Style may be chosen specifically for a piece of content, see e.g., color; scope of parameters

Alternatively, style is specified for CSS selectors, expressed in terms of elements, classes, and ID's. This is done on various levels:

Author style sheets, in this order:

Note: See WP:CLASS for a list of all the style sheets loaded.

MediaWiki core style-sheets edit

Per skin: MediaWiki Manual:Gallery of user styles etc. Typically loaded style sheets:

• common/shared.css
• common/commonPrint.css

Skin-specific main file

e.g., monobook/main.css (normal skin for PC's), chick/main.css (normal skin for handhelds)

Browser-specific fixes (also skin-specific)

Examples for Monobook:

• For Firefox: monobook/FF2Fixes.css
• For Internet Explorer: monobook/IE60Fixes.css monobook/IE70Fixes.css
• For Opera: monobook/Opera6Fixes.css monobook/Opera7Fixes.css monobook/Opera9Fixes.css

Site-wide style-sheets edit

• Site-wide for all skins (desktop view only): MediaWiki:Common.css
• Site-wide for all skins (mobile view only): MediaWiki:Mobile.css
• Site-wide per skin: MediaWiki:Vector.css, MediaWiki:Monobook.css, etc.
• Site-wide for user groups: MediaWiki:Group-user.css, MediaWiki:Group-autoconfirmed.css, etc.
• Site-wide for specialist purposes: MediaWiki:Print.css, MediaWiki:Noscript.css, MediaWiki:Filepage.css
• Site-wide if gadgets loaded: see Wikipedia:Gadget for more information

Note: MediaWiki sites other than English Wikipedia may use MediaWiki:Gadget-site.css instead of MediaWiki:Common.css.

Page-specific style-sheets edit

Page-specific style-sheets may be introduced through TemplateStyles. Pages, particularly templates, may also have inline CSS.

Some pages have their own CSS, e.g., MediaWiki:FileUploadWizard.css

User-specific style-sheets edit

• Global user-specific for all skins: meta:Special:MyPage/global.css
• User-specific for all skins: Special:MyPage/common.css
• User-specific per skin: e.g., Special:MyPage/vector.css, or Special:MyPage/skin.css for your current skin
• User-specific CSS loaded through JavaScript, e.g., loaded at Special:MyPage/common.js
• User-specific web-wide browser settings: local file referred to in the browser settings, or directly set in the browser

Note that in CSS terminology, the user-specific style sheets are not user style sheets.

Usage edit

An HTML element may be just taken from the wikitext (see HTML in wikitext), e.g., span, or the result of translating wikitext, e.g., the '''...''' code is changed into <b>...</b>, or part of the code for the skin.

A class may be produced by the software, e.g., ns-namespace number for the HTML-element "body", and extiw for an interwiki link in the page body, or taken from the wikitext.

Similarly, an ID may be produced by the software, e.g., bodyContent, or taken from the wikitext.

In the case of conflicting style settings for a piece of content, the resulting setting depends primarily on the indication "!important". Secondarily, if both are important, the user wins, if neither is, the author wins. Tertiarily it depends on specificity. Only lastly, it depends on order between and within style sheets: the last wins. Thus, a User:username/monobook.css does not win from MediaWiki:Monobook.css (both author, not user) if the specificity of the latter is greater. See also cascade.

MediaWiki supports most CSS, with such exceptions as the url() attribute. There were some bugs in CSS support in earlier versions.

You can use CSS styling in HTML elements in your code (see Help:HTML in wikitext for a list of elements supported by MediaWiki) like you would in normal HTML markup.

For example, a <div>...</div> element with a green border and its contents floated to the right would be created with

<div style="float:right; border:thin solid green;">
Here comes a short paragraph that is<br />
contained in a "div" element that is<br />
floated to the right.
</div>

which would produce the box to the right. Some wikitext elements allow you to insert CSS styling directly into them. An example is the table syntax:

{| style="your style here"
|-
|your table stuff
|}

You may wish to use a style type that is already predefined by MediaWiki, or the site that you are visiting. You can also create a style that is unique to your page.

Vector is the default style, you can view it at: MediaWiki:Vector.css

You will give your CSS tag an existing "class"

Please put a list of existing classes here.

Non-display edit

In an embedded page, one can hide comments in one version, and show them in another view. One extreme "style" for a text is not displaying it, with

.''classname'' {display: none}
#''id'' {display: none}

etc.

Non-displayed links do not work (as opposed to links in a very small font).

It cannot be used to remove text in expressions for template names, parameter names, parameter values, page names in links, etc.

To view hidden text, download the Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox here, then choose Misc. → show hidden elements in that toolbar. It will make all hidden elements appear.

Non-print edit

One can exclude content from being printed (if the browser supports CSS) by declaring the content to be of the "noprint" class:

<div class="someclass noprint">This will not appear in the print version.</div>

• column-content – overall space within the margins of which the content exists.
• firstHeading – the class of the heading tag at the top of every page
• contentSub – the name of the wiki immediately underneath the main heading, but above the body text
• content – the white background, thin bordered box which contains the main page content.
• bodyContent – the main page content within the content box

The portlet class is the style used by all the div blocks around the main content. Identified blocks using that class:

• p-cactions – id for the list of page-related tabs above the main content (page, talk, edit, etc.), top.
• p-personal – id for the list of user-related links above the main content (username, talk, etc.), top.
• p-logo – id for the block that contains the logo, top left.
• p-navigation – id for the block that contains the navigation links on the left of the page
• p-search – the block that contains the search buttons
• p-tb – the block that contains the toolbox links
• p-lang – the block that contains interlanguage links

The footer at the bottom of the page includes blocks with the following ids

• footer – overall footer container block
• f-poweredbyico – the powered by MediaWiki image that normally resides to the right of the page
• f-list – id for the list that contains all the bits of text at the bottom of the page

Variable class or id edit

A class or id can depend on the result produced by a template or on a template parameter, e.g. class="abc{{{1|def}}}". For one or more of the possible class names the style of that class can be defined. If the class is undefined it is ignored, so the standard style is used.

In the simplest case we have e.g. class="abc{{{1}}}" and define class abcdef. If the parameter value is "def" it applies.

If a page for general use only makes sense when styles are defined for certain classes, then these have to be specified in the page MediaWiki:Common.css, which applies for all users and all skins, as far as not overridden.

Variable style parameter value edit

Wikitext that reads

<span style="display:{{{3|none}}}">Wed</span>

will display "Wed" if parameter 3 is defined, but its value is not "none", and displays nothing if parameter 3 is undefined or "none". If the value of parameter 3 is a display style other than "none", that style is applied.

Wiki headings use the following default CSS:

color: #000000; background: none; overflow: hidden; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 1.8em; font-family: 'Linux Libertine',Georgia,Times,serif; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.25em; line-height: 1.3; padding: 0; border-bottom: 1px solid #AAAAAA;

color: #000000; background: none; overflow: hidden; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 1.5em; font-family: 'Linux Libertine',Georgia,Times,serif; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.25em; line-height: 1.3; padding: 0; border-bottom: 1px solid #AAAAAA;

color: #000000; background: none; overflow: hidden; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: 1.6; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0;

color: #000000; background: none; overflow: hidden; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 100%; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: 1.6; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0;

color: #000000; background: none; overflow: hidden; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 100%; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: 1.6; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0;

color: #000000; background: none; overflow: hidden; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 100%; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: 1.6; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0;

• Span and div
• Cascading Style Sheets – article on CSS
• Wikipedia:Customisation – also covers user names, preferences settings, skins, user scripting, etc.
• Help:User style – modifying style for accessibility or for additional feature testing.
• Wikipedia:TemplateStyles – modifying style for advanced visual appearance that can be applied with template.
• Wikipedia:Catalogue of CSS classes – list of classes globally defined across the site
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Microformats/classes – list of classes used in microformats employed on Wikipedia
• Help:User CSS for a monospaced coding font – both for the editing window and for display of monospaced elements like <code>
• meta:Help:Cascading_style_sheets
• mw:Manual:CSS and mw:Manual:Interface/Stylesheets
• mw:Gallery of user styles
• m:Customization:Explaining skins
• mw:Skin projects