Help:Minor edit

This is an information page. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting.

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This page in a nutshell: Checking the minor edit box signifies that the current and previous versions differ only superficially (typographical corrections, etc.), in a way that no editor would be expected to regard as disputable. Any edit that changes the meaning of an article is not a minor edit, even if the edit concerns a single word, and it is improper to mark such an edit as minor.

This page is referenced in the Wikipedia Glossary.

A check to the minor edit box signifies that only superficial differences exist between the current and previous versions. Examples include typographical corrections, corrections of minor formatting errors, and reversion of obvious vandalism. 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 lowercase, bolded "m" character (m).

By contrast, a major edit should be reviewed for its acceptability by all concerned editors. Any change that affects the meaning of an article is not minor, even if it concerns a single word.

Because editors may choose to ignore minor edits when reviewing recent changes, the distinction between major and minor edits is significant. Logged-in users can set their preferences not to display minor edits. If there is any chance that another editor might dispute a change, the edit should not be marked as minor. (If an editor considers a change to be minor yet conceivably controversial, one option is to include the word "minor" in the edit summary without ticking the "minor edit" box.)

Users who are not logged in to Wikipedia are not permitted to mark changes as minor because of the potential for vandalism.^[a] The ability to mark changes as minor is among the many reasons to create and use an account on Wikipedia to edit.

A good rule of thumb is that edits consisting solely of spelling corrections, formatting changes, or rearrangement of text without modification of the content should be flagged as minor edits.
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