Help:Dummy edit

Dummy edits and null edits are similar but different techniques, explained in this page.

A dummy edit is a change in wikitext that has no effect on the rendered page, of which purpose is to save a useful edit summary. It can be used for
 * messaging.
 * correcting a previous edit summary such as an accidental marking of a previous edit as "minor" (see Help:Minor edit).
 * a note by a logged in account that a previous edit made by an IP was that user editing while unintentionally logged out.

Sending a short message via the edit summary ("SMS") is one way of communicating with other editors if there is no need to create a new thread for the message. Text messages may be seen by dotted IP number editors who do not have a user talk page, or editors who have not read the subject's talk page, if it exists. Each edit summary can hold 250 bytes; the input box for an edit summary is limited to 200 characters.

Examples:
 * Changing the number of newlines in the edit text. Changing a space to a line break in running text or vice versa, for example, or adding or removing a single blank line after a header.
 * Adding an extra blank line where there was none is not a dummy edit in general, which may add a paragraph break. Adding newlines to the end of the article will not serve as a dummy edit; that change won't be saved, so it will be a null edit described below.


 * Changing the number of spaces. Changing one space character to two or more (or vice versa) also has no effect on the rendered page. Multiple space characters always render as a single space, unless the line begins with a leading space.
 * Adding an HTML comment. Text between is always ignored by the browser though it will appear when viewing the page source or editing the page.  For example, adding   to a page will not affect its presentation, though it will show an edit summary.

Note that an attempt of a dummy edit may not be really dummy if done incautiously – for example, excess blank lines can result in inadvertent paragraph breaks. It may also make the page more difficult to edit if dummy edits make the text poorly spaced (for example, between two words in a sentence).

Null edit
A null edit occurs if a page save is made when the wikitext is not changed at all. It can be used to refresh the page cache. A null edit will not record an edit, nor make any entry in the page history or in Recent Changes, etc. The edit summary will not be saved either.


 * Examples:
 * Opening the edit window and saving. A section edit however can sometimes result in a dummy edit.
 * Adding newlines only to the end of the article and saving. This is also a null edit.

If a transcluded template has added or removed a category since it was last transcluded, the purge function will not update the category page, but a null edit will.

When a page is moved or protected, the summary will be saved, along with a null edit.

= Resources