# Profile preferences

A user's profile preferences page allows the user to customize various aspects
of GitLab to their liking.

To navigate to your profile's preferences, click your avatar icon in the top
right corner and select **Settings**. From there on, choose the **Preferences**
tab.

## Syntax highlighting theme

>**Note:**
GitLab uses the [rouge Ruby library][rouge] for syntax highlighting. For a
list of supported languages visit the rouge website.

Changing this setting allows you to customize the color theme when viewing any
syntax highlighted code on GitLab.

The default one is **White**, and you can choose among 5 different colors:

- White
- Dark
- Solarized light
- Solarized dark
- Monokai

## Behavior

The following settings allow you to customize the behavior of GitLab's layout
and default views of your dashboard and the projects' landing pages.

### Layout width

GitLab can be set up to use different widths depending on your liking. Choose
between the fixed (max. 1200px) and the fluid (100%) application layout.

### Default dashboard

For users who have access to a large number of projects but only keep up with a
select few, the amount of activity on the default Dashboard page can be
overwhelming. Changing this setting allows you to redefine what your default
dashboard will be.

You have 6 options here that you can use for your default dashboard view:

- Your projects (default)
- Starred projects
- Your projects' activity
- Starred projects' activity
- Your groups
- Your [Todos]

### Default project view

The default project view settings allows you to choose what content you want to
see on a project's landing page.

You can choose between 2 options:

- Show the files and the readme (default)
- Show the project's activity

[rouge]: http://rouge.jneen.net/ "Rouge website"
[todos]: ../../workflow/todos.md
