Community Wishlist Survey 2021/Editing/Allow editors to write an edit summary from the edit preview

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Allow editors to write an edit summary from the edit preview

Problem: After making an edit, I view a preview of the newly edited page before I describe what I've changed. Then, in the preview, there is no place to describe what I've changed before publishing unless I go back, which is a bit clumsy.
Who would benefit: Page editors and trackers of changes
Proposed solution: Add a "Describe what you changed" text box to the top of the preview edit page next to "Publish changes" so that is is easily visible and easily accessed.
More comments:
Phabricator tickets:
Proposer: BenJenkins (talk) 16:40, 17 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

This would be useful, I like the idea. I've been keeping notes in a separate editor. A little notebook could even be there while we're editing: done with a chapter, enter changes, continue to the next one. Ponor (talk) 17:01, 17 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I'd even go one further: With the addition of this functionality, it would then become desirable if we could choose an alternative workflow: Preview First, Preview Always. (Perhaps selected via an editing preferences checkbox, like "Prompt me when entering a blank edit summary" or our old, departed friend "Mark all edits minor by default".)

With the option enabled, an edit could progress from the editor interface, directly to Preview (including edit-summary field), and finally submitting the edit directly from the Preview view — never even seeing the redundant, unnecessary "Save your changes" popup.

We're always reminding our fellow editors "WP:TWWPK", and admonishing new Wikipedians whose edits are reverted that they need to Use The Preview™[, Luke?] (There's even a dedicated user warning template for that exact purpose.) The ultimate adherence to that philosophy would be (optionally) telling the system that you want to always preview every edit, automatically, before the option to submit is even presented. -- FeRDNYC 03:13, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Preview first is already an option though.... --Izno (talk) 05:23, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Izno: How so? "Show preview on first edit" is still a checkbox in the Editing preferences, but as far as I can tell it does nothing for either of the Visual Editor's modes. (Visual editing mode doesn't have a Preview at all, only Review, so I guess it's not really relevant to any of this.) But in the wikitext mode, even with the preference switched on "Publish changes..." still takes you to the "Save your changes" popup, and you have to manually hit "Show preview" to preview the edit. -- FeRDNYC (talk) 18:19, 19 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Well, you don't need a preview in VE. But okay, the context for your comment is good since it wasn't clear you were talking about 2017 WTE. :) --Izno (talk) 23:22, 19 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I can't tell if this is for VE or for WTE, but I'd take it for wikitext editor in a heartbeat! --Izno (talk) 05:21, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
- The proposer uses the 2017 wikitext editor (VisualEditor's wikitext mode). Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 06:35, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I have the "alert me if I don't use an edit summary" preference checked, and whenever I do this (which is pretty much every edit) it takes me back and tells me to put an edit summary in. Certainly not an airtight solution, and I would like to see your suggestion implemented. Ghinga7 (talk) 17:24, 19 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
This is phab:T140451 and/or phab:T148297. ESanders (WMF) (talk) 15:56, 24 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Also, (temporary) Edit Summary should not be lost when switching between Visual Editor & Source Editor. RavBol (talk) 22:49, 14 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I've just lost another Edit Summary after switching between Visual Editor & Source Editor on mobile, again...! RavBol (talk) 23:46, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Huh? Is this specific to the mobile version, or VisualEditor, or ...? I don't have this problem. I load the page to edit, and I already have an "Edit summary:" line. I click "Show preview", and I now have a preview, and the edit window again, and the "Edit summary:" line again. There is no need to go back. — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ >^ʌⱷ҅_ᴥⱷ^ʌ< 06:46, 15 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Voting

Support Support for convenience. MarioSuperstar77 (talk) 19:15, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support --NGC 54 (talk / contribs) 20:11, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support CrystallineLeMonde (talk) 20:14, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Kisnaak (talk) 20:32, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Gabrasca (talk) 21:25, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Ponor (talk) 22:08, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Nw520 (talk) 22:49, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Eric0892 (talk) 01:15, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Lion-hearted85 (talk) 03:02, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support —— Eric Liu_{（留言．百科用戶頁）} 04:32, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Thomas Kinz (talk) 10:32, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Ok Mylenos (talk) 12:06, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Hb2007 (talk) 14:09, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Mannivu · ✉ 15:19, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support dwf² (talk) 22:54, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support GeneralNotability (talk) 23:45, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Drernie (talk) 04:22, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Some1 (talk) 05:13, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support BoldLuis (talk) 15:24, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Vince789 (talk) 22:02, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Tom Ja (talk) 12:36, 12 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support That'll be a nice thing to have Wilhelm Tell DCCXLVI (talk) 12:44, 12 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Gnom (talk) 15:50, 12 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Imetsia (talk) 16:45, 12 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support T8612 (talk) 20:43, 12 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support It will help the editors view before submitting the changes. Dr. Dinesh Karia^{(Talk) (contribs)} 06:52, 13 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support MaxBE (talk) 14:02, 13 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support 4nn1l2 (talk) 17:31, 13 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Izno (talk) 19:55, 13 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Kimsey0 (talk) 22:22, 13 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Tgr (talk) 08:36, 14 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support main proposal & related proposal: (temporary) Edit Summary should not be lost when switching between Visual Editor & Source Editor. RavBol (talk) 23:01, 14 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Mollifiednow (talk) 18:12, 15 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Vacant0 (talk) 18:40, 15 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Crissov (talk) 09:02, 16 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Uu70344 (talk) 11:37, 16 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support JN Dela Cruz (talk) 16:44, 18 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support VKG1985 (talk) 17:41, 18 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]