Help:Preferences

The preferences menu.

Your preferences are your personalized account settings here on the wiki, which you may adjust to your liking any time you want. To access your preferences, navigate to the respective option in your user bar (or dropdown on mobile) in the top right corner of the screen, or simply go to Special:Preferences from the search bar or URL. There you will find an extensive menu organized into several related categories.

This page contains basic info about the most important settings in your preferences, as well as some recommendations and useful options to know about.

User info

The first and most important section is the default "User profile" tab, which contains many essential operations in regard to your account. Here you can manage your email and password settings, as well as identify additional info about yourself, like your real name and pronouns. You can also select your first language -- This will affect text on the core MediaWiki interface, though not any wiki pages themselves or other user-generated content.

Password

If you ever want to change your password, you can do so without having to contact a developer. This is done using an automated messaging system, which means you'll have to provide your email address. After clicking "change password" and confirming your address, check your inbox for an email from admin@pixarcarswiki.com: it will contain an authenticated link where you may [input] and save it. If you do not receive an email, please visit MediaWiki's help page or re-try later. Please note that as part of abuse protection measures, any valid account can only send one reset email every 24 hours.

The Pixar Cars Wiki recommends creating a unique, complex password that you don't use with any other personal account, and that you write it down in a secure location for safekeeping.

Email

When creating an account, you have the option of providing your email address - legacy users are required to do so during account reclaim, but for new users who skip this step, you can add it here. You can also change the email associated with your account at any time.

One (of many) new indie perks is that of email integration: for those joining our migration from the Fandom wiki, email notifications have much of the same uses, but now with even more. When enabled, you will receive emails about new changes to your watched pages, new talk page messages, and more – you can pick and choose as desired in the "Notifications" tab. Because this wiki implements Echo, anything pushed to email will also show up in an on-site notification in your alerts; besides likewise choosing what to receive, you can also choose toggle whether you wish to receive a notification for something on-site but not in email, and vice-versa.

Other notable sections

Signature

One of the most essential wiki components is your signature. This is what you use to sign your messages every time you join a discussion, via talk page or proposal; Many users like to personalize their signature for better expression and recognizability. In the "user profile" tab, you have the option of storing your signature text, so you don't have to write it out each and every time – any time you type ~~~~, it will automatically insert whatever is saved in the input field along with a timestamp. Make sure to enable "treat signature as wikitext" unless your signature is just a simple string of text.

For a quick demo, inputting the following into the signature field in preferences:

<span style="font-family:'Helvetica'">[[User:RodRedlineM1|<font color="#E0115F">'''RodRedlineM1''']]</font> ([[User talk:RodRedlineM1|<font color="#E0115F">''talk'']]</font>)</span> [[File:RinPixel.png|20px|]]

Makes it so when I type ~~~~, this appears:

Input	Output
~~~~	RodRedlineM1 (talk) 17:25, 26 April 2024 (PDT)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ussCHoQttyQ I have no strong feelings one way or the other.] ~~ ~~~~	I have no strong feelings one way or the other. ~~ RodRedlineM1 (talk) 17:25, 26 April 2024 (PDT)

For further information, as well as content regulations for your signature, see Help:Signature.

Editing interface

You can save your default editor choice in the "Editing" tab. There are even a few add-on tools available – the "wikitext mode" and toolbar give extra options that integrate elements of source mode, highly useful for those learning as they go or for people who simply like being able to use aspects of both styles simultaneously.

Watchlist

Another need-to-know is the Watchlist tab. By default, any pages or files you edit will automatically join your watchlist, meaning as mentioned earlier, you will receive emails and/or on-site notifications whenever they are updated in the future. If you're a frequent editor and find yourself flooded with alert messages every time you log on, it might be handy to filter your settings.

Gadgets

Gadgets are opt-in features that supplement the ordinary user experience, often special tools for reading and/or editing convenience. When you enable one in the right-most "Gadgets" tab, the associated CSS or JavaScript code will now be on page load. The full list of gadgets and respective code sheets can be found here. (Note that in addition to the three toggles listed below, some of the basic site data loads using gadget functionality - "hidden" sheets are merely part of the regular interface).

• HotCat is a relatively straightforward module that adds special buttons to the category links at the bottom of a page, allowing you to edit, add, remove, or re-order categories directly from reading the page, without having to fully enter the editor. Highly recommended for fans of the "add categories" feature on the Fandom wiki.
• Tab override allows you to enter the Tab character in the edit box – normally, pressing the key would move you to the edit summary box. Uses are somewhat far and between, but especially convenient while working with code (CSS or JS pages) or perhaps re-ordering template source for smoother documentation.
• Syntax highlighter color-codes text based on its type, allowing you to easily distinguish between different text formats, parser functions, templates, etc. while editing.