Project:Support desk/Sections/Formatting

__NEWSECTIONLINK__ = Formatting Support =

How can i change the width of the texarea input fields used for editing pages?

 * MediaWiki 1.13.2
 * PHP 5.2.0-8+etch13.1 (cgi-fcgi)
 * MySQL 5.0.32-Debian_7etch8-log
 * URL:

Its currently breaking my style. The default width is col=80, can i change that somehow, or should i use the stylesheet to change it?

—84.114.140.251 11:04, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Tables not aligned and not using formatting from common.css

 * MediaWiki version: 1.12.0
 * PHP version: 5.2.6
 * MySQL version: 5.0.51
 * URL: http://www.lingwiki.com

I was working on my site as normal last night, and everything was displaying just fine. I came back this morning and suddenly the infoboxes are not aligning on the right like they're supposed to, and only explicitly stated table code is doing anything, as can be seen here. The last time my wiki went from working perfectly one moment to absolutely screwing up the next was when I last updated the Wiki software back in May; worked fine for two days, then I tried to continue where I left off before going to work when I got back and suddenly it refused to connect to the database, costing me 2 years and 20,000 pages worth of stuff to date at the time. Things are finally starting to gel again, but now...more randomness? I've checked the log to see if anyone has edited Common.css or any of the box templates recently, which they haven't. I've resaved Common.css to reassert it, nothing. I've cleared the cache, nothing. I'm out of options and feeling just a slight bit paranoid at the moment...

—71.198.127.97 15:03, 26 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Seems solved, can't see any obvious misalignments or such on your site atm. -- :bdk: 03:53, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Need help on adjusting the portlets to the top on monobook template

 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
 * PHP version: 5.2.5
 * MySQL version: 5.0.51
 * URL: on localhost so no url

Im using the monobook template and i want to customize it a little. What ive done in first place is to change the logo. My new logo is only 60px in height. Ive changed the logo img entry and the logo href entry in the main.css and adjusted the height there from 155px (default) to 60px. I expected that the portlets will come up a bit then, nearer to the top of the page. But nothing happens. The portlets are not moving to the top. Ive searched the css then for a option that may be necessary to change, but ive found nothing.

So my question: What should i do if i want the first portlet in my list to begin e.g. 20 px below the logo image?

Thanks in advance,

Martin —217.5.181.251 15:15, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Templates, Where are files located and what do contents look like, e.g. language used?

 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.1
 * PHP version: 5.2.5 (cgi)
 * MySQL version: 5.0.45
 * URL: http://www.jefferson-wiki.com/wiki/

I am trying to customize an installation of MediaWiki and have run into problems. I can not find where I should place template files and what the contents of template files are to create custom pages. Essentially, I want to create a scaffold to help avoid the problems that can happen when there are blank pages. I want to give users a format for the material I want them to enter. For example, I want them to enter their topic, a brief summary of the topic, have a large edit box for them to enter their article text, have the ability to enter a list of examples, enter a list of related topics and finally to enter references or links to further reading. How can I create a template to do this and where does it go in the directory structure? What language do I use for the template text? Any examples would be very helpful!

Thank you, Steve —Duffsb 15:44, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

How Do I change the link on successful login to another page other than main?

 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.1
 * PHP version: 5.2.6 (apache2handler)
 * MySQL version: 5.0.67-community-nt
 * URL: private wiki on a usb key

I've installed the Mowes mediawiki package to test/learn and play with it.

What I want to be able to do is have a main page and after successful login instead of the link pointing back to the main page have it point to another page. I understand that Special pages are not editable like the rest.

Thanks Alan —Dragos 21:28, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

(RESOLVED) Changing the red format color for 'new' links to a different color

 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
 * PHP version: 5.2.6 (cgi-fcgi)
 * MySQL version: 5.0.67-log
 * URL: http://www.queencitywiki.com/

How do you change the default color of red for links to pages that are new or have not been created yet? Ive managed to edit CSS files to change the color and formatting to other links to how I want them, but I have been through about 4-5 CSS files and cannot seem to find the correct spot (or spots) to change the formatting of red to another color. Is this possible?

—74.132.72.29 21:38, 20 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes. Generally spoken, you have to search for a.new and adapt that bit then.
 * Put something like

a.new { color:#eeee00 }
 * in your main.css, or in MediaWiki:Common.css or in another skin's css (depends on what exactly you use and what you want to change).


 * Or, if you only want to adapt your individual css, put

a.new { color:#eeee00 !important }
 * in your personal User:Foo/monobook.css (or adequate) to individually overwrite the site's css.
 * The colour code is just an example. -- :bdk: 03:53, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Can I force every user to use the same template when creating a new page?
Can I force every user to use the same template when "creating a new page"? The Template I want is very simple, with no parameters involved. I hope this template can be applied automatically without manually typing –  by users. Thank you!
 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
 * PHP version: 5.2.6
 * MySQL version: 5.0.67
 * URL: N/A

—Coulomb 23:29, 27 December 2008 (UTC)Coulomb


 * I guess you are looking for something like the mechanism we use on this page, cf. this URL, which adds an "editintro" and preloads one template. Well, there are some neat extensions at Category:Page creation extensions, namely Extension:InputBox. I don't know about any really forcing solution offhand, though (users are still able to create pages through "normal" …&action=edit URLs, or by manually removing template code from edit pages before saving). -- :bdk: 02:38, 28 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I think the mechanism used in this page is what I want! Could you tell me how to achieve this effect? Thank you!
 * —Coulomb 10:35, 29 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, on this support desk page we only use preloaded text for adding new sections to an already existing page; but we have an extra manual page for page creations, and that is what you want, I guess: Manual:Creating pages with preloaded text; it's linked from Extension:InputBox :-)
 * I hope this helps. -- :bdk: 14:02, 29 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I tried a extension called NewArticleTemplate. It works just like you mentioned about preload page. My problem now is that the format I created in preload page is totally lost, because I use FCKeditor, a WYSIWYG one, as a default editor. For example, the double equal sign "== text ==" in wikitext is considered "normal equal sign" in FCKEditor. Do you have experience in this sort of stuff? —Coulomb 11:46, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Creating optional parameters in templates?

 * MediaWiki version: 1.14alpha (r44990)
 * PHP version: 5.1.6 (cgi-fcgi)
 * MySQL version: 5.0.22-log
 * URL: http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Main_Page

I am trying to make an infobox template for a local wiki about PC game modifications, where people can enter several parameters such as Screenshot and Leader, but if they don't, then those fields should not appear in the infobox at all. My code at the moment is:

However, at present, the infobox still shows empty parameters; I want it to skip those altogether. The template is at http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Template:Mod. Any help would be greatly appreciated. It Is Me Here  t / c 14:54, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Existing pages with table code doesn't work in mediawiki 1.13.2

 * MediaWiki version: 1.13.2
 * PHP version: 5.2.6
 * MySQL version: 5.0.51a
 * URL: localhost

I have upgraded mediawiki version 1.10.0 with 1.13.2. I have executed update.php and refreshLinks.php. But the pages which have table code has broken. The data is in text table. All the pages are working good with 1.10.0 version. But doesn't work with 1.13.2.

So, I have edited the page which was not working on 1.13.2 and copied the data from other system where it is working with 1.10.0 and saved the changes. but the page is not saving properly and it is removing the '|' and also placing some extra characters to the data.

Even the table format is good also the page is not getting displayed in tabular form.

It works good when i create a new page with table format.

Please help me that what's wrong with version 1.13.2 that doesn't support existing page table code?

Mediawiki FCKEditor overwrites my headers with
header== wiki markup ==

MediaWiki 1.13.2 PHP 5.2.6 (apache2handler) MySQL 5.0.51b-log I am using the FCKEditor extension.


 * URL: Intranet only so not shareable

I have pages that have table headers with HTML \<\h\2\> markup, for example:

Welcome to WIKI

When I edit this page, the FCKEditor shows up, allowing me to edit in WYSIWYG mode or swict to Wikitext mode.

If I switch the page to Wikitext mode, all my \<\h\2\> headers like the above get REPLACED with wiki table header markup (the equals signs), so the above header becomes the following:

"== Welcome to WIKI =="

This is really messing up my pages. Please can you advise if I can keep my \<\h\2\> and prevent this automagical overwriting with "==" wiki markup as soon as I switch to wikitext mode?

Many thanks

—195.167.195.200 10:14, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Defining a custom edit section
Is there any way (possibly with an extension) to define custom edit sections in an article? I mean, getting the same functionality you get automatically when you place a header; an edit link that lets you edit a specific section of the wiki text, without showing the rest. In particular, I'm interested in getting an edit link for a a single table row (where the edit link would be in the final cell of the row. Is something like this possible? Thanks. 82.215.27.77 09:06, 7 January 2009 (UTC)


 * MediaWiki version: 1.11.0
 * PHP version: WampServer 2.0c
 * MySQL version: 5.0
 * URL: Internal

I am adding links to our internal media wiki site. The links are to documents stored on non local SAN storage accessed via a shared area. These files i do not want to upload to the Media Wiki site our old HTML site we would just use  WhereAbouts We have many files that use this form. The problem is i can not get mediawiki to display them nicely. I van only get it to show the whole link. I would like it to just show say WhereAbouts.XLS as a blue link which ou click and it then opens the file into excel or IE/excel.

—161.12.7.4 10:02, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

External File Link

 * MediaWiki version: 1.11.0
 * PHP version: WampServer 2.0c
 * MySQL version: 5.0
 * URL: Internal

I am adding links to our internal media wiki site. The links are to documents stored on non local SAN storage accessed via a shared area. These files i do not want to upload to the Media Wiki site our old HTML site we would just use  WhereAbouts We have many files that use this form. The problem is i can not get mediawiki to display them nicely. I van only get it to show the whole link. I would like it to just show say WhereAbouts.XLS as a blue link which ou click and it then opens the file into excel or IE/excel.

—161.12.7.4 10:03, 7 January 2009 (UTC)