depending on revision - use interwiki)
 * 09:18, 28 April 2005 User:Patrick (It is not clear what the difference between localurl and localurle is.)
 * 09:44, 27 April 2005 User:Patrick m (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters)
 * 17:33, 20 April 2005 User:AnyFile
 * 21:48, 11 April 2005 User:Patrick m
 * 20:16, 9 April 2005 User:Patrick (→Varying with time - See also Help:Article count.)
 * 21:37, 26 March 2005 User:Hashar m (→Depending on revision)
 * 17:29, 14 March 2005 User:Astronouth7303 m (→Depending on page - Updated section name)
 * 09:41, 17 February 2005 User:Patrick (re:talk: Variables work also in links:)
 * 15:04, 16 February 2005 User:YebisYa m (→See also - +ja +en)
 * 08:43, 11 February 2005 User:YebisYa (+"editor toc")
 * 12:56, 5 February 2005 User:Patrick (With <nowiki></nowiki> in front it gives, which is a dead link reported by the browser, the server is not even reached.)
 * 12:50, 5 February 2005 User:Patrick (→Examples of combinations)
 * 12:46, 5 February 2005 User:Patrick (Note that PAGENAME with single E has to be used within localurl, otherwise it does not work with special characters. For example, for a page named É we get <nowiki></nowiki>, which gives)
 * 00:22, 5 February 2005 User:Patrick (→Examples of combinations -PAGENAME with single E within localurl, otherwise it does not work with special characters)
 * 21:02, 28 January 2005 User:Patrick (rv, new section does not make sense)
 * 16:04, 28 January 2005 User:Peleguer m (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters -  Depending on custom namespaces)
 * 22:31, 26 January 2005 User:81.202.46.6 (→See also - 'ca' link)
 * 17:10, 24 January 2005 User:YebisYa m ("langs" parameter in the hc template)
 * 12:29, 20 January 2005 User:82.41.34.235 (→Varying with time - wiki table syntax & add )
 * 07:22, 27 December 2004 User:Patrick m (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters)
 * 07:13, 27 December 2004 User:Patrick m
 * 11:41, 23 December 2004 User:Vipuser
 * 10:01, 22 November 2004 User:Patrick m
 * 10:20, 14 October 2004 User:Dittaeva (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters - INT:)
 * 09:52, 14 October 2004 User:Dittaeva (→Varying with time - CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN: is the genitive grammatical form of the month name (used in Finnish).)
 * 23:55, 20 September 2004 User:Patrick m (→Depending on page)
 * 02:00, 12 September 2004 User:Patrick m (→Examples of combinations)
 * 15:54, 31 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Constant, only depending on the project and parameters)
 * 08:25, 15 August 2004 User:Patrick m (→Examples of combinations)
 * 08:23, 15 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Examples of combinations -)
 * 08:06, 15 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Depending on page -PAGENAMEE displays the page title in the form that is used in URLs, i.e. with underscores for spaces, and escape codes for special characters, and is therefore used for construc)
 * 00:33, 15 August 2004 User:Angela (+)
 * 08:16, 12 August 2004 User:Patrick (see previous edit summary)
 * 08:09, 12 August 2004 User:Patrick (distinguish between variables (can be used in every mediawiki project) and templates (work like variables, but only in projects where defined))
 * 08:09, 12 August 2004 User:193.144.127.11 (→Varying with time)
 * 07:22, 12 August 2004 User:195.77.24.14
 * 23:01, 9 August 2004 User:Patrick m (→Examples of combinations)
 * 21:25, 25 July 2004 User:Patrick (*Help:Template#subst - on applying subst to a variable or to a template using a variable)
 * 13:21, 24 July 2004 User:Patrick m
 * 07:23, 13 July 2004 User:Patrick (→Varying with time -The default set in DefaultSettings.php is false, this can be changed in LocalSettings.php.)
 * 07:13, 13 July 2004 User:Patrick (→Varying with time -This depends on $wgUseCommaCount in DefaultSettings.php: If true, article count will only include those with commas (","). If false, will only count those with links ("[[").)
 * 07:41, 2 July 2004 User:Shizhao m (+zh)
 * 13:23, 27 June 2004 User:Patrick (#redirect Help:Variable)
 * 11:41, 23 June 2004 User:Nichtich m (de:)
 * 09:30, 16 June 2004 User:Patrick (On the left is the variable, on the right how it is rendered at this time, in this project, on this page.)
 * 08:15, 15 June 2004 User:Tim Starling (pseudo-namespaces, canonical names)
 * 12:19, 14 June 2004 User:Patrick (< Help:Index)
 * 22:11, 10 June 2004 User:Patrick (→Examples of combinations -See also Images in templates.)
 * 21:50, 10 June 2004 User:Patrick (rv my last change; To construct the external link, variables can also be useful.)
 * 21:40, 10 June 2004 User:Patrick (→Examples of combinations - link to a page which depends on a variable)
 * 10:26, 10 June 2004 User:Patrick m (→Examples of combinations)
 * 10:18, 10 June 2004 User:Patrick (→Examples of combinations - The external link style is used even for internal links, if the page name depends on a template parameter, to avoid that the system links to the edit page even if the pa)
 * 09:43, 10 June 2004 User:Patrick m (→Constant, only depending on the project)
 * 09:39, 10 June 2004 User:Patrick (misc)
 * 08:12, 9 June 2004 User:Patrick ( /w/wiki.phtml?title=Pagename&query string)
 * 09:20, 5 June 2004 User:Patrick m
 * 07:19, 5 June 2004 User:Patrick (moved from MediaWiki User's Guide: Editing overview and some more text)
 * 18:36, 6 April 2004 User:Angela

title: Help talk:Variable


text:
Help:Watching pages

Anyone with an account may choose to be notified when a certain page changes using "watch" and "my watchlist". MediaWiki doesn't let people "own" pages, however, this feature and the ability to revert pages, provides the most needed functionality—without the drawbacks of giving somebody absolute control over a page.

Note that the watchlist feature is not as reliable as Recent Changes and Related Changes: on Wikimedia, in the past it has sometimes given "Database error" without any further explanation. Even if Related Changes has equal difficulty in allowing watching a large set of pages, the difference is that when using a set of pages with links as a set of separate watchlists, a list that gets too large can simply be split.

The main drawback of the latter possibility is that it does not have the feature that edited pages are automatically added to the collection of watched pages.

Controlling which pages are watched
When logged in, there is a link "watch" or "unwatch" at the margin of each non-dynamically-generated page. By clicking on that link, you add the current page and the corresponding talk page (or if it is a talk page, that page and the corresponding non-talk page) to the collection of pages you "watch", or remove them, respectively. (All additions to and deletions from the list of watched pages apply to the non-talk page / talk page combination: one can not watch one and not watch the other.)

Switching from not watching to watching and conversely can also be done on saving an edited page: there is a checkbox "Watch this page". Note that when unchecked, this does not mean "do not change" but "unwatch".

Furthermore you can activate the user preference "Add pages you edit to your watchlist". In that case the checkbox on the edit page is checked automatically, so unless it is unchecked before saving, the page will be watched.

A list of watched pages, with the possibility of en masse unwatching pages by clicking checkboxes, can be done conveniently using, also available as link at the top of the Watchlist.

Watchlist
When the user is logged in, every page has a link to the user's watchlist, also accessible by the link Special:Watchlist. It approximately functions as a custom recent changes just for pages that you watch. It gives a list of all watched pages, ordered backward according to the time of the last edit of the page, optionally up to some cutoff time.

Each line shows details about the last edit: the day, whether minor or major, the time, a link to the page, the difference between the current version and the last but one, the history, the user name and the edit summary. There is currently no way to exclude minor changes from the watchlist.

Note that for every edited page only information about the last edit is shown. For example, if the last edit was minor there is no indication whether there have also been major changes recently. Since one is typically interested in all changes since one last checked, the history of the page needs to be checked.

The watchlist is only one of the features with regard to watching pages; even without ever using it, specifying pages to watch is useful.

Recent changes
In Recent Changes and Enhanced Recent Changes, watched pages are bolded.

Watching wikitext vs. watching the rendered page
Note that watching pages detects changes in the wikitext only, not all changes in the rendered page, see history of the wikitext vs. history of the rendered page. One can additionally watch the templates used, and the templates used by these templates, etc. This also limits the effect of watching an image page or category page. Oddly, it is not possible to watch an image. Also it is not possible to watch a category in the sense of being notified if pages are added or removed. With "related changes" additions can be detected, for removals one has to watch all pages in the category.

Watching a non-existing page
You can also watch a non-existing page. Then you see it on your watchlist when somebody creates it. This is often the case for talk pages. For a non-talk page, if the page has a (broken) link to it, press that link and press "Watch" (depending on the skin you may have to press Cancel before getting the link Watch). You can also go to the non-existing page using the URL.

Deletion of pages
Oddly, the deletion of a watched page is not shown in the watchlist!

Also, shows all watched non-talk pages, including the deleted ones. Since the pages in the list are given in the form of links, deleted ones are easily identified, especially if you normally do not watch nonexisting non-talk pages.

However, talk pages are not listed separately, hence deletion of a talk page can not be detected in this manner. In particular talk pages of template pages are vulnerable: content that is valuable enough for a non-talk page could be put here, if, by the nature of the template, it is not suitable for the template page itself.

Using a set of pages with links as a set of separate watchlists
Pages with links (possibly specially created for this purpose, e.g. as subpages of one's user page) can be used with Related Changes as a collecting of separate "watchlists". Note however that unlike My Watchlist, Related Changes does not automatically include talk pages; to watch also the corresponding talk pages, links to them also have to be in the page on which Related Changes is applied. If the links to the talk pages are put just for this purpose, a blank space as link label can be used, which makes the link invisible and ineffective, except for Related Changes. See e.g. List of astronomical topics and its wikitext, with items in the form Main Page  showing up as just Main Page.

Note that Related Changes does not detect an edit in the page itself and its talk page. Either include a self-link and a link to the talk page in the page, or put the page in another "special watchlist", or in one's standard watchlist.

Such pages can use the template mechanism to include other pages. However, see Pollution of categories.

Watching pages in a category by applying Related Changes to the category has a major drawback: removal of a page from the category is not detected.

Watching a category or an image
Watching a category or an image means watching the editable part. Adding a page to, and removing a page from a category is not reported. The same applies for changing the image.

CSS
As an alternative or in addition to using the watchlist feature, one can also define a user style for links to selected pages, putting in one's CSS a list of lines like:

 * a[title ="pagename"] {color: white; background: red; font-size: 150% }

This works in Opera, but not in IE.

On the (Enhanced) Recent Changes page it works like the bolding feature mentioned above, but it is more versatile, e.g. allowing extra emphasis on pages one is very interested in, or different styles for different categories of interesting pages. Furthermore, it also works on user contributions pages, and on regular pages (also for piped links, but not for indirect links through a redirect). It also applies, less usefully, for the section editing links in the page itself.

To highlight links to the given page also from other websites, including interlanguage links, use instead of the above:

 * a[href ="full url "] { .. }

Note that the full url is needed, even to highlight links from the same project, although the HTML code uses the relative url /wiki/pagename.

Article hit statistics
There is a counter for page views of a given page, but on Wikimedia sites it has been disabled for performance reasons.

Privacy of watchlists
Ordinary users or administrators cannot tell what is in your watchlist, or who is watching any particular page. Developers who have access to the servers that hold the Wikipedia database can figure out this kind of information. Publicly available database dumps do not include this kind of information.

title: Help:Watching pages


text:
Help talk:Watching pages

Meta:Help:Watching pages authors and history
= From Meta:Help talk:Watching pages =
 * 08:12, 27 November 2005 User:Uncle G (Fixed capitalization of template name.)
 * 03:37, 25 November 2005 User:Uncle G (Fixed capitalization of template name.)
 * 17:25, 17 November 2005 User:Uncle G (Fixed hyperlinks that break when this page is copied to other projects.)
 * 17:23, 17 November 2005 User:Uncle G (Fixed hyperlinks that break when this page is copied to other projects.)
 * 05:27, 16 November 2005 User:Uncle G (Replacement of with )
 * 05:55, 3 November 2005 User:71.141.227.105 (→Watchlist)
 * 03:18, 28 September 2005 User:70.109.52.109 (1st line/"Anyone"-->"Anyone with an account")
 * 09:13, 24 September 2005 User:AlanBarrett m (→Css - capitalise "CSS" in heading)
 * 09:11, 24 September 2005 User:AlanBarrett (→Privacy of watchlsts - new section, prompted by a query at the en: village pump)
 * 20:19, 30 August 2005 User:Datrio m (Reverted edits by 220.161.107.106 to last version by Patrick)
 * 20:19, 30 August 2005 User:220.161.107.106
 * 20:22, 17 July 2005 User:Patrick (→See also - Detection of additions to a category)
 * 08:20, 16 May 2005 User:Patrick (==Watching wikitext vs. watching the rendered page==)
 * 08:17, 16 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Watching wikitext vs. watching the rendered page)
 * 08:12, 16 May 2005 User:Patrick
 * 05:35, 16 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Email notification -misc)
 * 21:04, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Email notification)
 * 20:54, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick (→See also)
 * 20:48, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Update marker - Note that to reset this (clear the notification flag) one has to be logged in when viewing the page.)
 * 20:42, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick m (→Email notification)
 * 11:29, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Email notification)
 * 11:18, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick (Having a separate email for every edited page that one likes to watch in the sense of the other watch features, may be too much. New features are being proposed and developed: emails with a list of ed)
 * 10:43, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick
 * 09:44, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Update marker)
 * 09:36, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick m (===Update marker===)
 * 09:35, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Effects of watching a page)
 * 09:12, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Effects of watching a page)
 * 09:02, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Effects of watching a page)
 * 08:58, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Effects of watching a page)
 * 08:54, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick m (→Controlling which pages are watched)
 * 08:53, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Controlling which pages are watched)
 * 08:50, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick m (→Controlling which pages are watched)
 * 08:48, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Controlling which pages are watched)
 * 08:41, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick
 * 08:34, 15 May 2005 User:Patrick (→Use)
 * 12:24, 21 April 2005 User:AnyFile
 * 11:43, 19 April 2005 User:Patrick m (→See also)
 * 18:10, 14 April 2005 User:67.166.125.169 (→Watching and unwatching)
 * 11:53, 31 March 2005 User:Patrick m
 * 11:49, 31 March 2005 User:Patrick (Unfortunately, the latter possibility does not have the feature of edited pages automatically being added to the watchlist.)
 * 11:42, 31 March 2005 User:Patrick (Even if Related Changes has equal difficulty in allowing a large watching a large set of pages, the difference is that when [[#Using a set of pages with links as a set of separate watchlists|using a s)
 * 11:37, 31 March 2005 User:Patrick (==Using a set of pages with links as a set of separate watchlists==)
 * 11:36, 31 March 2005 User:Patrick (==Using collections of pages with links as a set of separate watchlists==)
 * 11:09, 31 March 2005 User:Patrick (Note that the watchlist feature is not as reliable as Recent Changes and Related Changes: it gives more often "Database error" without any further explanation.)
 * 11:15, 24 March 2005 User:Patrick (Note that Related Changes does not detect an edit in the page itself and its talk page. Either include a self-link and a link to the talk page in the page, or put the page in another "special watchlis)
 * 11:08, 24 March 2005 User:Patrick (Watching pages in a category by applying Related Changes to the category has a major drawback: removal of a page from the category is not detected.)
 * 21:30, 19 March 2005 User:128.97.70.46 (replaced -- with &mdhash; link to HTML)
 * 22:20, 19 February 2005 User:Angela (rm "However, one can watch the Deletion log." - no longer true)
 * 01:16, 16 February 2005 User:Patrick (→Watching a category or an image)
 * 01:14, 16 February 2005 User:Patrick (→Watching a category or an image - The same applies for changing the image.)
 * 01:11, 16 February 2005 User:Patrick (Watching a category or an image means watching the editable part. Additions to, and removals from a category are not reported.)
 * 13:33, 28 January 2005 User:Patrick (In particular talk pages of template pages are vulnerable: content that is valuable enough for a non-talk page could be put here, if, by the nature of the template, it is not suitable for the template)
 * 13:16, 28 January 2005 User:Patrick (misc)
 * 13:10, 28 January 2005 User:Patrick (All additions to and deletions from the list of watched pages apply to the non-talk page / talk page combination: one can not watch one and not watch the other.)
 * 13:05, 28 January 2005 User:Patrick (→Use -"page" more general than "article")
 * 12:58, 28 January 2005 User:Patrick (→Deletion of pages - However, talk pages are not listed separately, hence deletion of a talk page can not be detected in this manner.)
 * 12:29, 28 January 2005 User:Patrick (mv section down / Since the pages in the list are given in the form of links, deleted ones are easily identified, especially if you normally do not watch nonexisting pages.)
 * 12:24, 28 January 2005 User:Patrick (A list of watched pages, with the possibility of en masse unwatching pages by clicking checkboxes, can be done conveniently using, also available as)
 * 12:10, 28 January 2005 User:Patrick (→Deletion of pages - Since the pages in the list are given in the form of links, nonexisting pages (including the deleted ones) are shown in a different format.)
 * 12:04, 28 January 2005 User:Patrick (Also, shows all watched pages, including the deleted ones, with as usual by default a different format for nonexisting pages, including the deleted o)
 * 09:47, 26 January 2005 User:Patrick (→Article Hit Statisitics - There is a counter for page views of a given page, but on Wikimedia sites it has been disabled for performance reasons.)
 * 03:30, 26 January 2005 User:203.122.225.240 (Article Hits -- Save others looking in vain)
 * 12:42, 24 December 2004 User:192.169.41.37
 * 14:42, 15 December 2004 User:Patrick (with items in the form <nowiki>Main Page </nowiki> showing up as just Main Page  .)
 * 14:35, 15 December 2004 User:Patrick (Note however that unlike My Watchlist, Related Changes does not automatically include talk pages; to watch also the corresponding talk pages, links to them also have to be in the page on which Related)
 * 03:07, 4 December 2004 User:Patrick (Such pages can use the template mechanism to include other pages. However, see Pollution of categories)
 * 03:45, 27 November 2004 User:Patrick (Oddly, this link for reducing the number of watched pages is not available when the watchlist function does not work because of too many watched pages. In that case use a URL like http://en.wikipedia.)
 * 06:46, 29 October 2004 User:Jean-Christophe Chazalette m (Reverted edits by 221.194.206.191 to last version by Patrick)
 * 05:34, 29 October 2004 User:221.194.206.191
 * 07:08, 26 September 2004 User:Patrick m
 * 06:08, 23 September 2004 User:AaronPeterson m ( and a briefer main comment.)
 * 08:48, 14 September 2004 User:MattTM m (→Css - disambig CSS)
 * 02:39, 19 August 2004 User:Patrick (→See also - *Watchlist sizes for enwiki 2004-08-11)
 * 13:56, 16 August 2004 User:Patrick (==Keeping a number of separate watchlists==)
 * 23:13, 11 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Css)
 * 22:59, 11 August 2004 User:Patrick m (→Css)
 * 16:09, 11 August 2004 User:Patrick m (→Css)
 * 16:08, 11 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Css -Note that the full url is needed, even to highlight links from the same project, although the html code uses the relative url /wiki/pagename.)
 * 15:50, 11 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Css -To highlight links to the given page also from other websites, including interlanguage links, additionally use)
 * 15:26, 11 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Css - (also for piped links, but not for indirect links through a redirect).)
 * 14:39, 11 August 2004 User:Patrick (→Css - Furthermore, it also works on other pages.)
 * 14:32, 11 August 2004 User:Patrick (One can also define a help:user style for links to selected pages, putting in your w:css a list of lines like:)
 * 20:32, 28 July 2004 User:Patrick (Watchlist table)
 * 22:34, 22 June 2004 User:Raul654 (rv vandalism)
 * 22:14, 22 June 2004 User:69.69.20.216
 * 11:46, 2 June 2004 User:Patrick (→Watching and unwatching - You can also watch a non-existing page. Then you see it on your watchlist when somebody creates it. If a page has a (broken) link to it, press that link and press "Watch")
 * 01:09, 27 May 2004 User:Angela m (change next page link)
 * 21:03, 25 May 2004 User:193.29.77.111
 * 01:05, 15 April 2004 User:Jroes m (Added a link to the next page in the guide)
 * 17:36, 16 March 2004 User:195.11.216.59 (Added "no way to exclude minor edits in watchlist".)
 * 04:44, 9 February 2004 User:Angela (link to en:Wikipedia:Minor edit)
 * 21:44, 6 December 2003 User:Angela (en link)
 * 21:43, 6 December 2003 User:Angela (The default cutoff for the watchlist is currently three days for users with less than 1000 pages in their watchlists and 12 hours for Wikipediholics with more than 1000.)
 * 20:49, 13 November 2003 User:Daniel Mayer (updating from EnWikipedia version)
 * 02:13, 7 September 2003 User:Daniel Mayer (converted)
 * 02:06, 7 September 2003 User:Daniel Mayer (en.wikipedia version)

title: Help talk:Watching pages


text:
Help:What links here

Every page has a link labelled "What links here" (or, more generally, labelled with the text in ), also called backlink.

The in-page forms are:
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/John Smith
 * , on this project:

This facility provides a list of all pages in the same project which link to the specified page.

Before 1.5:

The maximum number to be shown can be specified:

The default for this limit is 500, a specified limit of more than 999 is reduced to 999.

Limitation
Not listed are subpages that just have an automatic link to a page.

Redirects
The backlinks feature shows which backlinks are redirects.

The backlinks of the redirect are also shown, and if they include a redirect, the backlinks of that also (not more).

This makes it a useful tool for finding double redirects, which do not work, and, except in special applications (see below) can better be replaced by redirects to the final target.

Cases of transclusion
Whether there is a link from A to C is relevant for backlinks as well as Related changes. If C does not exist, only backlinks are applicable.

 * in the case of a template, referral to it is treated as link
 * a link from A to C counts as such even if the link is not explicit in the wikitext of A, but due to the inclusion of template B, which links to C
 * if template B calls a template that depends on a variable or parameter, then:
 * the question whether A links to C depends on the value of the variable on page A, or the parameter with which A calls B
 * the question whether B links to C depends on the value of the variable on page B; in the case of a parameter, considered from page B, the page does not call a valid template name (it calls one with a name with braces), so B does not link to any valid C

Thus a link from A to C may be due to the inclusion of template B, even when B, considered by itself, does not link to C. Thus, to find out what templates cause pages to link to C, it is not sufficient to check for templates in the backlinks of C; some templates can only be found by checking what templates are used in the backlink pages.

Examples:
 * Template:H:f calls Template:h:f . Considered by itself that is the unused Template:H:f Template ,
 * This page Help:What links here links through Template:H:f to Template:H:f Help, . This page is therefore a backlink of the latter, but Template:H:f is not listed.

Even without a template name depending on a variable or parameter, if page A links to page C due to the inclusion of template B1 which redirects to B2, which links to C, A is in the list of backlinks of C but B1 is not.

Summarizing, for the purpose of backlinks and Related changes, A links to C if there is, in that order, a chain of template calls, a single redirect, template calls, a single redirect, etc., template calls, and a chain of redirects.

In the case of an image, using it in a page is listed in the third section of the image description page, but not in "What links here" of that page

Other uses
The backlinks facility works also for a page that does not exist. The What links here button is also on the edit page on which one arrives when following a broken link.

The feature can also be applied to itself and other special pages, e.g., , ,.

Links could be put specially for use with "What links here", as an alternative category system, even to non-existing pages, e.g. Altcat:Help 1, see Special:Whatlinkshere/Altcat:Help 1. Putting the wikitext  does not provide a link and only produces a blank space (perhaps depending on the browser, here it produces " "), but for "What links here" it works as a link, see Special:Whatlinkshere/Altcat:Help 2. This could be useful for a special-purpose category that should not clutter the regular list of categories a page belongs to (for example, on w:en: there is the requirement that when viewing an article in a category, it is obvious why the article is in the category, and the requirement that the category subject is prominently discussed in the article).

Similarly an empty template can be used: displays as ""; see Special:Whatlinkshere/Altcat:Help 3.

Also a link can be provided, alongside the pseudo-link, Help 2 gives " Cat:Help 2", or in the template:  gives "".

Except in the case that the link is put in the template (it can also be put alongside the template tag), a redirect can specify a supercategory. As opposed to actual categories, the backlinks can show a tree structure: not only pages and subcategories, but also the contents of the subcategories (for each a list of pages and a list of sub-subcategories) and the contents of the sub-subcategories (for each a list of pages and a list of sub-sub-subcategories), but not the contents of the sub-sub-subcategories, up to three levels are shown; see Cat:Help and Cat:Municipalities of the Netherlands.

Order
When the link tables in the database are rebuilt, the lists are alphabetically ordered. However, adding a link subsequently causes it to be added to the end, and thus these occur in chronological order.

title: Help:What links here