By default, members may change many different options that affect look and layout to make their forum experience more enjoyable. Some forum administrators may choose to limit these options, but here are the basics.

SMF provides the ability to create and use different themes. Provided there is more than one theme installed, a member may choose the theme that they prefer. They may also customize the time format that the theme uses to display dates and times. Additionally, setting a time offset allows the forum to display dates and times in the member's local time. The forum provides a handy auto-detect feature in case a member does not know what their offset should be.

The following options may be enabled or disabled by selecting their corresponding checkboxes.

• Show board descriptions inside boards. - The description displayed on the board index will also be displayed on that board's message index.
• Show child boards on every page inside boards, not just the first. - Each page inside of a board will display a list of child boards if there are any. If disabled, the list will only be displayed on the first page.
• Use sidebar menus instead of dropdown menus when possible. - If side menus are preferred, they can be used instead of the dropdown menus.
• Don't show users' avatars. - Some users find avatars annoying, so they may choose to hide them altogether.
• Don't show users' signatures. - Similar to avatars, signatures may also be hidden.
• Return to topics after posting by default. - If enabled, a member will be returned to the end of the topic in which they just posted. Otherwise, they will be returned to the message index for that particular board.
• Don't warn on new replies made while posting. - When other users post while a member is preparing their post, a warning is generated. With this option enabled, those warnings will be hidden.
• Hide messages posted by members on my ignore list. - Posts from users on a member's ignore list will not be displayed.
• Show most recent posts at the top. - The display order of posts is switched to reverse chronological when this option is enabled.
• Show WYSIWYG editor on post page by default. - The WYSIWYG editor removes the need to know BBC. It may be enabled by default when posting.

Members may also choose how many topics to display per page on a board's message index and how many posts to display per page within a topic. There are also options for using quick reply and quick moderation. Quick reply allows members to post to a topic without actually using the posting page. Quick moderation allows members to perform moderation actions on multiple posts or topics more quickly if they have the permissions to do so.