Forum:New edit window



Wikia is always looking for ways to improve the editing experience and today we're happy to announce a change to the edit window that will make editing easier and save time for experienced users and make the save button more visible for new users. The improved edit window has been live on several wikis for the last week, including Pro Wrestling and Muppet Wiki. This Wednesday, we'll be rolling it out site-wide.

Edit page
On the current edit page, it's necessary to scroll to see the save button, which is located in the middle of a group of buttons. On a long page, this can mean a lot of scrolling. Veteran wiki contributors are used to it, but a brand new contributor who clicks edit for the first time may not see the save button on the page.

The improved edit page adds a save bar at the bottom of the screen, which includes the same information as before -- an edit summary field, save button, minor edit button and watch button. However, now the edit window automatically resizes to fit your browser and the save button is always visible. All the the stuff which was under the edit window before is still there -- just scroll down. But no need to scroll to save or preview. This change doesn't remove anything from the page; it just highlights the important pieces and makes them more accessible.

Preview page
When previewing, the improved save bar floats at the bottom of the screen so you can scroll down to see the change that you've made. If your edit looks good, you can hit the save button without having to scroll down past the preview and the edit window.

Feedback
We plan to roll this out site-wide this Wednesday. After giving it a try, if your community would still prefer the old version of the edit window, just send us an email at [mailto:community@wikia.com community@wikia.com]. We can switch your wiki back.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave feedback below!

Compatibility question

 * Is this a Monaco-only feature (please say yes) or have you kludged it into my precious Monobook also? Has this been tested with AutoWikiBrowser? If it proves incompatible, how quickly will you be able to switch a wiki back to the normal edit box? -- Darth Culator  (Talk) 23:44, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
 * After testing it on the Pro Wrestling wiki, I conclude that it doesn't affect Monobook much. It only appears to affect the positions of the "Minor edit" and "Watch this page" boxes. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 23:56, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Works with iPhone, nice!
I'm pleasantly surprised to discover it detects the iPhone safari window size correctly. Good job! (-: -Afker All hail AliceSoft! 23:57, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Necessary?
Nice work and all, but it isn't a huge deal. Saving can be done by hitting ctrl+s and previewing with ctrl+p. Exlonox 00:05, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


 * It's designed especially for people inexperienced with MediaWiki software, IMHO. Some of them don't even know how to copy and paste without a mouse.  So I think it is a big deal to surface and highlight the save button to help less computer-inclined people with being involved on a wiki. -Afker All hail AliceSoft! 00:24, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, what about the edit summary? The changes will make filling that out, faster. Good job. WHLfan (talk to me!) 02:36, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


 * On some french wikia, anon often click a red link, write "LOL" or other things like that then save the page. And i just show my friend today that we can use the mouse wheel while holding CTRL to zoom... — TulipVorlax 13:35, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Generic thumbs up
Looks like a good idea to me. --Sky (talk) 01:26, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Agreed! 01:57, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

vertical size
Why is it vertically sizing the edit box to fill the big 2048x1152 screen i have and making me have to move the mouse a lot more when editing many pages ? See this screen capture on ImageShack : — TulipVorlax 04:37, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Plus, i cannot even scroll the page to get to the edit links under it with that unless i click and drag the browser scrollbar or move the mouse all the way across the page to the left side.
 * If this is done by JS, i will need to set the function that does the vertical sizing to null like i've done with licenses template previewing. — TulipVorlax 05:12, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


 * I should have said it earlier, the only thing i dont like is the vertical sizing. Otherwise i like how it looks like. — TulipVorlax 07:22, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


 * There's a minimum height for people with small screens, but there isn't a maximum height for people with really big screens, like you. I'm glad you brought this up! I'll look into setting a maximum height for the edit window. I'll let you know what I find out... Thanks for asking about this. -- Danny (talk ) 16:30, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

texte on button
As we can see on the same screen capture than of previous section, the text on the publish button is not centered on every language. Also, shouldn't the button auto resize to the size of the text ? — TulipVorlax 04:37, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

middle stuff

 * 1) Whats the point of  ->   ->     options? Here is a comparison (Btw i have it set to 30 rows) between muppets and wrestling wikis and there is a huge gap of space lost on wrestling because of automatic/configured msgs that are placed on top of pages while editing that can be tools or warnings. (and that are default for since the creation of the starter wiki that its a template for new wikis. and thats not counting the wikiwide messages that some wikis constantly use so half the window is lost and the other half is too little.
 * Ok, so mm looks like a great idea but... Where is the GNU Free Documentation License & Wikia's terms of use warning for every submit? other way people can say that they are the owners since they did not agree to publish it under the GDFL?
 * 1) well the cancel i never use it but the editing help?

Dont take me the wrong side i see it as a great idea but needs more refinement. why not make it floating like facebooks application/messenger bar and just add more space at the bottom to compensate in case a user scrolls all the way down?

As a personal comment i would have preferred the save to the left, center for the summary and right for preview with the other extras, with a force preview for non-logged/autoconfirm users.

--Cizagna (Talk) 22:23, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


 * For #1 and 2 -- those are determined by MediaWiki messages that can be changed locally on a wiki. That top section on new pages is set by MediaWiki:Newarticletext, and the copyright warning is MediaWiki:Copyrightwarning. This feature doesn't affect any of those messages or their placement. You still see the copyright warning and GFDL message when you scroll down.


 * I agree that Newarticletext pushes the window down -- and a lot of wikis have stuff at the top of edit pages that they don't necessarily need there. We're going to be looking at this stuff soon, to see if we can clean up some of the MediaWiki messages. Meanwhile, if there's a message that you'd like to shorten or change on your wiki, check out Special:AllMessages -- that'll tell you where to find the pages that you can edit. -- Danny (talk ) 22:49, 20 January 2009 (UTC)