Valve Developer Community:User preferences help
Note:For a more complete guide, see Meta's version of this page; however, be aware that it covers a more recent version of MediaWiki than is used here.Contents
User data
Real name: if you choose to provide it this will be used for giving you attribution for your work.
Email: Enables people to contact you through the website without you having to reveal your email address to them, and it can be used to send you a new password if you forget it.
Nickname: Will appear in signatures: --nickname hours:minutes, date month year (PDT). The nickname will be a link to your personal page.
Change password: You can change your password here.
Remember password across sessions: If you check this, you will be logged on again when you return to this wiki after you've closed the browser.
Quickbar
The quickbar is a bar with quick links that include Main Page, Community Portal, and others.
None: No quickbar.
Fixed left: The quickbar is on the left side of the page, fixed to the top.
Fixed right: The quickbar is on the right side of the page, fixed to the top.
Floating left: The quickbar is on the right side of the page, in a different frame.
This preference only works in the Classic and the CologneBlue skin. In the Valve skin, it's fixed left.
Skin
Pretty self-explanatory. You can select a different skin here. Note that some skins seem to be unfished atm.
Rendering math
The <math>-tag doesnt seem to work as of yet. I'll cover the options anyway.
Always render PNG: All math will be displayed as an image.
HTML if very simple or else PNG: If the equation is very simple, it is shown as plain text, otherwise an image is used. Define simple. Good question. I guess simple is like the <math>-tag-broken'O'meter.
HTML if possible or else PNG: If it is possible to show the equation using plain text and HTML entities, it is done. Otherwise, an image is used.
Leave it as TeX (for text browsers): The raw Tex string is displayed. 36 ÷ 9 = 4 will look like 36 \div 9 = 4.
Recommended for modern browsers: The recommended option. I don't know what will be chosen.
MathML if possible (experimental): Math will be shown in MathML, a markup language used for math. For more information see MathML at Wikipedia.
<math>-tag-broken'O'meter: <math>36 \div 9 = 4</math> should look like 36 ÷ 9 = 4
Editing
This are all options for editing pages.
Rows: Number of rows in the editing textbox.
Columns: Number of colums in the editing textbox.
Edit box has full width: Ignore the colums value, just make the box as wide as the page. This seems to be overridden in the Valve skin.
Show edit toolbar: Show the toolbar with quicklinks for bold, italic and others. To use it, you'll need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Show preview on first edit: If the wiki should display a preview page on the first edit, no matter which button you clicked.
Show preview before edit box and not after it: If the preview button should be left of the save button. This seems to be overridden in the Valve skin.
Add pages you edit to your watchlist: Determines if a page that you edit will be automatically added to your watchlist.
Mark all edits minor by default: Automatically checks the This is a minor edit checkbox at the bottom of the edit page.
Time zone
On this page you can edit the time zone you're in. This will affect the dates and times you see in, for example, the Special:Recentchanges page. Normally the Fill in from browser button works just fine. If not, you can see the time zone of the server. Substract it from your local time and enter the result in the Offset box, in the format (sign)hours:minutes
Recent changes and stub display
Number of titles in recent changes: Number of titles you will see in the Special:Recentchanges page.
Hide minor edits in recent changes: Wether or not to hide minor changes from the Special:Recentchanges page.
Enhanced recent changes (not for all browsers): Wether or not to show an enhanced recent changes page. Features: Grouping of change to the same page by the same user. Needs elaboration.
Threshold for stub display: When to display stubs.
A stub is an article that doesn't contain enough information to be considered a real article on the subject. For example, if someone were to write an article about computers and only used two sentences: "You can play games on it. You can browse the internet on it." that would be a stub. It isn't useless, but it isn't really useful either. Wikipedia definition (pretty big article about stubs. Ironic, isn't it?) This option sets the number of characters that has to be in an article for it to be showed in Recent Changes.
Limit images on image description pages to: The maximum size of images on image description pages. Doesn't seem to work as of yet.
Search result settings
Hits to show per page: Maximum number of hits per page.
Lines to show per hit: Maximum number of matching lines to show per hit.
Characters of context per line: Maximum number of characters of the context to show per matching line
Search in these namespaces by default: In which namespaces to search by default.
Misc settings
Show hoverbox over wiki links: Whether or not to show a tooltip with the page title for wiki links.
Underline links: Whether or not to underline links
Format broken links like this.: When checked, broken links will appear in a different color. Otherwise, a question mark is appended to the link.
Justify paragraphs: Whether or not to use left and right justified formatting. See Justify, point 2 on Wikipedia.
Auto-number headings: Use numbered headings.
Edit pages on double click (JavaScript): When checked, you will edit a page when you double-click on the header. You'll need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Enable section editing via [edit] links: Whether or not to diplay the [edit] links in section headers.
Enable section editing by right clicking on section titles (JavaScript): When checked, you will edit a section when you right-click the section header. You'll need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Show table of contents for pages with more than 3 headings: Whether or not to show the table of contents at the top of the page if the page has more than 3 headings.
Disable page caching: Whether or not to enable page caching.
