Help:Minor edit
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This page in a nutshell:
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A check to the minor edit box signifies that only superficial differences exist between the current and previous versions. Examples include typographical corrections, formatting and presentational changes, and rearrangements of text without modification of its content. A minor edit is one that the editor believes requires no review and could never be the subject of a dispute. An edit of this kind is marked in its page's revision history with a lower case, bolded "m" character (m).
By contrast, a major edit is one that should be reviewed for its acceptability to all concerned editors. Therefore, any change that affects the meaning of an article is not minor, even if the edit concerns a single word; for example, the addition or removal of "not", which can change the meaning of a sentence, is a major edit.
Because editors may choose to ignore minor edits when reviewing recent changes, the distinction between major and minor edits is significant. Logged-in users might even set their preferences to not display minor edits. If there is any chance that another editor might dispute a change, it is best not to mark the edit as minor.
A good rule of thumb is that edits consisting solely of spelling corrections, formatting changes, or rearrangement of text without modification of content should be flagged as minor edits.
How to mark an edit as minor
Below the edit summary field, there is a checkbox that says "This is a minor edit". Most browsers support access keys (keyboard shortcuts); the access key for the minor edit checkbox is i. You can mark and save an edit very quickly by using the access keys for minor edit (i) and save (s).
When filling in the edit summary, you may also press Tab ↹+Space to check the minor edit box quickly.
Recommendation changes to mark as minor changes
- Spelling, grammatical, and punctuation corrections
- Simple formatting (e.g., capitalization, or properly adding italics to non-English words, like folie de grandeur, or titles of certain works, like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)
- Formatting that does not change the meaning of the page (e.g., moving a picture, splitting one paragraph into two—where this is not contentious)
- Obvious factual errors (e.g., changing "Edison was born in 1947" to "Edison was born in 1847")
- Fixing layout errors
- Adding or correcting wikilinks, or fixing broken external links and references already present in the article
- Removing obvious vandalism
Recommendation changes not to mark as minor changes
- Adding or removing content in an article
- Adding or removing visible templates in an article
- Adding or removing references / citations, external links, or categories in an article
- Adding comments to a talk page or other discussion
Watchlist
In your preferences, under the Watchlist tab, you can "Hide minor edits from the watchlist."
