Help:Edit summary

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An edit summary allows you to give a brief description of the changes you have made when you edit a page. They should generally be used for every edit, except when creating a new entry, as they are quite useful. (Do not use them when creating a new page: the software will fill in a useful edit summary automatically.) They are limited by the software to 255 characters.

Edit summaries help …

  • … those who are looking at the page's history to work out how the page has changed over time.
  • … people who have the page watchlisted to see whether they are interested in your change.
  • … anyone watching Recent changes to get an impression of what sort of edits are going on.

A good edit summary …

  • contains a brief description of all the changes that were made.
  • may include a brief reason for making the edit.
  • does not include excessive justification for the edit (if necessary, use the talk page).
  • does not include irrelevant or off-topic information

Abbreviations used in edit summaries include …

+
added (e.g. + ety)
++
adding to a list, such as Derived terms or Related terms
-
removed
2c
two cents
def
Definition
ety
Etymology
fl
Fixing links
(m)fmt
(Minorly) adjusted the formatting
cat(s)
Categorizing the page
hdr
Changed the headings
img
Adding an image
iw
Adding a link to another Wiktionary
L[x]
Altering a heading to be at level [x]
lk
Link
pron
Pronounciation
re
reply
rm / rem
Removed
rv(v)
Undoing the last change (it was vandalism)
sc
Adding something in the right script
sp
Correcting spelling
tr(ans(l))
Translations
tr(anslit)
Transliteration
usex
Adding a usage example
wp
Added a link to Wikipedia

Some edits have automatic edit summaries.