Shortcuts: WP:SKIN WP:MONOBOOK

Skins, in Wikipedia terminology, are different layouts of Wikipedia. Wikipedia, as a website powered by MediaWiki, is a skinnable website, which means the presentational style of the pages can be changed, provided you have a Wikipedia account. Without an account, you can only use the default skin, MonoBook. However, this page features screenshots of all the different skins along with links allowing to load the Wikipedia's Main Page using them, regardless of having an account. There are a total of 8 alternative skins that are kept mostly for historical reasons and lack many features of the default skin as they are not actively developed.

Contents 1 Screenshot 2 How to change the skin 3 Customisation (advanced users) 3.1 JavaScript 4 See also

[edit] Screenshot

Screenshot   Chick (Preview)   Classic (Preview)   Cologne blue (Preview)   Modern (Preview)   MonoBook (default) (Preview)   MySkin (Preview)   Nostalgia (Preview)   Simple (Preview)   Vector (Preview)

[edit] How to change the skin

Once you have an account, go to the "Skin" section of the Appearance tab of the page my preferences. With the default skin, this page can be accessed at anytime from the link "my preferences" placed on the top right corner. Choose your skin and click Save. Then, all pages will be loaded with the new selected skin.

For a complete description, see Help:Preferences#Skin.

[edit] Customisation (advanced users)

Default Wikipedia skins are defined in several CSS and JavaScript files. Some of them are only editable by persons having write access to the Wikimedia Foundation servers and some are simple wiki pages belonging to the MediaWiki namespace. These wiki pages can be seen directly on Wikipedia, but to prevent vandals from breaking the whole website appearance, they are fully protected, hence making them only editable by administrators (however, any changes can be suggested on their talk page).

Besides these files, users can customise the way default skins appear using specific subpages of their user page. These subpages are viewable by anybody but can only be edited by themselves and administrators. Modifying these wiki pages only affects their owner. The name of these subpages depend on the skin selected in the user's preferences but they can be linked to as Special:Mypage/skin.js and Special:Mypage/skin.css.

Skin	Default CSS	Default JS	Personal CSS	Personal JS
Chick	MediaWiki:Chick.css	MediaWiki:Chick.js	User:<username>/chick.css	User:<username>/chick.js
Classic	MediaWiki:Standard.css	MediaWiki:Standard.js	User:<username>/standard.css	User:<username>/standard.js
Cologne Blue	MediaWiki:Cologneblue.css	MediaWiki:Cologneblue.js	User:<username>/cologneblue.css	User:<username>/cologneblue.js
Modern	MediaWiki:Modern.css	MediaWiki:Modern.js	User:<username>/modern.css	User:<username>/modern.js
MonoBook (default)	MediaWiki:Monobook.css	MediaWiki:Common.js	User:<username>/monobook.css	User:<username>/monobook.js
MySkin	MediaWiki:Myskin.css	MediaWiki:Myskin.js	User:<username>/myskin.css	User:<username>/myskin.js
Nostalgia	MediaWiki:Nostalgia.css	MediaWiki:Nostalgia.js	User:<username>/nostalgia.css	User:<username>/nostalgia.js
Simple	MediaWiki:Simple.css	MediaWiki:Simple.js	User:<username>/simple.css	User:<username>/simple.js
Vector	MediaWiki:Vector.css	MediaWiki:Vector.js	User:<username>/vector.css	User:<username>/vector.js

Note

• These pages are named after the skins, but must be written in lowercase and without any spaces to work properly. Since the first letter of titles on Wikipedia are automatically capitalized, MediaWiki:Monobook.css and MediaWiki:monobook.css refer to the same page).
• For the list of all CSS and JavaScript files involved in the rendering process, see Wikipedia:Catalogue of CSS classes.

[edit] JavaScript

On Wikipedia, JavaScript can be used to add new features such as add find/replace textboxes or give advanced rollback options. There are scripts to customise everything, from default font style to custom buttons.

Many script pages can be imported and used. Different scripts can also be used in conjunction with each other to accomplish several tasks at once.

In order to add pre-existing scripts to your User JavaScript page, add {{subst:js|name of script}} to the file. More detailed instructions can be found here.

[edit] See also

• Help:Cascading style sheets
• m:Skins
• mw:Gallery of user styles