User:Toddlertoddy7/Customizing your signature

Your signature, left on talk pages, is usually the first thing seen by users who meet you for the first time. As a result, many users choose to customise their signature, or 'sig', in order to seem more unique. These changes can vary from providing a link to your talk page to completely redesigning the entire signature. This page will attempt to provide some helpful tips and advice for producing a unique signature.

Note that changing your signature will not change signatures which have already been produced, only ones that are created after save has been clicked.

Toddlertoddy7 currently has a very simple signature:

Toddlertoddy7 22:04, 11 February 2006 (UTC).

As a result, he would like to produce a more complicated signature.

Nickname

The easiest way to customise your signature is to change the 'Nickname' section of My Preferences. This changes the name shown to other users to the new nickname.

For example, if Toddlertoddy7 typed "Toddy" into the 'Nickname' section of his preferences page and clicked 'save' (making sure the box marked "Raw signature" is not selected), his signature would change to

Toddy 22:04, 11 February 2006 (UTC).

Note that it still links to User:Toddlertoddy7, but says "Toddy". This is useful if you no longer like your name, but don't want it changed all together.

Talk pages

Toddlertoddy7 would like to link his signature to his talk page. To do this, he needs to produce a 'Raw Signature'.

To create a link to your talk page, click on 'My Preferences'. Below the 'Nickname' box, there is a box marked Raw signature (no auto link; don't use templates or external links in this). Click this box, and then type into the "Nickname" field [[User:(your name)|(your name)]] [[User talk:(your name)|talk]], and click save.

For example, if Toddlertoddy7 types [[User:Toddlertoddy7|Toddlertoddy7]] [[User talk:Toddlertoddy7|talk]], his signature would become

Toddlertoddy7 talk 22:04, 11 February 2006 (UTC).

These can be changed to use any other text. For example, [[User:Toddlertoddy7|Toddy7]] [[User talk:Toddlertoddy7|Chat]], which would make

Toddy7 Chat 22:04, 11 February 2006 (UTC).

Some users "hide" their talk page link; it is there, but it is not labelled.

User Toddy 22:04, 11 February 2006 (UTC).

This looks like the plain Toddlertoddy7, but clicking on "Toddy" leads to his talk page, as the code for it shows:[[User:Toddlertoddy7|User]][[User talk:Toddlertoddy7|Toddy]].

To find these, hover your mouse over different parts of the signature. The status bar at the bottom of your web browser should show you where each bit of the signature leads.

Getting colourful...

Toddlertoddy7 doesn't much like the colour blue, and decides to produce a more colourful signature.

In order to produce a signature with colours other than blue (or red), you'll need to use a bit of HTML, specifically the tag.

If I put at the start of some text , all the text I write turns gold. Note that the text will not turn back into black until I type .

Toddy7 wants a green and maroon signature, so he types [[User:Toddlertoddy7|Toddlertoddy7]] [[User talk:Toddlertoddy7|talk]], producing

Toddlertoddy7 talk 22:04, 11 February 2006 (UTC).

He can even use different colours in the same part. For example, [[User:Toddlertoddy7|UserToddy]] [[User talk:Toddlertoddy7|talk]] produces

Toddlertoddy talk 22:04, 11 February 2006 (UTC).

Note that "Toddler" and "toddy" are now different colours.

Any colour can be chosen, although it is wise not to use very pale colours on the white background, for obvious reasons. If the colour you want is not available, consider finding the web colour code for the colour.

Fine tuning

Toddlertoddy7 is reasonably happy with his signature. However, there are still many other ways to alter a signature. The most commonly used are: adding ^, _, '''bold''', ''italics'' and for special effects, and using special unicode symbols, such as ☯, ☺ and ★.

Don'ts

Tempting as it may be, there are somethings that should not be done, as they annoy editors or increase server load. These include:
Using pictures in your signature