Help:Dummy edit

You don't need to be Editor-In-Chief to add or edit content to WikiDoc. You can begin to add to or edit text on this WikiDoc page by clicking on the edit button at the top of this page. Next enter or edit the information that you would like to appear here. Once you are done editing, scroll down and click the Save page button at the bottom of the page.

Dummy edit

A dummy edit is a change in wikitext that has little or no effect on the rendered page, but saves a useful dummy edit summary. The dummy edit summary can be used for text messaging, and correcting a previous edit summary such as an accidental marking of a previous edit as "minor" (see Help:Minor edit). Text messaging via the edit summary is a way of communicating with other editors. Text messages may be seen by dotted IP number editors who don't have a user talk page, or editors who haven't read the subject's talk page, if it exists. Each edit summary can hold 200 text characters. A dummy edit should be checkboxed "minor" by logged-in editors.

Examples:

• Changing the number of newlines in the edit text. Changing from 0 to 1 or from 2 to 3 (or vice versa) has no effect on the rendered page. Changing from 1 to 2 newlines makes a rendered difference that may not be a dummy edit. Adding newlines to the end of the article will not save as a dummy edit (see 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.

Null edit

A null edit occurs if a page save is made when the wikitext is not changed, which is useful for refreshing the cache. A null edit will not record an edit, make any entry in the page history, in Recent Changes, etc., and the edit summary is discarded.

Examples:

• Opening the edit window and saving. A section edit save is sufficient, but can sometimes result in a dummy edit.
• Adding newlines only to the end of the article and saving. This is also a null edit.