Wikipedia:User preferences help

Customisation allows users to tailor Wikipedia to suit their own preferred style. It mostly allows for changes in the way pages are displayed, but there are also many functional tweaks that some editors find useful when editing articles.

The preferences link, available on the menu of a logged-in user, allows you to change most of the options that you will require. This is fully explained at Help:Preferences on Meta-Wiki.

User name and signatures

Preferences

Your username is displayed in the edit histories of all the articles you contribute to and is linked to your user and talk pages. You choose your name when you first register on Wikipedia and it is usual to stay with the same name throughout your time on the project, though it is possible to request a change of username.

Signatures are customised using the preferences under "User data" where they are referred to as your "Nickname". You should always sign your posts on talk pages and many users choose to customise the way their signature appears.

You can use any wikitext as your nickname. If "Raw signatures (without automatic link)" is unchecked, the software enters "[[User:Name|" in front of, and "]]" after your nickname wikitext.

Adding a link to your talk page

Perhaps the most common signature choice is to add a link to your talk page. To do so, add "[[User:Name]] | [[User talk:Name|Talk]]" as your signature. Be sure to check "Raw signature", as this is necessary for the software to recognize the markup. The result will look like this: Name | Talk.

The separator is optional, but some way of visually distinguishing your nickname from any additional links is advisable.