Help:Show preview
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This is a copy of the master help page at Meta. Do not edit this copy. Edits will be lost in the next update from the master page. See below for more information. |
Below the edit box is a Show preview button. Pressing this will show you what the article will look like without actually saving it. It is strongly recommended that you use this prior to saving. This allows you to check what the page will look like first and to check that you haven't made any errors. It also prevents the need for multiple saves. Saving the same article a large number of times in quick succession makes it harder for people to check what changed, and clogs up the page history.
It is helpful, to save the page before moving, breaking apart, or combining sections of the article, if you have been making small edits to the article. The difference display is not good at showing paragraph moves, and will not display the small edits clearly if sections are then moved around.
Saving only once is also a way of avoiding edit conflicts, as people will not see the article on recent changes, and therefore they are less likely to try editing it at the same time as you.
If you are logged in, you can set your preferences to show the preview before the edit box instead of after it. If you select this option, the preview will be displayed above the edit box when you click the "Show preview" button while editing a page. See Help:Preferences.
In the case of automatic conversion of wikitext the preview shows the rendering, while the button "show changes" shows the new wikitext.
Using show preview also prevents your login timing out, which would mean your edits would not be attributed to your user name. Clicking preview regularly will restart the timer, so you remain logged in. Also, if you are no longer logged in, showing a preview will make you aware of this so you can log in and save your work after that. You can check this by seeing if your user name appears in the upper-right corner when you press preview. If you are not logged in, open Special:Userlogin in a separate window (right-click "Log in" and hit "Open link in new window" or similar). Log in, then go back to your editing and hit "preview" again to make sure all is well. Note that this will clear the minor edit and watch checkboxes, so make sure they're set appropriately again before you finally save the page.
When utilizing this feature during a major edit, consider copying the content into your clipboard. On extremely rare occasions, the Wikipedia servers have hiccups, and you could lose your work.
Typically, the noinclude-part of a template page contains examples including or substituting the template. Changes in the working of the template (i.e. changes outside the noinclude-part) are not yet effective in these examples in preview and, in the case of substitution, in "show changes".
When pressing "preview", also a preview of the edit summary is obtained; thus e.g. links can be checked.
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Wikipedia-specific help
Inuse messages
Users doing major edits can insert either {{inuse}} or {{inusefor|time (message)}} (available from Wikipedia:Template messages) at the top of the page to act as banner notices and advise other editors. These are only to be used for a single edit session, and may be removed if no edits have been made in 2 or more hours.
{{inuse}}
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This help page is actively undergoing a major edit for a short while. As a courtesy, please do not edit this page while this message is displayed. The user who added this notice will be listed in the page history. If this page has not been edited for several hours, please remove this template, or replace it with {{underconstruction}}. This message is intended to help reduce edit conflicts; please remove it between editing sessions to allow others to edit the page. |
{{inuse|1 hour to fix the lead section}}
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This help page is actively undergoing a major edit for 1 hour to fix the lead section. As a courtesy, please do not edit this page while this message is displayed. The user who added this notice will be listed in the page history. If this page has not been edited for several hours, please remove this template, or replace it with {{underconstruction}}. This message is intended to help reduce edit conflicts; please remove it between editing sessions to allow others to edit the page. |
This page is a copy of the master help page at Meta (for general help information all Wikimedia projects can use), with two Wikipedia-specific templates inserted. To update the main text, edit the master help page for all projects at m:Help:Show preview. For Wikipedia-specific issues, use Template:Ph:Show preview (the extra text at the bottom of this page) or Template:Phh:Show preview for a Wikipedia-specific lead (text appears at the top of this page). You are welcome to replace the full wikitext of this page with that of the master page at Meta at any time. To view this page in other languages see the master page at Meta.
