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The save bar on the edit window.

The floating save bar on the preview page.

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 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!  SkyeNiTessine (talk · contr) 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 : [1] — 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)

Ho! Glad to read that. By the way, i'm now on IE8... — TulipVorlax 13:04, 21 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)

summary and more

The summary edit box is far too short now, and it doesn't extend. The edit box covers up the edit box scroll bar if there is one and the window is resized to be smaller. The layout of the system messages below the edit box on monobook is a mess. I don't see any advantage to the change on either Monobook or Monaco (I use Firefox 3). --◄mendel► 16:38, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Not showing up at all now

On the Vintage Sewing Patterns wiki, the edit screen now does not allow to save at all and the new floating bar is not showing up, e.g. [[2]]. Any idea what the issue might be? And if it does not work, can we switch back? tarna 21:05, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Contact staff using Special:Contact --Ciencia Al Poder (talk) ^-WikiDex 21:20, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I did in parallel, thank you.tarna 23:01, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Hi, I'm really sorry about this -- turns out that the new feature caused a conflict with another extension called MultiEdit that was tested on 8 wikis a while ago. We turned MultiEdit off, so now the Edit window works again for Vintage Patterns, Devil May Cry, Witcher, Metal Gear and the other handful of wikis where it was broken today. I'm sorry about that; it's the kind of thing that you'd only notice when you turn something on site-wide. -- Danny (talk) 01:33, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

To small

I like the new features, but the height of the edit box is now smaller. Could this be fixed? WHLfan (talk to me!) 06:15, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

middle stuff

1. Whats the point of preferences -> Editing -> rows__ columns__ 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.
2. 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?
3. 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)

mmm i did not notice the GDFL it i will need to find a way to make it more noticeable.

I need to double check but editingTipsToggleDiv and wmuLinkDiv has a margin-top of 20px.

But still my question of what will happen with the customization inside preference? where you can set a fixed height in the fashion of rows?

in retrospective to TulipVorlax issues could that be pick pick from users preference?

--Cizagna ^(Talk) 23:31, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Monobook

The changes kind of messed up the position of certain templates in Monobook. MediaWiki:Copyrightwarning is showing up in a weird spot in Monobook. Please see Wookieepedia and Star Wars Fanon for example. --Michaeldsuarez ^{(Talk) (Deeds)} 14:50, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Please disable this for non-Monaco skins. --Pcj (T•C) 15:06, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

The copyright template has been positioned awkwardly in Monobook. It also affects the Show Changes button and Editing Help and Cancel links. —^BLUER一番。 16:32, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for fixing the earlier problem, but now the edit summary window totally disappeared in Monobook. Can you fix that please? --Michaeldsuarez ^{(Talk) (Deeds)} 17:37, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Monobook is fixed now. Thanks. --Michaeldsuarez ^{(Talk) (Deeds)} 19:22, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, that is great. --◄mendel► 20:43, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Edit window resizing

The edit window now resizes to fill the screen. However, it doesn't if you decide to preview or show changes. Why don't we deserve a larger edit area in these cases?

Further, the change only occurs after the page has finished loading, causing significant visual disturbance as all the page elements reshuffle to accommodate the change. This can mean that something that you were going to click on suddenly moves to somewhere else, which, suffice it to say, is incredibly irritating. It's a shame that the programmers have not heard of domready, as this would have circumvented the problem. Perhaps it's not too late to integrate this? --BBilge 15:22, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

move the css changes

can we move the css changes into an external css file so that i can override the styles through my own css file? as it is the last css to be applied is the ones that are within the page so there's no way to alter it back to the way it was. Thanks :) — Morder 15:44, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

and by we i mean you :) since obviously i don't have access to move it — Morder 16:18, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Messing up predefined sumaries

On wikis that use JS to add a box to choose between some predefined sumary strings, things are messed up. See this for an exemple. Put the mouse over it to see things move a bit (at least in ie8 in compatibility mode).

Surely there a way to alter the JS script that add that combobox but i dont know how to do it. My JS skills arent good enough yet. — TulipVorlax 17:59, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Floating

The floating edit bar seems like more of a gimmick than an actual feature, particularly since the only benefit it offers is the ability to save the page without previewing all of it, which frankly defeats the point of a preview in most cases. For this to be of any use, the bar should include a button that takes you back down to the edit window, which at least can save a lot of scrolling, particularly on very long pages. --BBilge 18:06, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Wtf? Was the save button below the preview if you had it displayed below? I am asking because I have Preview above the edit box, and the buttons are always right below the box, so all the fancy stuff is no improvement at all. --◄mendel► 20:09, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Edit summary textbox size

In general, looks fine. But for users like me that use the edit summary extensively, also adding things on undo autosummaries, is annoying that I can't see the full text of the edit summary. If I want to add something at the end, I must click, push the "end" key and start typing. --Ciencia Al Poder (talk) ^-WikiDex 20:14, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

This is eventually what I was going to say. Felix Omni 00:11, 22 January 2009 (UTC)