Wikipedia:How to log in

Why log in to Wikipedia?

You don't have to log in to read Wikipedia. You don't even have to log in to edit articles on Wikipedia - anyone can edit any article, even without logging in.

However, it's still a good idea to log in, for these reasons:

• Other users will be able to recognise you by your username when you make changes to articles. You will have your own user page where you can write a bit about yourself, and a user talk page which you can use to communicate with other users.
• You will be able to mark an edit as minor, which avoids inconvenience for other users.
• You will be able to keep track of changes to articles you are interested in using a watch list.
• If you choose to give an email address, other users will be able to contact you by email. This feature is anonymous - the user who emails you will not know your email address. You don't have to give your email address if you don't want to.
• You will be able to rename pages.
• You will be able to set your own preferences, to change things such as:
  • The number of pages displaying in Recent changes
  • The fonts, colours and layout of the site, by using different skins.

How to log in

Click on the Log in link at the top right of the page. You will then be prompted to enter your username and password. If you haven't logged in before, you will need to enter your password twice.

You may give your email address if you like. Other users will be able to send email to the address, but they won't be able to find out what the address is.

If you click the box Remember my password across sessions, you will not have to give your password again when you access Wikipedia from the same computer.

How to set preferences

Click on the Preferences link at the top right of the page for various options, including:

• Changing your password.
• Changing the skin, which changes the way that the web pages look.

See Wikipedia:User preferences help.

Your User page and User talk page

As a logged in user, you will be able to create your own user page and user talk page. When you are logged in, you will see your username displayed at the top right of the page. Click on this to get to your user page, which you can edit in the same way as any Wikipedia page.

Most users write a little bit about themselves and their interests on their user page.

You also have a User talk page. You can access this by clicking on the Talk link next to your username at the top right of the page. Other people may write messages in your user talk page by editing it, and you can respond. See Wikipedia:Talk page for more.

How to log out

You can log out any time by clicking on the Log out link at the top right of the page.