Help:Preferences

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

At the bottom is one button, "Save", which saves changes you have made to your preferences. Next to that button is "Restore all default settings (in all sections)". This resets all changes you have made to your preferences since your account was created.

Basic information

 * Username: Your username. Only bureaucrats can change your username.
 * User ID: A number assigned to your account when you created it (for example, if your number is 42 you are the 42nd user to sign up at this particular wiki). This number is used for internal purposes.
 * Member of groups: A list of usergroups you are in.
 * Number of edits: How many edits you have made. Not all wikis will have this.
 * Registration time: The time and date your account was accepted into the wiki.
 * Real name: If provided, this will be used for attribution (rather than using your username). Providing your real name is entirely optional. Some wikis do not have this option.
 * Password: A link to change your password.

Internationalization

 * Language: This controls what language the interface is displayed in. MediaWiki's default interface includes localisations for all supported languages, but this is not necessarily the case with extensions or custom skins. Page text will not be translated, nor will templates (unless the templates integrate text localisation).
 * How do you prefer to be described?: This controls what your gender shows up as in the  magic word.

Signature

 * Existing signature: Your current signature.
 * New signature: A box for a new custom signature.

Email options

 * E-mail: Your email address, if you have supplied one. You can also change or remove your address here.
 * E-mail confirmation: The time and date your email was confirmed, or a link to confirm it if you haven't done so.

Skin
Change or preview different skins for the wiki for yourself.

Files

 * Image size limit: Change the limit for the size of images on the File: page.
 * Thumbnail size: Change the size of images that have their size specified as.

Diffs

 * Do not show page content below diffs: Check this if you do not want the latest revision of the page to appear below the differences between revisions.
 * Omit diff after performing a rollback: Check this if you do not want to immediately show the difference between revisions after rolling back edits (Experienced Wikian and above only).

Advanced options

 * Link underlining: Change whether to underline links by default.
 * Threshold for stub link formatting: Change how many bytes are allowed for redlink style.
 * Show table of contents (for pages with more than 3 headings: Check this if you want a table of contents on pages with over 3 headings.
 * Disable browser page caching: Check this if you want to prevent your browser from caching pages.
 * Show hidden categories: Check this if you want hidden categories to be shown anyway.
 * Justify paragraphs: Check this if you want paragraphs to be justified instead of left-justified.
 * Auto-number headings: Check this if you want headings to be automatically numbered.

Date format
Choose the format you want the  magic word to format dates in.

Time offset

 * Server time: The current time in UTC.
 * Local time: The current time in the timezone set below.
 * Time zone: Choose the timezone you are in.

General options

 * Enable section editing via [edit] links: Check this if you want to be able to quickly edit sections by themselves using [edit] links.
 * Enable section editing by right clicking on section titles: Check this if you want to be able to quickly edit sections by themselves by right clicking on the title of the sections.
 * Edit pages on double click: Check this if you want to be able to quickly edit the entire page when you double click.

Editor

 * Edit area font style: Choose the style of font you want in the editor (browser default, monospace, sans-serif, or serif).
 * Columns: Number of characters per row in the editor.
 * Rows: Number of rows in the editor at a time.
 * Mark all edits minor by default: Check this if you want all of your edits marked as minor by default.
 * Prompt me when entering a blank edit summary: Check this if you want to be warned when entering a blank edit summary.
 * Warn me when I leave an edit page with unsaved changes: Check this if you want to be warned when leaving a page with unsaved changes.
 * Show edit toolbar: Check this if you want there to be an edit toolbar for quick editing shortcuts.

Preview

 * Show preview on first edit: Check this if you want a preview of your edits to show the first time you edit a page.
 * Show preview before edit box: Check this if you want the preview to be shown before the editor.
 * Use live preview (experimental): Check this if you want to use a live preview (the preview updates automatically as soon as you make a change). This feature is experimental and has the potential to break.

Beta features
These features are all experimental and have the potential to break.
 * Enable enhanced editing toolbar: Check this if you want the editing toolbar to have more options.
 * Enable dialogs for inserting links, tables, and more: Check this if you want a step-by-step dialog to insert links, tables, and other Wiki markup.

Labs features
These features are extremely experimental and might be detrimental to your editing if they break.
 * Enable side-by-side preview: Check this if you want the preview to appear on the side of the editor, instead of above or below.
 * Enable step-by-step publishing: Check this if you want your changes to be saved step-by-step.
 * Enable navigable table of contents: Check this if you want a navigable table of contents.

Recent changes
These settings all relate to what is shown in Special:RecentChanges

Display options

 * Days to show in recent changes: Number of past days of recent changes shown. Maximum for this setting is 91 days.
 * Number of edits to show by default: Number of past edits to show at maximum by default. This includes page histories and logs, as well as recent changes.

Advanced options

 * Group changes by page in recent changes and watchlist: Check this if you want to have changes grouped by page for compactness in the recent changes and your watchlist.
 * Hide minor edits in recent changes: Check this if you want minor edits to be hidden by default.

Watchlist
These settings all relate to what is shown in Special:Watchlist

Display options

 * Days to show in watchlist: Number of past days of changes shown. Maximum for this setting is 91 days.
 * Maximum number of changes to show in expanded watchlist: Maximum number of changes shown when the watchlist is expanded. Maximum for this setting is 1000 changes.

Advanced options

 * Expand watchlist to show all changes, not just the most recent: Check this if you want the expanded watchlist to show all changes instead of just the most recent changes.
 * Hide minor edits from the watchlist: Check this if you want minor edits to be hidden from the watchlist by default.
 * Hide bot edits from the watchlist: Check this if you want bot edits to be hidden from the watchlist by default.
 * Hide my edits from the watchlist: Check this if you want your own edits to be hidden from the watchlist by default.
 * Hide edits by anonymous users from the watchlist: This is an irrelevant setting for the Scratch Wiki, as anonymous edits are disabled. If they were enabled, edits by anonymous users would be hidden from the watchlist.
 * Hide edits by logged in users from the watchlist: Check this if you want edits from logged in users to be hidden from the watchlist. Checking this will hide all edits from the watchlist!
 * Hide patrolled edits from the watchlist: Check this if you want edits that have already been seen by Experienced Wikians or above to be hidden from the watchlist.
 * Add pages and files I edit to my watchlist: Check this if you want pages and files you edit to be added to your watchlist by default.
 * Add pages and files I move to my watchlist: Check this if you want pages and files you move to be added to your watchlist by default.
 * Add pages I create and files I upload to my watchlist: Check this if you want pages that you create and files that you upload to be added to your watchlist by default.

Token

 * Watchlist token: This is the secret key to the web feed of your watchlist. Anyone who knows it will be able to read your watchlist, so do not share it. A link is also there if you need to reset it.

Search
These settings have to do with Special:Search.

Display options

 * Hits per page: The number of search options to show per page by default.
 * Enable simplified search bar (Vector skin only): Check this if you want the search bar to look simpler. This option is only relevant when using the vector skin.
 * Disable search suggestions: Check this if you don't want search suggestions when typing in your search query.

Advanced options

 * Search in all namespaces: Check this if you want to search all existing namespaces for your query.
 * Otherwise search in these namespaces: Check namespaces you want to search in if you have unchecked "Search in all namespaces".