Wookieepedia Help:Edit summary

Properties

The edit summary field is limited to a single line of 200 characters. If you attempt to input more characters, only the initial 200 will be saved, and the remainder discarded. For instance, if a summary already contains 195 characters, adding 10 new characters will only insert the first 5, ignoring the rest.

The "Show preview" button also allows you to preview the edit summary, which is useful for verifying links.

Recommendations

Always provide a summary in the designated field. This is a strongly encouraged practice. Even a brief summary is preferable to none. An edit summary becomes particularly crucial when deleting content, as it clarifies your reasons for the removal. Furthermore, mentioning one change while omitting another can be misleading if the unmentioned change is more significant to someone else; include "and misc." to account for additional changes.

Clear summaries assist others in determining whether a change warrants their attention. It's been observed that summaries often capture the interest of contributors with specialized knowledge. While this may be less vital for "minor changes," even a note like "fixed spelling" is beneficial.

When making a small addition to an article, it is highly recommended to copy the complete text of the addition into the summary field, thus providing maximum information with minimal effort. Use ft as a prefix, short for "full text" (refer to the Abbreviations section for other abbreviations). This way, readers of the summary are less likely to need to view the page itself, as they are already aware of the edit's content. Such edits enable users to efficiently review Recent changes, Page history, and User contributions (see below), which also lessens the server load.

If the addition exceeds 200 characters and cannot fit entirely in the edit summary box, provide a concise summary of the changes you've made. For instance, with an addition of 400 characters, you can save time by simply copying it into the summary field. The excess will be truncated, leaving the first 200 characters as a basic "summary."

Regrettably, only one line of text can be directly copied from the edit box to the edit summary box. Subsequent lines must be pasted at the end of the initial line. Consequently, adding a bulleted "see also" list to the edit summary box can be cumbersome. A workaround for a new list involves placing the list on a single line, separated by asterisks for the bullets, copying it to the edit summary box, and then inserting the new lines before the asterisks in the main edit box.

Beyond summarizing the change itself, the summary field can also include an explanation for the change. If the reason for an edit is unclear, it's more likely to be reverted, especially if text is deleted. For a more detailed explanation, use the Talk page and indicate "see Talk" in the edit summary.

After saving the page, the summary becomes uneditable, underscoring the importance of avoiding errors.

In cases of significant omissions or errors in the edit summary, you can perform a dummy edit solely to correct the edit summary.

Locations where the edit summary is displayed

The edit summary is presented in black italics in the following locations:

• Page history - A chronological listing of modifications made to the page you edited.
• User contributions - A comprehensive list of all edits made by you.
• Watchlist ***** - A dynamic list showcasing recent changes to pages you are monitoring (available only to logged-in users).
• diff page - Visual representation of the differences between two distinct edits.
• Recent changes - A compilation of all recent edits across the platform.
• List of new pages : Displays the edit summary associated with the page's creation.

***** To view all recent changes on watched pages, rather than just the most recent change on each, utilize the enhanced watchlist feature.

Abbreviations

Refer to Edit summary legend for a compilation of frequently used abbreviations in edit summaries.

File upload summary

When uploading an image, an upload summary can be provided, serving several functions:

• It acts as the second part of the automatically generated edit summary in the upload log, with the first part being the file name.
• It serves as the text within the entry of the image history.
• If the image file name is new, it acts as the edit summary for the creation of the image page. It functions as wikitext for the editable portion of the image page, allowing for: brief image descriptions inclusion of internal or external links implementation of templates assignment of one or more categories to the image

The upload summary has a capacity of one line containing 250 characters. In the upload log, the final part might be truncated due to a character limit of 255, including "uploaded 'filename'."

Note that no preview function is available to verify the code for links, template calls, and category tags. However, the image page can be edited after uploading to correct errors and expand the text as needed.

Section editing

When using the section editing feature, the section title is automatically pre-filled as the initial part of the edit summary. Add further details after this text. If you provide a lengthy summary, you can remove the section title to remain within the 200-character limit. The automatic text appears in gray by default, while manually entered text is black. If you create a new section before or after an existing one by clicking a section "edit" link, please remove the automatic edit summary to prevent confusion.

For edits made prior to May 2004, the automatic portion of the summary is enclosed by "=" signs.

Standard summaries

Wookieepedia offers a selection of 30 pre-defined summaries. These simplify the process of selecting a common reason for an edit and make it easier for other editors to understand the changes made. These options are categorized into six sections:

• 1. Refactoring
• 2. Content
• 3. Removal/Reversion
• 4. Templates
• 5. Corrections
• 6. Categories

The specific options within each category are as follows:

• 1.1 Cleanup
• 1.2 Formatting
• 1.3 HTML tidying
• 1.4 Wookification
• 1.5 Bug fix
• 2.1 Page created
• 2.2 Updated with new information
• 2.3 Expansion
• 2.4 Rewrite
• 2.5 Added sources/appearances
• 2.6 NPOV
• 2.7 Replaced duplicate image(s)
• 2.8 Updated references
• 3.1 Reverted vandalism
• 3.2 Reverted fanon
• 3.3 Removed personal attack
• 3.4 Removed unverified info
• 3.5 Removed unsourced image(s)
• 4.1 Added infobox
• 4.2 Added disambig template
• 4.3 Added quote
• 4.4 Changed quotes
• 4.5 Removed quote
• 5.1 Corrected spelling/grammar
• 5.2 Corrected tense
• 5.3 Factual correction
• 5.4 Corrected template usage
• 6.1 Added category
• 6.2 Removed category
• 6.3 Changed category
• 6.4 Alphabetized categories