View source for Help:User style

{{update|type=Wikipedia help page}}
{{Shortcut|H:US|WP:USERSTYLE}}
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 [[Help:Link#Subpage feature|subpage]]s of the user's "User" page.

E.g. To create your own CSS modifications for the [[WP:Skin|skin]] you are presently using, create a page at [[Special:MyPage/skin.css]] containing the CSS you want to use (to apply your changes regardless which skin you are using, put them in [[Special:MyPage/common.css]] instead). For how to hide particular messages, see [[WP:CSSHIDE]].

== General ==
For each user-definable style, a [[Wikipedia:Skin|skin]] is first selected, along with 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 [http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/selector.html]: [[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.

There is CSS in the MediaWiki software itself, and Wikipedia overrides this using the following pages:
*Cologne Blue – [[MediaWiki:Cologneblue.css]]
*Modern – [[MediaWiki:Modern.css]]
*Monobook – [[MediaWiki:Monobook.css]]
*Vector – [[MediaWiki:Vector.css]]

Site-wide CSS is in [[MediaWiki:Common.css]]

You can override these for yourself using user styles.  To make changes that apply regardless of your current skin, change your [[Special:MyPage/common.css|common.css]].  To make changes that affect your current skin, change your [[Special:MyPage/skin.css|skin.css]]. To make changes that affect all Wikimedia projects, you can log in to [[:Meta:|Meta]] and change your [[:Meta:Special:MyPage/global.css|global.css]].

Enter some CSS into that page. Preview of CSS works 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.

To import CSS from a user subpage, use the {{code|mw.loader.load}} command in your [[Special:MyPage/common.js|common.js]]:

<syntaxhighlight lang="javascript">
 mw.loader.load( '/w/index.php?title=User:Example/stylesheet.css&action=raw&ctype=text/css', 'text/css' );
</syntaxhighlight>

== Rendering ==
The HTML source of a page contains lines like

<syntaxhighlight lang="html4strict">
 <script src="/w/wiki.phtml?title=User:your-username-here/standard.js&amp;action=raw&amp;ctype=text/javascript">
 </script>
 @import "/style/wikistandard.css";
 @import "/w/wiki.phtml?title=User:your-username-here/standard.css&action=raw&ctype=text/css";
</syntaxhighlight>

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

Thus the server provides HTML referring to the CSS and JS files, but it does not do any interpretation of their content. The interpretation is done by the browser, depending on its capabilities and settings.

== CSS ==
=== CSS in user subpages versus 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 CSS selector; e.g. a setting for the selector a.extiw affects fewer pages on the web than one for h2 (but it affects at least all MediaWiki projects, not just one).

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 cannot be used; at least these lines should be put in the user subpages.

Some computers, e.g. in internet cafes, mobile devices/tablets, 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:
*<nowiki />{{code|lang=css|code=:link}}&nbsp;— links&nbsp;— example: [[Help:Index]] ; default: <span style="color: #002bb8;">help:index</span> (See [[#note on link selector|a vs :link]])
*<nowiki />{{code|lang=css|code=:link:link}}
*<nowiki />{{code|lang=css|code=:link:visited}}
*<nowiki />{{code|lang=css|code=:link#contentTop}}
*<nowiki />{{code|lang=css|code=:link.external}}&nbsp;— http://example ; default: <span style="color: #36B;"><nowiki>http://example</nowiki></span>
*<nowiki />{{code|lang=css|code=:link.extiw}}&nbsp;– interwiki link in page body – ; default: <span style="color: #36B;">en:example</span>
*<nowiki />{{code|lang=css|code=:link.image}}&nbsp;– link from full image to image description page
*<nowiki />{{code|lang=css|code=:link.internal}}&nbsp;– 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)
*<nowiki />{{code|lang=css|code=:link.new}} [[exampl|example]] ; default: <span style="color: #C20;">example</span>
*{{code|lang=css|code=.allpagesredirect}} – <span class=allpagesredirect>[[abc]]</span> – redirects in [[Special:Allpages]] and [[Special:Prefixindex]]
*{{code|lang=css|code=body.ns-0}}, ..., {{code|lang=css|code=body.ns-15}} (namespaces)
*{{code|lang=css|code=div#bodyContent}}
*{{code|lang=css|code=div#column-content}}
*{{code|lang=css|code=div#editsection}}
*{{code|lang=css|code=div#globalWrapper}}
*{{code|lang=css|code=div#tocindent}}
*{{code|lang=css|code=div.tocline}}
*{{code|lang=css|code=h1.firstHeading}}
*{{code|lang=css|code=h2}}
*{{code|lang=css|code=h3}}
*{{code|lang=css|code=img.tex}} TeX image
*{{code|lang=css|code=small}} – <small>example</small>
*{{code|lang=css|code=table.toc}}

<p id="note_on_link_selector"><strong>{{code|lang=css|code=a}} vs {{code|lang=css|code=:link}}</strong> –
It's a common mistake to use "{{code|lang=css|code=a}}" instead of "{{code|lang=css|code=:link}}" to style links. Whereas "{{code|lang=css|code=:link}}"
applies only to links, "{{code|lang=css|code=a}}" applies to both links and named anchors (e.g. {{code|lang=html|code=<a name="bookmark">}}).
</p>

Normal internal links are not in class {{code|lang=css|code=internal}} (they used to be, and still are on sites that use an older version of the software, e.g. [http://openfacts.berlios.de/index-en.phtml?title=Main_Page]); they can be styled referring to {{code|lang=css|code=:link}} and {{code|lang=css|code=:link:visited}}, in general, after which styling of {{code|lang=css|code=:link.extiw}} etc. can provide for exceptions to this general style for links.

For interlanguage links:
*<nowiki>{{code|lang=css|code=#p-lang a}}</nowiki>

One may also have the style depend on the value of an attribute, e.g. with the selectors:
*<code>:link[title ="User:''username''"]</code>
*<code>:link[title ="''pagename''"]</code>
*<code>:link[href ="''full url ''"]</code>

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#CSS]].

The watchlist and Recent Changes use two classes:
*{{code|lang=css|code=autocomment}} <div class="autocomment">example</div>
*{{code|lang=css|code=new}} (see below)

The page history has classes {{code|lang=css|code=autocomment}} and:
*{{code|lang=css|code=user}}
*{{code|lang=css|code=minor}}

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

==== Edit page ====
*Edit box: {{code|lang=css|code=textarea#wpTextbox1}}
 <div class="textarea#wpTextbox1">example1</div>
*Edit summary box: {{code|lang=css|code=input#wpSummary}}
 <div class="input#wpSummary">example2</div>

==== Major style blocks ====
''See [[meta:Customization:Explaining_skins]]''

==== Non-display ====
One extreme "style" for a text is not displaying it, with

 .''classname'' {display: none}
 #''id'' {display: none}

etc.

Non-displayed links do not work (as opposed to links in a very small font).

It cannot be used to remove text in expressions for template names, parameter names, parameter values, page names in links, etc.

=== Style depending on a parameter or variable ===
==== Variable class or id ====
A class or id can depend on the result produced by a template or on a template parameter, e.g. <code>class="abc{{{1|def}}}"</code>. For one or more of the possible class names the style of that class can be defined. If the class is undefined it is ignored, so the standard style is used.

In the simplest case we have e.g. <code>class="abc{{{1}}}"</code> and define class abcdef. If the parameter value is "def" it applies.

If a page for general use only makes sense when styles are defined for certain classes, then these have to be specified in the page [[MediaWiki:Common.css]], which applies for all users and all skins, as far as not overridden.

==== Variable HTML attribute name ====
An HTML attribute name can be made variable. [[HTML Tidy]] – an outdated HTML4 library that is [[:mw:Parsing/Replacing Tidy|slated for removal]] – has historically removed attributes with invalid names at the server side, so the result does not depend on a browser capability to ignore invalid attribute names, and the amount of data sent is reduced. For a variable with possible value "class", see [[Wikipedia:HiddenStructure]] and {{tiw|en|Infobox}}.

==== Variable style parameter value ====
Wikitext like
<syntaxhighlight lang="html"><span style="display:{{{3|none}}}">Wed</span></syntaxhighlight>
displays "Wed" if parameter 3 is defined, but not "none", and displays nothing if parameter 3 is undefined or "none". If the value of parameter 3 is a display style other than "none", that style is applied.

=== Samples ===
Custom styles can be placed in each user's personal CSS files, such as [[Special:MyPage/common.css]], which each user can edit to set personal styles.
<syntaxhighlight lang="css">
/* make the background behind the content area and the tabs a light grey */
#content, #content table
#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 */
#p-logo a { background: url(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Color-chars-logo.png) 35% 50% no-repeat; }

/* don't use any logo, move the boxes onto that area instead */
#p-logo { display: none }
#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 */
html, 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 */
#p-cactions ul li a { background: #C7FDC7; }

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

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

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

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

/* standard link colors */
a:link { color: #0645ad; }
a:visited { color: #0b0080; }
a.new:link { color: #cc2200; }
a.new:visited { color: #a55858; }
a.extiw:link { color: #3366bb; } /* links to other Wikipedias */
a.extiw:visited { color: #3366bb; }
a.external:link { color: #3366bb; } /* external links */
a.external:visited { color: #3366bb; }

/* 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; }

/* center/centre the title of each page */
.firstHeading { text-align: center; }

/* Double-redirect warning */
div.redirectMsg a.mw-redirect:after {
  content: ' &lt;double redirect&gt;';
  color: Red;
  font-style: italic;
}

/* Prevent the new CSS in "Typography Refresh" (since early 2014) from showing page titles and headings in serif font */
h1, h2 { font-family: inherit !important; }

/* Display persondata boxes in articles */
table.persondata { display:table; }

/* Get rid of tedious warnings */
#editpage-copywarn, #editpage-copywarn2, #editpage-copywarn3,
#editpage-head-copywarn, .editpage-head-copywarn,
#editnotice_BLP_editintro, .ve-ui-mwSaveDialog-license
{ display: none !important; }

/* Get rid of tedious noob boilerplate */
#category-namespace-editnotice, #footer-info-copyright, #sitesub, .edithelp,
.posteditwindowhelplinks, #footer-icons, .ve-ui-mwSaveDialog-summaryLabel
{ display: none !important; }

/* Save space in list of templates displayed at end of page when editing */
:templatesUsed ul, :templatesUsed li {display: inline; padding-right: 5px;}

/* Change all text to the font “Avenir” (except headers) (you can change the font to anything else) */
.mw-body h1, .mw-body h2 {
    font-family: "Avenir"
}

</syntaxhighlight>

==== Rounded corners ====
[[Image:Rounded corners.jpg|thumb|100px|Rounded corner rules in Firefox]]
<syntaxhighlight lang="css">
/* make a few corners round */
#p-cactions ul li, #p-cactions ul li a {
  border-top-left-radius: 1em;
  border-top-right-radius: 1em;
}
#content {
  border-top-left-radius: 1em;
  border-bottom-left-radius: 1em;
}
.pBody {
  border-top-right-radius: 1em;
  border-bottom-right-radius: 1em;
}
</syntaxhighlight>

===== 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/, [http://alistapart.com/d/customcorners2/step2.4.html 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 ====
<syntaxhighlight lang="css">
/*
** 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) " ) ";
  }
}
</syntaxhighlight>

==== Make the user toolbar a sidebox ====
Tested to work in Camino, Safari and Internet Explorer 7.
<syntaxhighlight lang="css">
/* Transform the user toolbar into a sidebox */
#p-personal {
    position:relative;
    z-index:3;
    width: 11.6em;
}

#p-personal .pBody {
    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;
}

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

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

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

/* suppress the person icon by your username */
/* needed if not already in place */
li#pt-userpage { background: none }
</syntaxhighlight>
See the monobook [http://test.wikipedia.org/style/monobook/main.css main.css] for the full styles in use by default.

==== Fix the sidebar's position while you scroll ====
In the default Vector skin, the sidebar's position can be fixed easily:

<syntaxhighlight lang="css">
/* Fix sidebar */
div#mw-panel { position: fixed;
  overflow: auto;
  top: 0px;
  bottom: 0px;
  height: 100%;
  /* Prevent content overlay when sidewards scrolling */
  background-color: #F6F6F6;
  border-right: 1px solid #A7D7F9;
}
/* Prevent sidewards scrolling in pre elements */
pre {
  overflow: auto;
  max-height: 25em;
}
</syntaxhighlight>

[[Image:Fixed sidebar.png|thumb|This script and CSS makes the sidebar stay in the same position on the screen as you scroll]]

This may have undesirable side effects in Chrome; e.g., when viewing a page like the very common.css page you just edited to put this code in, the viewable content will become much shorter, and require vertical scrolling in a frame.

The ''Cologne Blue'' skin has an option for a "floating left" quickbar, which causes the navigation links and toolboxes and such to stay in the same position on the screen while you scroll. This provides the same functionality for the ''Monobook'' skin (in Mozilla). See [[meta:Help:User style/floating quickbar]].

==== Monobook menus with serif fonts in the content area ====
A quick-and-dirty combinaton of Monobook menus with serif fonts in the text area is found at [[User:Tillwe/monobook.css]] (in the first part). Also displays table-formatted things more or less correctly. There are some quirks and bugs (some because the CSS scheme of Wikipedia doesn't seem to be too thoughtful). Works on Netscape7/Win98 for the author.

==== Moving category links ====

<syntaxhighlight lang="css">
/******************************************************************/
/* moving catlinks to the right                                   */
/******************************************************************/

/* move the catlinks box */
#catlinks {
  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;
}

/* 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;
}

#p-personal h5 {
    display: inline;
}

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

==== Diff view styling ====
<syntaxhighlight lang="css">
/* 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; }
</syntaxhighlight>

==== Removing the "(thank)" buttons in History log ====
<syntaxhighlight lang="css">
/*Suppress "(thank)" buttons*/
.mw-thanks-thank-link { display:none; }
</syntaxhighlight>

==== Hiding long instruction messages ====
<syntaxhighlight lang="css">
/* hide View-Source blurb when editing a protected page */
#mw-protectedpagetext { display: none; }
</syntaxhighlight>

As with other CSS styles above, edit [[Special:MyPage/skin.css]] or [[Special:MyPage/common.css]] to insert the customized CSS, and then refresh the browser's cache.
{{Help:Infobox/user style|heading={{=}}{{=}}{{=}}Infoboxes and user style{{=}}{{=}}{{=}}}}

=== User CSS for a monospaced coding font ===
{{Template:Mxt/User_CSS_for_a_monospaced_coding_font}}

=== External links on CSS ===
* http://www.22bulbjungle.com/ – great css tutorials
* 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 i.e. bugs and more
* http://meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/ – great ideas for advanced css

== JavaScript ==
JavaScript has many possibilities, for example adding text, including links, at the desired positions. This added content may depend on content on the HTML source page produced by the server; for example it may depend on HTML elements with an ID, by applying getElementById. The position of insertion may be specified by insertBefore.

As an example, to add a page link at the left of your preferences, add the following to [[Special:Mypage/common.js]], replacing PageTitle with the title of the wiki page :
<syntaxhighlight lang="javascript">
mw.util.addPortletLink(	'p-personal', '/wiki/PageTitle', 'PageTitle', null, null, null, '#pt-preferences');
</syntaxhighlight>

=== 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:
<syntaxhighlight lang="javascript">
function catsattop() {
  var cats = document.getElementById('catlinks');
  var bc = document.getElementById('bodyContent');
  bc.insertBefore(cats, bc.childNodes[0]);
}
</syntaxhighlight>
An alternative that, when coupled with an appropriate stylesheet, will put the text up at about the same line as the title:

<syntaxhighlight lang="javascript">
function categoryToTop() {
  var thebody = document.getElementById('contentTop');
  var categories = document.getElementById('catlinks');

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

Some CSS to go with that...

<syntaxhighlight lang="css">
/* move the catlinks box */
#catlinks {
  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;
}

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

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, an 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'', [[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.)

=== 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)

== See also ==
*[[Help:Cascading Style Sheets]]
*[[mw:Gallery of user styles]]
*[[Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts]]
*[[mw:Skin projects]]
*[[mw:Help:Preferences]], [[m:Help:Preferences]]
*[[Cascading Style Sheets]] (Wikipedia article)
*[[m:Customization:Explaining skins]]
*[[mw:Help:Configuration settings]] (especially [[mw:Manual:$wgAllowUserJs]] and [[mw:Manual:$wgAllowUserCss]])
*[[Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation_popups]] (JavaScript navigation popups)
*[[Wikipedia:Catalogue of CSS classes]]

{{Wikipedia technical help|collapsed}}

[[Category:Wikipedia user space]]
[[Category:Wikipedia features]]