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Help:Edit summary

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PD Note: When you edit this page, you agree to release your contribution under the CC0. See Public Domain Help Pages for more info. PD

An edit summary is a short message you leave for others when you make changes to a page. Examples of common edit summaries include "Fixed a typo" or "Added a new section". Using edit summaries helps other users understand your edits without having to dig into the details. It's optional but super helpful for keeping everyone on the same page. If a copyright infringement is found, it also keeps authorship information after a significant revision deletion.[1]

Marking the checkbox in your user Preferences that says {{{2}}} Prompt me when entering a blank edit summary (or the default undo summary) (under Editor section) can be useful to ensure you don't forget to leave one.

Page layout

The page layout for entering an edit summary typically includes the following elements:

  • Summary (?): input field - A text box where you can enter a brief description of the changes you made. This field is essential for providing context in the page history.
  • This is a minor edit checkbox - Positioned near the edit summary box, this checkbox allows you to flag the edit as minor, indicating that the changes are small or not significant.
  • Watch this page checkbox - Another checkbox, this option lets you add the page to your watchlist , allowing you to receive notifications for future edits. The duration you'd like to watch the page for can be set using the drop-down menu named Watchlist time period:. It's important because a user may comment on your edit after you publish your changes.
  • Publish changes button - Positioned below the edit summary input field, this button finalizes the edit. Users should ensure their summary accurately reflects the changes before clicking.
  • Show preview button - This shows a rendered preview of the page's content and also a rendered preview of the edit summary. This preview appears just below the edit summary input field.
  • Show changes button - This has nothing to do with the edit summary. It displays a comparison between the old and new content changes that will be applied on the page.

Key features

The edit summary box can hold up to 500 characters. If you try to add more, only the first 500 characters will be saved.

One editing tip is that if you make a mistake in the summary, you can do a dummy edit (like adding a space) to fix it.

What works:

  • Internal and interwiki links work, including links with alternate text.
  • Section links can be added using /* Section Name */, which will show a clickable arrow pointing to that section when you click on Show preview.

What doesn't work:

  • Most wikitext (like templates, variables, and bold/italic text) won't work.
  • HTML tags and external links are not supported.
  • Special characters in URLs may break links if they are not handled correctly.
  • The What links here feature won't find the link referenced in the edit summary.

Special cases and workarounds

Handling section links:

  • When editing a section, the section title is automatically added to the summary. You can edit or remove this if needed.
  • If the section title changes later, the link in the summary won't update automatically.

Working around URL issues:

  • If a link doesn't work due to special characters, you might need to edit the URL manually. For example, if a URL has %28 in it which represents a special character (, you can replace it with the actual character.

Flexibility and future-proofing

  • To prevent broken links in summaries, consider linking to a page or section with a stable name.
  • If you expect a section to be moved or renamed, you can create a redirect page that will stay accurate even after changes and then include a redirect on the edit summary.

Discussion tools feature

  • On Talk pages, clicking the + sign allows you to add a new section. The Subject box becomes both the section title and the edit summary.
  • The text you type in the main editing box will appear under the new heading.

Automatic summaries

When you save an edit without providing a summary, an automatic summary is sometimes generated for you. Unlike the summary that appears when editing a section—which you can modify before saving, this automatic summary is created entirely by the system and can't be changed.

Situation Page Automatic summary text
Large-scale edits to pages
Removing all text from a page MediaWiki:Autosumm-blank Blanked the page
Removing most texts from a page or editing a short page
($1 is replaced with the page text) 		MediaWiki:Autosumm-replace Replaced content with "$1"
Creation of pages
Creating a new page ($1 is replaced with the page text) MediaWiki:Autosumm-new Created page with "$1"
Creating a new page without content MediaWiki:Autosumm-newblank Created blank page
Changes to redirects
Creating or replacing a page containing a redirect
($1 is replaced with the target of the redirect) 		MediaWiki:Autoredircomment Redirected page to $1
Changing the target of a redirect
($1 is replaced with the previous target of the redirect;
$2 is replaced with the new target of the redirect) 		MediaWiki:Autosumm-changed-redirect-target Changed redirect target from $1 to $2
Removing a redirect
($1 is replaced with the target of the redirect) 		MediaWiki:Autosumm-removed-redirect Removed redirect to $1

While automatic summaries, such as those created during redirects, often provide sufficient information, they are not a substitute for a proper edit summary. Always add a clear and concise summary to give context to your edits. This practice is particularly helpful for:

  • New users - It assists inexperienced users who may not realize the importance of edit summaries.
  • Vandalism detection - It helps others quickly identify and address potential vandalism.

There is R&D into automatic generation of edit summaries[2]

Multilingual edit summaries

Some features, particularly those related to Wikidata, use multilingual automatic summaries through MediaWiki's autocomment functionality. These summaries appear in the viewer's language, adapting to their settings. In tools that show the raw edit summary, these may appear as a code or key, such as /* wbsetsitelink-add:1, which is used to manage internationalization (i18n).

Where you may find the edit summary

The edit summary appears in various places across the platform in black italics. Here's where you can find it:

Permanent locations:

  • Page history - Shows a list of all edits made to a specific page, including the size of the wikitext (in bytes).
  • User contributions - Displays a list of edits made by a specific user.
  • Diff page - Highlights the differences between two edits.

Temporary locations:

  • Watchlist - Lists recent changes to watched pages (for logged-in users). It also shows the change in the wikitext's size (in bytes). If you use the enhanced watchlist, you can see all recent changes to your watched pages, not just the most recent one for each page.
  • Recent changes / Enhanced recent changes - Lists all recent edits and shows the change in the wikitext's size (in bytes).
  • Related changes - Displays recent changes to pages linked to a specified page, including the change in wikitext size (in bytes).
  • List of new pages - Shows the edit summary for newly created pages and the current size of the wikitext (in bytes).

Additionally, the edit summary is included in the email notifications you receive if you've enabled email alerts for edits.

File upload summary

When you upload an image, you can include an upload summary. This summary has several important functions:

  • Automatic edit summary - It becomes the second part of the automatically generated edit summary in the upload log (the first part is the file name).
  • Image history - It appears as text in the image's history entry.
  • New file names
    • Image page creation - It serves as the edit summary for creating the image page if the file name is new.
    • Image page content - It is used as wikitext for the editable section of the image page. Here, you can:
      • Briefly describe the image
      • Include internal or external links
      • Use templates
      • Specify one or more categories for the image

Character limit

The upload summary can be over 600 characters long. Note that in the upload log, the last part of the summary may be cut off if it exceeds 600 characters (including uploaded "filename").

There is no preview function to check links, templates, or categories in the upload summary. If needed, you can always edit the image page after uploading to fix errors or extend the text.

Searching

MediaWiki's built-in search function doesn't include edit summaries, and these summaries aren't indexed by external search engines.

There is an unofficial external tool for filtering by edit summaries in Wikimedia projects at Wikimedia Labs: edit summary search. Also, hashtags (like #tag) can be searched at https://hashtags.wmflabs.org. A third way to search them is using Quarry and the comment_text field (example).

Recommendations for edit summaries

  • Always include a summary - It's crucial to fill in the summary field for every edit you make. Even a brief summary is better than leaving it blank. If you remove text, a summary is especially important to clarify your reasons and prevent misunderstandings. If you're making multiple changes, mention them all, or use "and misc." to cover additional changes.
  • Purpose of accurate summaries - Summaries help others quickly understand the nature of your changes and decide if they want to review them. This is particularly useful for contributors with relevant expertise who might be drawn to detailed summaries. For minor edits, a brief note like "fixed spelling" is still valuable.
  • Explain your changes - Along with summarizing the changes, include an explanation if necessary. This is especially important if your edit involves deletions or significant modifications. For detailed explanations, use the Talk page and note "see Talk" in the summary.
  • Edit summary limitations - Once you save the page, you cannot edit the summary. Ensure it's accurate and free of spelling errors before saving.
  • Correcting summary errors - If you spot a mistake or omission in your summary after saving, make a dummy edit to the page to correct it, updating the summary field with the needed information.

Action summary

When you perform protection or move actions on a page, these actions are recorded in the page history. Here's what you need to know:

  • History entry size - Each entry is capped at 500 characters. This includes both the action description and any comments you provide.
  • Action Descriptions
    • The system automatically generates descriptions like "moved XX to YY" based on the current site language.
    • Changing your user interface language will not alter these descriptions.
  • User comments
    • If your comments are too long, the system may shorten them in the page history.
    • The full, uncut version of your comments can be found in the protection/move logs, separate from the 500-character limit in the history.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Content of over a week worth of sixty revisions deleted due to discovered copyright violation on "iOS version history", but with mostly good use of edit summary.
  2. ↑ Edisum: Summarizing and Explaining Wikipedia Edits at Scale
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