Wikipedia talk:Vector

Banner placement
I'm not sure if anyone is watching this page, but it seems the most appropriate place to bring up the following issue. I have a sort of banner on my user page that is supposed to cover the page title. However, when I'm using this vector beta skin, it's moved down on the page and is nowhere near where it should be. This occurs in both Firefox and Internet Explorer. Is there any way to make it appear over the page title for both the default monobook skin and for the vector skin? Tim meh  ( review me ) 23:56, 9 August 2009 (UTC)


 * They've changed the underlying page structure. CSS positioning code embedded in pages as part of the wiki text might use absolute positioning and they have changed what the "containing block" is. In layman's terms, the top of the page has moved down. In technical terms the div-element with the ID of "content" has the CSS position property set to relative in monobook and the new beta has the div with the ID "bodyContent" set to "relative". The first div has an origin just above and to the left of the page header (the W in Wikipedia...) while the second div lives further down under the header. This sucks. Jack Merridew 11:32, 10 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Do you think you'd be able to fix the problem on my userpage? Tim  meh  ( review me ) 15:03, 10 August 2009 (UTC)
 * The problem with what they've done is that there is not a way to do such things that will work for both the old and the new way; they've broken the page model. Go yell at them (wherever they are). Sorry, Jack Merridew 15:09, 10 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh well. Hopefully they'll either cancel this beta or make it the default skin sometime soon. Tim  meh  ( review me ) 15:17, 10 August 2009 (UTC)
 * You can yell at them, but they won't listen :D. The CSS hacks are indeed HACKS. The top title icons are somewhat standardized, and will work across several skins, but anything that uses inline CSS styles to do the positioning, will always fail in all the skins that the original user is not using. This is well known, and not a bug. It is simply not supported, because the developers have no time to spend on everyone's personal CSS hack. —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 19:27, 10 August 2009 (UTC)
 * It seems there must be a way to have it work in both skins. See User:The Transhumanist. Those tabs are in the same position regardless of the skin being used. Tim  meh  ( review me ) 19:48, 10 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Nevermind, I figured it out. Thanks guys. Tim  meh  ( review me ) 19:58, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

minor and New flags are not bold on Special:Contributions
The m and N flags on Special:Contributions are not bold as they were in monobook and are in article histories. Is this intentional or could someone please look into this? —Ost (talk) 20:12, 11 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I'll investigate. —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 20:40, 11 August 2009 (UTC)
 * 20183, thanks for reporting ! —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 20:51, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

Own buttons from personal monobook
Is there any way how to incorporate my own buttons, which I have in my own monobook.js, now vector.js, into the enhanced editing toolbar? Or do I have to choose, whether I will use the old toolbar with my own buttons, or the "enhanced" one without them? Thank you. Jan.Kamenicek (talk) 09:24, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes and no. Yes, theoretically, it can be done. No, implementing that at this time would be a huge waste of time, because it is difficult to do, and an updated toolbar will be coming this month, which will make it much easier to add buttons. —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 10:54, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much for the answer. --Jan.Kamenicek (talk) 12:47, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Tabs on Special pages
Is there a way to have tabs or the drop-down arrow on Special pages? I used a tool to toggle certain edits on Special:Contributions, but the tab to access the tool doesn't show up in Vector. —Ost (talk) 18:52, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Move button
I'm running the vector skin and I can't move a page since there is no "move" button at the top. I would have to temporarily switch back to the monobook skin to move pages. Will a move button get added to the vector skin? -- NerdyScienceDude :)  (click here to talk to me) 00:18, 17 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Mouseover the arrow next to the watchlist button and "move" should be the first option. Tim  meh  00:59, 17 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks! -- NerdyScienceDude :)  (click here to talk to me) 03:50, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

Namespace differentiation
Is there any way to modify my vector.css by namespace? On Monobook, I have it set up so that the main namespace displays in serif font and all others in sans; I'd like to keep this behavior with Vector, but I'm not sure if there's a way to do it. —Scott5114↗ [EXACT CHANGE ONLY] 08:31, 6 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Just move this part of your monobook.css to your vector.css. —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 12:56, 9 April 2010 (UTC)


 * This appears to not be working; when using Vector, everything is still shown in sans-serif. —Scott5114↗ [EXACT CHANGE ONLY] 10:44, 20 April 2010 (UTC)
 * This should work: Move this to your vector.css (note: the above link is incorrect):


 * The problem was with the first comment. — mc10 ( t / c ) 00:50, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Font size
Just left a rant in beta feedback concerning the size of the font used in Vector. I have adjusted the size of the font in my browser to what is comfortable for me to read. But Vector appears to be using a stylesheet containing #bodyContent { font-size:0.8em; };. What on earth is the justification for making the font size 20% smaller? I suggest that if the developers find 1em too large that they decrease the font sizes used by their own browsers and leave the rest of us alone. Was anyone with middle-aged eyes involved in such a bone-headed decision? Yes, it's bone-headed to make the project unusable to a huge and rapidly growing segement of the population. It's especially bone-headed to make it unusable under the banner of a "usability initiative"!

I can (and have) changed that #bodyContent setting in my personal space vector.css. That doesn't help anyone who tries to use the project without logging in, and I posit that it defeats "usability" to make every joe learn how to edit CSS before they can read the articles comfortably. --Kbh3rd talk 02:21, 9 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Same look of i and l (bold) in some fonts is awful. Indeed very "usable". --Drundia (talk) 03:34, 15 May 2010 (UTC)


 * I agree. Even with my glasses on the font is so small that I have to move my face really close to the screen in order to be able to read the text. This is just really user-unfriendly design. Jan Panda (talk) 07:52, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

It's raining men
Why are there men on every button I click? This new skin is dreadful Gnevin (talk) 11:12, 13 May 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure I understand what is happening to you, but likely it has nothing to do with the new skin. Please provide details (browser, for example). Dodoïste (talk) 14:30, 13 May 2010 (UTC)
 * [[File:Rainingmen.GIF]] Gnevin (talk) 15:43, 13 May 2010 (UTC)
 * I un-installed Java Console 6.0.05 to 16 and this seems to have fixed this Gnevin (talk) 09:12, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Open "tab" in new IE tab
I can't seem to rightclick and open the new Vector tabs in new IE tabs/windows anymore. When I'm looking at the article, I tried to right-click on "Discussion" so that I could open that in a new tab and see both article and talk page. The little popup menu doesn't give me that option, just "Save as background", etc. It works if you right-click the links at the top (My watchlist, etc). Is this a new "feature" of Vector, or is there a way I can fix this? I'm using IE 7. Karanacs (talk) 14:51, 13 May 2010 (UTC) Here's something even more peculiar - in IE, move your mouse over the tab, right click - sure enough no "New Tab/Window" option..... It could be because the "label" is in a  tag inside the  tag and IE doesn't give the option for right clicking the span, while the other browsers recognise it's contained in an  tag - so they do - gotta love IE and its quirky ways ! Begoon (talk) 21:23, 13 May 2010 (UTC)
 * That is definitely weird behaviour from IE. Firefox and Chrome both give the "Open in new tab/window" option when you right click those tabs, but IE doesn't - I can't think why.
 * But try this - move your mouse over the tab till the link underlines, then move it very slightly down, under the wording, but still on the tab, and try right clicking again - if you did it "right" - there's the correct "new window/tab" option !!!
 * I tried moving it slightly and wasn't able to see the menu, so I've reverted to monobook. Someone else filed a bug report on this, and it looks like you are right about the cause. Karanacs (talk) 21:28, 13 May 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm not surprised you couldn't get the menu - it's too fiddly to do to be useful - I actually filed a bug after posting above, which was marked as a duplicate of the one you note above - I should search better before bug reporting... Begoon (talk) 21:44, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

As a "partial workaround", from https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=23490
--- Comment #4 from Derk-Jan Hartman 2010-05-14 02:34:34 CEST --- For users looking for a workaround. If you have a middle mouse button and use that to click, the page is opened in a new tab.

Begoon (talk) 00:56, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Search box in left sidebar
I like Vector - but I was also very fond of the Search box being in the left sidebar. So I did a hack in my personal user vector.css to move it back. The code is at User:Begoon/vector.css

If anyone would like to copy it, feel free to put it in your own User:xxxxxxx/vector.css. Note: After saving, you have to bypass your browser's cache to see the changes.

Just be aware I haven't tested it on every page yet - but it seems to be working so far for me. Begoon (talk) 14:57, 13 May 2010 (UTC)
 * That is exactly how it should be man. Or atleast, the box should expand to the left showing the long titles in full. I'm working on a 20" widescreen that is 1600 pixels wide and Wikipedia shows my query suggestions in like 3% of my screen space. Who designs these things anyway? - Karunyan, 06:09, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * If you just want it wider, then put something like:
 * 1) simpleSearch input#searchInput {width:27em;} in User:Karunyans/vector.css

1) I have other problems with the skin. 2) I don't usually log in when I read or even when I edit. Now my question is, can you make it like the old searchbox that was just as small but expands when you type a long title, and when the title is still too long, you get a tooltip by pointing at it...? -- Karunyan, 07:00, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * That will make it 3 times as wide as it is now (9em) - adjust to suit...Begoon (talk) 06:30, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your quick reply man. Your suggestion worked really well but I'm not using it for a few reasons:
 * You'll see the differences I'm talking about if you try typing "List of film" into the searchbox in both the old skin and the new one. -- Karunyan, 07:56, 14 May 2010 (UTC)


 * lol...:) Not without an awful lot of changes to custom css and javascript, and probably not this side of Xmas at the speed I'd work it out. With that much hacking of the search box, and the point you so rightly make that all of this only works if you're logged in - I think I'd be back with monobook if it was that important to me. I'm happy enough to have it back in the left sidebar where I like it. Begoon (talk) 07:27, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * I tried the script on your css page. I'm using IE8 and it took an awful lot of time to just be able to click on the search box on the left sidebar. -- Karunyan, 07:56, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * ok - I don't really experience that, except to the extent that the whole skin is slower to load than Monobook ever was - I've seen a few people comment on that - my connection is pretty fast, so it's not too annoying, but I can see how it could be sluggish on a slower connection. If the search box is loading last, then that could explain it Begoon (talk) 09:06, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Hey you have any idea who is responsible for all this techie stuff on Wikipedia? I'd like to talk to them. -- Karunyan, 07:43, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * I think you'd need to go through one of these links: Contact_us if you wanted a direct dialogue, other than commenting here, or filing items at Bugzilla for specific issues or feature requests Begoon (talk) 09:06, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Please forgive me for being a simple users but I find it difficult to search with the relocated search box. I also found it difficult to comment about this and, in fact, I'm not entirely sure this is the correct place or that my comments are welcome. Please help the less deeply entrenched users comment without making us feel like we are intruding in your space.71.145.161.212 (talk) 18:56, 15 May 2010 (UTC)


 * There's a Feedback Form you can complete (just click the link). It can be bewildering, trying to find the right place to leave a comment, but that form is specifically for that purpose, and hopefully the developers can gather everyone's input to make changes. Introducing a change of default skin to such a massive site is a huge undertaking, and there are bound to be issues. As for your comments being welcome - well, they have specifically asked for them - so you shouldn't worry about that. Begoon (talk) 21:12, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Other wikis
Is it possible to use the Vector skin on other MediaWiki wikis? Is it included as an option in a future MediaWiki upgrade or does it have to be installed manually somehow? --90.196.43.19 (talk) 16:15, 13 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Vector will be in the 1.16 release. 1.16beta2 is already available for download and includes Vector. --Catrope (talk) 17:50, 13 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks. --90.196.43.19 (talk) 21:12, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Language options
The one thing I miss from the old MonoBook layout was the ability to see an article in different languages. It was helpful because I could look up the word on English Wikipedia and click on the language(s) that I want to see the article in. Now I have to find out what the page title is in that language, and then type in the address (or sometimes search for the English word if it's in the article). Is there any chance that this feature will be added back (maybe as a drop-down menu to reduce clutter for people who have no need for it)? 76.205.67.36 (talk) 22:10, 13 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah. Seriously. I don't see why they'd simply blindly make this the default layout without thinking about how much they're subtracting! - Karunyan, 06:14, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Sorry, my bad. - Karunyan, 06:19, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for bringing it back. 70.239.6.5 (talk) 09:17, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

List of tools missing in the edit window that were in the old skin

 * tag
 * horizontal line
 * tag
 * comment
 * tag
 * Ctrl+Z capability after clicking tools.

Honestly this was too early to make this thing default. -- Karunyan, 07:33, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Moved this to User_experience_feedback. —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 13:45, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Own buttons from my personal monobook 2
In September I asked, whether there is any way how to incorporate my own buttons, which I have in my own monobook.js, now vector.js, into the enhanced editing toolbar, or whether I have to choose between the old toolbar with my own buttons, or the "enhanced" one without them? I was told that it would be possible later.

Has anything changed in this way? Can I incorporate my buttons into the enhanced tool bar somehow? Thank you. Jan.Kamenicek (talk) 18:53, 20 May 2010 (UTC)
 * It seems to be impossible still now. JackPotte (talk) 15:57, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

The old logo (3D) was better
and I want it back... Why it was replaced by this new-old-mixed logo??? --194.230.155.20 (talk) 12:28, 23 May 2010 (UTC)
 * All I see is the old logo. What does the "new" one look like? SharkD   Talk  16:34, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Problems with Opera Mini
While searching whatever pages in Wikipedia by the Opera Mini browser, the Toolbox and Languages menus, hidden by default, are unclickable (so they look just like two grey inscriptions) that complicates navigation. Is it still possible to fix this thing? --Microcell (talk) 17:16, 31 May 2010 (UTC)
 * It is a known problem, and hopefully it will be fixed very soon. The bug is 23512. —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 19:44, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

Missing "edit" button
I don't use the Vector skin -- I opted out because I was just too fond of the old Monobook skin. However, I have seen the question a few times from different inexperienced users. Many don't know how to edit a page now that the link says "View source" rather than "Edit page". Most people don't want to view the source code for the page, nor would they even think that the link would allow them to do so. They may well think that the link will allow them to view the source from which the information came (i.e. view the references). I think the term "Edit" should be restored to the link. WikiDan61 ChatMe!ReadMe!! 13:46, 29 June 2010 (UTC)
 * It should only say "View source" when you are looking at a page you can't edit - because it's protected to a level that prevents you from editing that page. You can view the source of such a page, but you can't edit it. On other pages it should say "Edit". Isn't that how it works in the cases you refer to?  -  Begoon (talk) 13:55, 29 June 2010 (UTC)
 * It works like that in all cases. But yes, this can be confusing to some and it has been discussed before to change this. So far it has not seen a majority of support however. —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 14:04, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

Link Creator problems
Just noticed that many of the Special: pages report as an invalid page title in the link creator (Special:MyPage, for example). A p 3 rson ‽   00:49, 4 August 2010 (UTC)

Display of tables
I'm having trouble with Vector in Firefox 3.6.10 running on a Mac. Sometimes lines simply don't render on standard wikitables and sortable wikitables. The problem does not occur in Monobook or with Safari. Take for example this page in my userspace. In the first table, the border across the top of the table sometimes displays and sometimes doesn't. The lines under Ben Bradshaw, Liam Byrne, and Fiona Mactaggart never exist for me. In the second table, the lines under Ed Miliband, Nick Brown, Lord Bassam, and Lady Scotland also fail to appear. Is this a known issue? -Rrius (talk) 02:50, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

Tables, templates and other styles?
Have any recommendations been made on the appearance of other common elements such as tables, navboxes, infoboxes, etc.? SharkD  Talk  16:35, 3 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Not as far as I know. The scope was limited to the interface and specifically not the content of Wikipedia. —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 21:48, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Personalized background color not showing up?
I changed the background color so that I could tell when I was logged in (I edit from multiple computers and sometimes get logged out without knowing it), but right now there's no color showing up on my pages, in either Firefox or IE. I've changed the color code and hit the refresh keys several times in the past hour, but no color shows up in the background. Is this a temporary glitch, or could there be something in my computer blocking the colors from appearing? Thanks, Aristophanes68 (talk) 21:38, 17 February 2011 (UTC)
 * It's happened on four different computers, 2 at work and 2 at home. Aristophanes68 (talk) 04:41, 19 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Happening for me now too as of this evening. Someone broke Vector. Srobak (talk) 05:29, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

"Read" tab redundant

 * I started a thread at Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous), but then realized that this page may have more watchers who are familiar with this issue. Sorry for cross-posting; see thread over there... GlitchCraft (talk) 06:16, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

THE LINK
SOMEONE CHANGE THE REDIRECT FROM "Wikipedia:SKIN" to "Wikipedia:Skin". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.80.27.38 (talk)|67.80.27.38 (talk)]] (67.80.27.38 (talk)|talk]] • 67.80.27.38 (talk)|contribs]])

Feedback Link Broken
The feedback link for the vector skin leads to a missing page. Please fix. Arrataz (talk) 17:41, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Vector overrides Alt-F
My feedback on Vector itself is this: it overrides the Alt-F behavior in the browser. In windows, this is how you bring up the file menu of the browser, and those of us who are from the keyboard school of interaction get very frustrated when this behavior is hijacked by the website itself. Alt-S (for search) would be much better since it isn't an existing command (so far as I know) on the major web-browsers. Arrataz (talk) 17:41, 13 June 2011 (UTC)
 * alt-f works just fine in IE7, IE8 and Chrome. Just tested all 3 with Vector. Control-F also works as it should. Srobak (talk) 06:12, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

What font is used?
Sorry if this isn't the write place to ask this, but I'm wondering what font is used in the Vector skin. Thanks in advance. --Jfruh (talk) 20:47, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

Execute UserScript before Vector scripts
I need to do an ajax call before Vector's JavaScripts add links to maps and hide buttons. Is it possible to disable the execution of these scripts and trigger them only in my ajax callback function?

The TOC toggle is created by the function window.showTocToggle. This function is called by mediawiki.legacy.wikibits. This is registered by mediaWiki.loader.register in startUp. startUp is called directly on loading. Where is the place to interrupt the chain?

Second question: My scripts destroy the links to maps and hide buttons. Is it possible to regenerate them? NetAction (talk) 10:35, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

Move search "containing..." to top
The "containing..." link is a guaranteed results list item, and is important for navigation. However, it appears at a different location for every search. This requires a user to wait for the search results to know where to click. This slows down navigation, makes it less automatic, and distracts the user from their purpose, which may not be to read an article. Editing tasks like searching for templates or batches of articles are affected by how the interface supports search as a primary interaction with the website. ᛭ LokiClock (talk) 18:27, 22 July 2011 (UTC)

"View history" keeps moving
The "View history" link is sometimes at the top of the page, and at other times it is in a pull down menu next to the "search" box. I don't see any logic to it. Any ideas for why it moves?  Will Beback   talk    05:51, 24 September 2011 (UTC)

Pressing enter in search field dosn't submit
I'm maintaining a local 1.18 mediawiki, and I've a strange bug where pressing enter after inputing text in the searchbox doesn't submit the search. However, hitting enter twice does submit the search. Switching back to the monobook skin removes the problem. What could possibly cause this behavior?

--Maxthoursie (talk) 14:23, 27 January 2012 (UTC)


 * I hadn't enabled simple search. When I set | $wgVectorUseSimpleSearch to true the problem went away.
 * --Maxthoursie (talk) 15:33, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

Fixed width skin
Is this skin a fixed width skin? I have about four inches of white space at the right side of the screen, except when I'm in the editor. Silverhand Talk 20:05, 30 January 2014 (UTC)
 * I've lately had this problem, too. The skin seems to be rendering in two columns for me, with all of the article text in the left column, and a second column of blank space down the right side. Esrever (klaT) 14:57, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I love this skin. I've tried every other skin but this one seems to be the best for me. However, there's one big problem: the width of the skin seems to be too big for Firefox to display correctly. When I enter a page, a scrolling bar appears at the bottom of the screen. If I scroll to the right, only a blank space (about one inch wide) is displayed. This is especially annoying when I enter "autoscroll" mode to advance down on a page. If I accidentally move my mouse to the right (and most of the times that happens), the page will start scrolling to the right, i.e. to the blank space. I've also tried it with Google Chrome and Internet Explorer and they don't have this problem, only Firefox. I've also tried with two different PCs and both have the same issue, so it's a Firefox incompatibility problem. Please fix this as soon as you can! :(
 * --LaVey Charkus Veros BeruDeJusu (talk) 10:10, 27 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Finally! Just noticed that the ugly blank space on the right side is gone! Congratulations! :D
 * --LaVey Charkus Veros BeruDeJusu (talk) 09:44, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

Right to Left Wikis
Hi Guys

How can I use Vector Skin on Right to Left wikis?

--VectoUser (talk) 10:09, 10 May 2019 (UTC)


 * Vector Skin is default for all Right-to-Left Wikipedias. Editor-1 (talk) 12:05, 10 May 2019 (UTC)