Editing Help:Edit summary (section)

==Edit summary properties and features==
* ''[[#The 500-character limit|Limited to 500 characters]]''. The edit summary box can hold one line of approximately 500 characters. If you attempt to type or paste more, only the first 500 will be displayed – the rest will be discarded. For example, attempting to add 10 new characters (at the end or in between) to a summary already containing 495 characters may result in the first 5 new characters being inserted and the final 5 being disregarded.
* ''Show preview''. The "Show preview" button also provides a preview of the edit summary to facilitate checking links.
* ''Can't be changed after saving''. After you publish the page, you cannot change the edit summary (see [[Wikipedia:Phabricator|Phabricator]] tasks [[phab:T12105|T12105]] and [[phab:T15937|T15937]]).
* ''Doesn't appear in searches''. The built-in [[Help:Searching|search function]] cannot search edit summaries, and they are not indexed by external search engines.
* ''Wikilinks '''always''' rendered; other wikitext coding ignored''. Edit summaries render internal links, including [[Help:Piped link|piped links]], and [[Help:Interwiki linking|interwiki]] links, even when enclosed within {{tag|nowiki}} tags. Therefore, copying wikitext in the edit summary box may be preferable to copying text from the preview, except when one wants to save space. Other wikitext coding is not interpreted. Although URLs do not produce clickable links, a wikilink with [[Special:Diff/]] can make clickable [[Help:Diff#Internal links|diffs]], and [[Special:PermaLink/]] can make [[Help:Permanent link|permanent links]]. <code><nowiki>~~~~</nowiki></code> has no effect, so do not [[Wikipedia:Signatures|sign]] edit summaries.
* You can [[Wikipedia:Mention|mention]] (or "ping") a user in your edit summary. To mention the user "[[User:Example|Example]]" you need to type: <nowiki>[[User:Example]]</nowiki> anywhere in the edit summary.

===Places where the edit summary appears===
The edit summary appears in black italics in the following places:
* [[Help:Page history|Page history]]&nbsp;– list of changes to the page you edited
* [[Help:User contributions|User contributions]]&nbsp;– list of all your edits
* [[Help:Watchlist|Watchlist]]<ref group="note">Use the enhanced watchlist to see all recent changes in the watched pages, not just the last change in each page.</ref>&nbsp;– list of recent changes to watched pages ([[Help: Logging in|logged-in]] users only)
* [[Help:Diff|Diff page]]&nbsp;– shows the difference between two edits
* [[Help:Permanent link|Permanent link]]&nbsp;– shows an old version of a page
* [[Help:Recent changes|Recent changes]]&nbsp;– list of all recent edits
* [[Wikipedia:IRC|Wikipedia IRC channels]]&nbsp;– real-time list of all edits
* [[Help:Related changes|Related changes]]&nbsp;– list of recent changes to pages linked to the page you edited
* [[Special:NewPages|List of new pages]]&nbsp;– shows the edit summary of the creation.

The source text of the edit summary can be seen at <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&prop=revisions&rvprop=comment&revids= en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&prop=revisions&rvprop=comment&revids=]</span>''id'', where ''id'' is the revision number. For example, [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Help:Edit_summary&diff=845523983&oldid=842809539] says <code>diff=845523983</code> in the url so <span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&prop=revisions&rvprop=comment&revids=845523983 revids=845523983]</span> shows the edit summary source. The link uses [[:mw:API:Revisions]], which is mainly intended for programs.

====Notes====
{{reflist|group="note"}}

===Section editing===
{{redirect|WP:→||WP:Redirect|and|WP:Moving a page}}
When adding a new section to a discussion page with the "new section" button, the section title is used as the edit summary. When [[Help:Section#Section editing|editing an existing section]], the section title is inserted at the beginning of the edit summary, enclosed with /* and */ marks, for example /* External links */. Details of the edit should be added after this text. 

When viewing such an edit summary, the section name will appear with a small arrow next to it: <span class="autocomment">[[#Foo|''→External links'']]</span>. Click the arrow or section name to view the section (if the section no longer exists, the link will simply take you to the top of the page).

If you create a new section before or after an existing section by clicking a section "''edit''{{-"}} link, delete the text between /* and */ marks (or change it to the new section title) to avoid confusion.<ref>It is possible to manually include links to multiple sections using the /* */ syntax&nbsp;– this may be useful when editing several sections at once.

The edit summary:

: {{Inputbox|/* Foo */ test /* Bar */ test}}

should be rendered as:

: <span class="comment"><span class="autocomment">[[#Foo|→Foo]]:</span> test <span class="autocomment">[[#Bar|→Bar]]:</span> test</span>.

See [{{fullurl:Help:Edit_summary|diff=384901084&oldid=384900839}} this edit].</ref>

'''Note''': Tools that track edit summary usage by a user (such as [https://xtools.wmflabs.org/editsummary/en.wikipedia.org XTools]) do not consider the auto-added part as a summary; that's any part within /* and */. You're encouraged to provide real edit summary, whether the editbox contains such auto-summary or not.
{{reflist}}

===Automatic summaries===
{{main|Help:Automatic edit summaries}}
In certain circumstances, an automatic summary is generated when an edit is published without one. This is slightly different from the summary added when editing a section, as that can be modified by the user before saving.

Except for the automatic summary when creating a redirect, which usually says all that needs to be said, these are not a substitute for a proper edit summary&nbsp;– you should always leave a meaningful summary, even in the above cases. They are, however, useful in providing some context for edits made by inexperienced users who are not aware of the importance of edit summaries, and for spotting vandalism.

When starting a new thread on a [[WP:TALKPAGE|talk page]] by using the "New section" tab, the text you type into the "subject/headline" field becomes both the heading of your discussion topic, and the edit summary for that edit.

====Tags====
{{see also|Wikipedia:Tags}}
Tags (i.e., edit tags) are brief messages that the software automatically places next to certain edits in [[Help:Page history|histories]], [[m:Help:Recent changes|recent changes]] and other special pages. They are implemented by the [[WP:FILTER|edit filter]] to help assist vandalism patrollers and other page watchers. They cannot be added or removed manually.