Help:Edit summary
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When editing an article on Memory Beta there is a small field labeled "Summary" under the main edit box. It looks like this:
The text written here, up to 200 characters, will appear in italics on the Recent changes page and in the page revision history (see also below). You should write a short summary of the changes you have introduced into the article. In addition (or alternatively), the summary field could explain why the change to the article was made, in order to allay the concerns of other contributors (in the case of potentially controversial or confusing edits). Longer explanations should go on the talk pages.
Contents |
Abbreviations
Edit
Efficient contributors to Wikipedia have developed a number of abbreviations for the summary field: [1]
| Abbreviation(s) | What it means |
|---|---|
| "+" or "-" | Addition or removal, see rm or remove |
| typo | Fixed typos (wags also use "tipo", "tyop", etc) |
| sp | Fixed spelling mistakes |
| lk(s) or link(s) | Added link(s) |
| ext lk / link(s) | Added external link(s) |
| wikified | Created links / converted markup, especially of new articles |
| fmt, fm, formatting, or MoS | Applied manual of style formatting |
| #REDIRECT [[other page]] | Made the page a redirect to [[other page]] |
| copyedit | Miscellaneous copyediting |
| [[name of other article]] | Added the link name of other article (maybe a bit of text too); this is especially useful if the link is to a new article, to draw people's attention to that, for people who keep track of pages on their watchlist, but not systematically of all new pages. |
| rv | Reverted a previous edit (this short summary is sufficient only in the case of an obvious error or obvious vandalism) |
| see Talk | An explanation/discussion of this edit is on the article's talk page. |
| rm or remove | Additions and removals are also sometimes abbreviated as "+" and "-" (e.g. "+official website link") |
| dup | Duplication, e.g. "-dup" or "rm dup" |
| disambig | Disambiguating a wiki link. (e.g. changing [[PDF]] to [[Portable Document Format|PDF]]) |
| ft | What follows gives the full added text, it does not make sense to open the article unless you want to see the text in context or want to make another edit. |
| cm | A comment was added to this page. This is most commonly used on talk pages. |
Avoid "-" (single hyphen) as separation sign, it gives confusion with the meaning "remove".
"Post a comment" featureEdit
When starting a new thread on a Talk page, optionally the "Post a comment" feature can be used. Then the edit summary is automatically the same as the new section header.
Places where the edit summary appearsEdit
The following pages generated by the MediaWiki software will display the edit summaries:
SearchingEdit
The Memory Beta search can not search edit summaries, and they are not indexed by Google.
Upload summaryEdit
When uploading an image, you can add an upload summary (see Image description page). If the upload is the first for a specific file name (i.e. it's creating a new Image: page), then the upload summary will also serve as the image description until it is edited. In all cases, the upload summary will be applied to the individual images that are uploaded.
This page introduces the basics for getting started on editing on a wiki and a walk through of the Wikia editor. Follow the linked pages to learn more in depth details of editing.
Added by Piotr Bablok
Step by step
Anyone can edit a wiki! You don't need to be signed in or have an account.
- To edit a page, simply click the Edit button which is located by the title of the page.
- Once you click the edit button, the Wikia Editor will load allowing you to make changes to the page, including adding or removing text, photos, video and more.
Wikia Editor 
Added by Dr. Ball, M.D.
Editor Features
- Visual Mode: This mode is generally the default and allows you to make edits that will appear exactly as they will on the published page.
- Source Mode: This mode allows you to edit the page using wikitext.
- Edit Area: This is the main content area where you can add text, media and adjust the format of the page.
- Toolbar: The toolbar allows you to format text, making it different sizes and styles. You can expand and condense the toolbar to view more or less tools.
- Feature Modules: The right pane also includes modules that allow you to add features and media such as photos, slideshow, videos and tables. You can access templates to use on the page and add categories. The preview and publish buttons are found at the top of this area.
Basic Editing Tips
- Once the edit is opened, you can use the toolbar, features modules and free form edit area to add or adjust to the page content.
- To see how your page will appear once it's published, click on the preview button. This will pop up a window that shows the page as it is currently designed.
- If you like your preview, hit publish and your edits will be live.
- If you don't like your preview, you can keep editing until it appears as you would like it to.
- To let others know what you added, fill in a summary above the publish button.
Next Steps
- Learn how to modify text.
- Learn how to add links.
- Learn how to create a new article.
More Help
- Ask other users on the Community Central Forums
- Learn more about wikitext
