Help:Page history

You can access the history of a page by clicking "History" from the edit button dropdown

Each editable page on Fandom has a page history, which consists of the old versions of the page text, as well as a record of the date and time of every edit, the username or IP address of the user who wrote it, and their edit summary.

You can access a page's history via the 'Edit' button's dropdown menu. It can also be viewed via a link on your toolbar when visiting a page.

Quick overview:

• The newest changes are shown at the top
• To view a specific version, click a date
• To compare an old version with the current version, click cur
• To compare a version with its predecessor, click prev
• To compare two specific versions, select the left-column radio button of the older version and the right-column radio button of the newer version, and then click "Compare selected versions"
• Minor edits are denoted as m
• Edits by bots are denoted as b

Step by step

Below is an example of a page history. Note how edits are shown from newest to oldest and each edit starts on a new line showing the time and date, contributor's name or IP, edit summary, and other related information for the edit.

Page history, with labels

Here are some of the features of this page:

1. The page name.
2. (cur) . This takes you to a 'diff' page - a page showing the difference between that edit and another version of the page. In this case the diff page is comparing the selected version and the current version. When you click "cur" the current revision appears below the changes, so you can see how the page looks now.
3. (prev) takes you to a diff page showing the changes between that edit and the previous version. When you click "prev" the most recent version of the two you are comparing appears below the changes, so you can see how the page looks now.
4. The two columns of radio buttons can be used to select any two versions of the page for comparison. The most recent version of those selected is shown below the comparison.
5. The time and date of the edit are shown, expressed in the local time according to user preference setting, and which link to that specific revision.
6. The username or IP address of the contributor appears here with links to their message wall or talk page, and contributions.
7. This is the edit summary - the text the user wrote in the editor's edit summary box.
   • Some of these begin with an arrow link and grey text. This means the user has edited a specific section of the page (named in the grey text). This text is automatically added when you edit a section. A standard edit summary can still be added by the user, which appears in black text.

If a page has been renamed in the past, the entire edit history of the article, before and after the move, is shown. The old title becomes a redirect and loses its edit history.

Edits made to deleted pages are not kept in the users' contribution pages. However, the revision history is kept and can be retrieved by an administrator, who can also undelete the page.

Going deeper

Creating feeds

Feeds (RSS and Atom) for the history of a page are available - you can use a feed aggregator or other tool to monitor changes to the page.

The RSS extension will allow you to include the RSS feed into another wiki page.

Linking to a specific version of the page

If you want to link to a specific revision of a page, click on the date for that version on the page history. The resulting URL is suitable for use as a permanent reference to this version.

Note:

• If a page contains any time-based variables, its rendered content will use the current date/time, not the time as it was when the revision was saved.
• The latest versions of templates and images are used; if they have been revised, the page may look different than it was at the time the version was saved.

Exporting page history

You can export a page's history using the export tool.

Image history

An image or other media file can be replaced by a different image, by uploading a new image file with the same name. All versions are kept. The image history listing forms part of the image description page, which appears when you click on the image. From here, the image history can be viewed, and older versions can be deleted or restored.

Tips & Tricks

• To quickly view the latest edit made to any page, type at the end of the URL ?diff=cur.

See also

• Help:Page history on Wikipedia
• Help:Editing
• Help:Exporting pages
• Help:Followed pages

Further help and feedback

• Browse and search other help pages at Help:Contents
• Check Fandom Community Central for sources of further help and support
• Check Contacting Fandom for how to report any errors or unclear steps in this article