Help:Edit summary legend

This is a list of commonly-used edit summary abbreviations. ''This page does not lay down any official guidelines on how to fill out an article's edit summary. Wikians are encouraged to write accurate and detailed summaries. For more information, see Help:Edit summary.''

Addition of category

 * cat, +cat
 *   will put a link to the appropriate category page into the edit summary

Addition of comment

 * cm followed by either the comment itself or the topic
 * A comment was added to this page, mostly used on talk pages.
 * Example: cm ambiguity

Addition of external links

 * xl, ext lk, ext lks, ext lnk, ext lnks, ext link, ext links, URL, http
 * Added external link(s) to the article.
 * It can sometimes be helpful to specify or describe the external link(s) in the summary - ext lk: official strategy guide
 * Example: ext lk: filipino strategy guide

Addition of links

 * lk, lks, link, links, ln
 * Added a link to the article; put link(s) between single apostrophes ('), or copy from the edit box, so that they are in double brackets.
 * This is especially useful if the link is to a new article, to draw people's attention to that, and for people who keep track of pages on their watchlist but not systematically of all new pages.
 * Examples:
 * link: 'Train' 
 *  train 
 * ''lks: 'Article Name 1', 'Article Name 2' '
 * link: 'Article Name' 
 * links: 'Article Name 1', 'Article Name 2' 

Addition or rephrasing of a short text

 * ft followed by the full text that has been added (perhaps with a little context), or the new version of what was changed.
 * Thus the edit summary fully informs about the edit; there is no need to open the article unless you want to see the text in context or want to make another edit.
 * Example: ft: Judge Melville turned down a media's request for publication of 82 pages of documents and related tape recordings because that would violate the parties' privacy rights.
 * Of course you can use a copying feature of your operating system, you do not have to type everything again.
 * You can also use double quotes.

Addition of text

 * +, add, addition
 * Addition of text to the article. This is also useful on talk pages as an abbreviation of.
 * Examples:
 * +official links
 * add: official links
 * addition: official links

Alphabetization

 * alpha, abc
 * Alphabetization, typically of a list or of a series of links.

Break

 * See horizontal rule

Capitalization

 * cap, caps, capital, cpt, lc, lcase, uc, ucase
 * Wikipedia's article titles are case-sensitive, except for the first letter of the article. Also, according to Wowpedia:Manual of Style, only the first word in section headings should be capitalized. The above abbreviations indicate fixing of capitalization mistakes, or lowercasing or uppercasing specific words. cap, capital, cpt indicate general fixing of capitalization. caps is for those instances when every letter of a word is capitalized, when the word is to be made ALL CAPS. lc and lcase mean lowercasing the first letter of some word, and uc and ucase mean uppercasing the first letter of some word.

Citation of a source

 * ack (acknowledge)
 * cite
 * ref (reference)

Cleanup

 * cl, cleanup
 * Used to indicate general "tidying-up" edits; may include reformatting, spelling and grammar fixes, markup fixes, and other such minor edits. Useful if you make many different kinds of small changes in a single edit.

Copy edit

 * copyedit, cpyed, c/e
 * Miscellaneous copy editing.
 * It is encouraged that you specify the changes.
 * Examples:
 * copyedit: major reorganization, left original text
 * cpyed: from 'Tell Joe and I to ...' to 'Tell Joe and me to ...' 
 *  'It took 4 years to build...' -> 'It took four years to build...' 

Creation of a new article

 * creation, new
 * Newly created article.
 * Any remarks are added after 2 single dashes (-).
 * No other abbreviations should be used since the article is new.
 * Examples:
 * creation
 * new
 * creation -- NPOV check please
 * new -- NPOV check please

Disambiguation

 * dab, disambig

Divider

 * See horizontal rule

Edit that is explained on the article's Talk Page

 * see Talk, see talk
 * An explanation/discussion of this edit is on the article's talk page.
 * If possible, combine with other text, e.g rephrased, see Talk.

Fixing of typos

 * sp, tiop, tiops, tpyo, tpyos, tyop, tyops, typo, typos
 * Fixed typos.
 * There is no need to specify any typo corrections.

Formatting

 * fm, fmt, frmt, formatting, MoS, mos, MOS
 * Applied formatting, e.g. to adhere to the Manual of Style, or to make the look consistent, etc.
 * There is no need to specify the formatted text.

Grammar

 * gm, gr, grmr
 * Fixed the grammar of a sentence.

Headers

 * head, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6
 * Fixed header markup or changed header wording. Often seen when a page has been incorrectly laid out with level 3 headers at the top level (==== text ====) instead of level 2 headers (=== text ===).

Horizontal rule

 * hr
 * Added or removed a horizontal rule.
 * Examples:
 * +hr
 * -hr

Merge

 * mrg, mrgd, merged in
 * Other articles have been merged into this article.
 * All the articles merged should be specified.
 * Example (for United States): mrgd: USA & United States of America

Miscellaneous

 * misc
 * Miscellaneous edits
 * Use only when a more specific and more useful edit summary is not practical.

Move

 * mv
 * The article or part of it has been moved.
 * The new location should be specified.
 * Or: this addition comes from another article.
 * Examples:
 * mv to 'United States' (mrgd)
 * mv from 'America' 

Null edit

 * null, nx, ø
 * The edit window has been opened and the page re-saved with no change of text (occasionally necessitated by non-automated changes, like those to templates included in the page).

Punctuation

 * punc, punct
 * An edit to rectify punctuation; elaborate as needed.

Re-categorization

 * re-cat, recat
 * Changed an existing category link or links.
 * If the change is specified, put the category link(s) between single apostrophes (') or double brackets (e.g., ).
 * Examples:
 * re-cat 
 * recat 'Old category' to 'New category' 
 * recat to  

Redirect

 * REDIRECT 'Article Name', rd 'Article name', redir 'Article name' 
 * Made the page redirect to Article name.
 * The page that the article redirects to should be specified.

Removal of ambiguity

 * disambiguation, disambig, disamb, disam, dab
 * Changing a wiki link to a Disambiguation page to point to the appropriate page.
 * There is no need to specify any disambiguation changes.

Removal of duplication

 * dup, duplication, dupe
 * Removal of duplication.
 * Examples:
 * -dup
 * rm dupe

Removal of text

 * -, rm, remove, del
 * Removal of text from the article.
 * Examples:
 * -official link
 * rm: official link
 * remove: official link


 * Note that the hyphen is also put automatically in section editing, to separate the automatic text (the section title) from the typed text. Therefore it is ambiguous and not very suitable to indicate removal of text. Setting css class autocomment to be different helps, but either the distinction is not very clear for the small hyphen symbol, or the section title is excessively highlighted.

Revert to a previous edit

 * revert, rv
 * Reverted to a previous edit.
 * This short summary is insufficient on its own - you should always briefly explain the reason for reverting.
 * Examples:
 * rv: accident
 * rv: vandalism
 * revert blanking
 * rv unexpl del - revert unexplained deletion
 * rv changes by User:Second user to last version by User:First user
 * rvv or rv/v = revert vandalism
 * rvs or rv/s = revert spam

Sandbox

 * sandbox, Sandbox
 * Edit to the Sandbox.
 * This is especially useful for Wikipedians checking the Recent changes as it lets them know that they should ignore it.

Snap double redirect

 * snap dbl rdr, fix redir
 * Turned a double redirect into a single redirect

Spelling

 * sp, spelling, typo
 * Fixed spelling mistake(s).
 * There is no need to specify the spelling change, but editors often show the change like:
 * speling -> spelling

Wikify

 * wikified, wikify, wfy, wky, wkfy, wiki
 * Created Wiki links or converted Wiki markup, especially of new articles.
 * There is no need to specify the wikified words.
 * See also Wikify.