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How to remove toolbox from the sidebar in MediaWiki

To remove the toolbox from MediaWiki sidebar

1. Open MediaWiki:Common.css
2. Edit MediaWiki:Common.css and add the following lines of code to the bottom

   /* remove Toolbox */
   #p-tb { display:none !important; }

3. Save your changes and then clear your browsers cache. I you do not know how to clear your browsers cache check out http://www.wikihow.com/Clear-Your-Browser%27s-Cache

Create a MediaWiki Skin from MonoBook

Create MediaWiki Skin

You can create a skin all by yourself by following the steps provided below:
Go to the /skins folder within your Mediawiki directory;
Copy the /monobook directory and rename it with the name of your skin, for example:

mywikiskin

Copy the MonoBook.php file and rename it with the name of your skin, for example:

MyWikiSkin.php

Edit MyWikiSkin.php and change the class name to SkinMyWikiSkin, for example:

class SkinMyWikiSkin extends SkinTemplate;

In MyWikiSkin.php, change make the other class to have your skin name together with the word Template, for example:

class MyWikiSkinTemplate extends QuickTemplate;

In MyWikiSkin.php, make $this->skinname to have a string value of your skin name, for example:

'mywikiskin';

In MyWikiSkin.php, make $this->template to have a string value of your skin name properly capitalised with the word Template, for example:

'MyWikiSkinTemplate';

In MyWikiSkin.php find the following lines and replace monobook with mywikiskin in the path settings for the CSS files:

$out->addStyle( 'mywikiskin/main.css', 'screen' );
$out->addStyle( 'mywikiskin/IE50Fixes.css', 'screen', 'lt IE 5.5000' );
$out->addStyle( 'mywikiskin/IE55Fixes.css', 'screen', 'IE 5.5000' );
$out->addStyle( 'mywikiskin/IE60Fixes.css', 'screen', 'IE 6' );
$out->addStyle( 'mywikiskin/IE70Fixes.css', 'screen', 'IE 7' );
$out->addStyle( 'mywikiskin/rtl.css', 'screen', '', 'rtl' );

In your /mywikiskin directory edit the image and CSS files;
Edit and customise MyWikiSkin.php as you please;
In LocalSettings.php set

$wgDefaultSkin = 'mywikiskin'

You can now enjoy the new skin you have prepared!

How to add a banner/image to the MediaWiki sidebar

To add a banner to the MediaWiki sidebar follow the next steps:

1. Find the file MonoBook.php in skins/MonoBook.php path (if you're using monobook)
2. Download the file.
3. Go to line 185 or file the line:

 </div><!-- end of the left (by default at least) column -->

4. Add the next lines of code before the line you find above:

	<!-- begin of banner1 -->
	<div class='generated-sidebar portlet'>
	<h5><?php $this->msg('sidebar-banner1-headingtext') ?></h5>
	<div style="border: 1px solid #B0B0B0; background-color: #FFFFFF;">
	<a href="<?php $this->msg('sidebar-banner1-url') ?>">
	<img width="100%" title="<?php $this->msg('sidebar-banner1-alttext') ?>" 
		alt="<?php $this->msg('sidebar-banner1-alttext') ?>" 
		src="<?php $this->msg('sidebar-banner1-imgsrc') ?>" /></a>
	</div></div>
	<!-- end of banner1 -->

Should look as follows

?>
    <!-- begin of banner1 -->
    <div class='generated-sidebar portlet'>
    <h5><?php $this->msg('sidebar-banner1-headingtext') ?></h5>
    <div style="border: 1px solid #B0B0B0; background-color: #FFFFFF;">
    <a href="<?php $this->msg('sidebar-banner1-url') ?>">
    <img width="100%" title="<?php $this->msg('sidebar-banner1-alttext') ?>" 
        alt="<?php $this->msg('sidebar-banner1-alttext') ?>" 
        src="<?php $this->msg('sidebar-banner1-imgsrc') ?>" /></a>
    </div></div>
    <!-- end of banner1 -->
    </div><!-- end of the left (by default at least) column -->

5.Create new articles / page named MediaWiki:sidebar-banner1-headingtext and write the banner heading. Example: Sponsor
6. Create new articles / page named MediaWiki:sidebar-banner1-url and write the The destination URL of this banner. Example: http://www.website.com/abc.html
7. Create new articles / page named MediaWiki:sidebar-banner1-alttext and write the alt="" parameter of an HTML <img> tag. Example: Best dog training
8. Create new articles / page named MediaWiki:sidebar-banner1-imgsrc and write the src="" parameter of an HTML <img> tag. The URL of the banner image. It may be the address of an image uploaded to your Wiki {{filepath:banner123.png}}, or the address of an external image. Example: http://www.website.com/banner123.gif

Do note that if you upgrade MediaWiki to the latest version it will overwrite the MonoBook.php file and you will have to re-edit the file for this to work.