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A dummy edit is a slight change in a page's wikitext that has no effect on the rendered page but allows an editor to save a useful edit summary.By contrast, a null edit—clicking "Publish changes" without changing anything—does not modify the wikitext, does not create an edit summary, and does not appear in the page's edit history.
(This is probably always what is meant by a "dummy edit" - don't laugh, cause that's what the folks call it). And that makes it possible to create a summary that will appear near a recent edit (not inside it), in its history (and in your contributions, if the edit you wished you could edit was your own, which, in fact it is !).
These summaries appear in recent changes, page histories, and contributions lists, unless you provide your own edit summary. Auto edit summaries exist for several actions, if the user fails to provide an edit summary: Blanking a page; Replacing entire page with other text, removing more than 90% of the content of a page; Creating a new page ...
An edit summary is a brief explanation of an edit to a Wikipedia page. Summaries help other editors by (a) providing a reason for the edit, (b) saving the time to open up the edit to find out what it's all about, and (c) providing information about the edit on diff pages and lists of changes (such as page histories and watchlists).
Simply typing the pipe character | after a link will automatically rename the link in certain circumstances. The next time you open the edit box you will see the expanded piped link. When previewing your edits, you will not see the expanded form until you press Save and Edit again. The same applies to links to sections within the same page.
I noticed that one or more recent edit(s) you made did not have an edit summary. You can use the edit summary field to explain your reasoning for an edit, or to provide a description of what the edit changes. Summaries save time for other editors and reduce the chances that your edit will be misunderstood. For some edits, an adequate summary ...
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Help:Edit summary; Wikipedia:Edit summary legend – commonly used abbreviations; Wikipedia:Edit summary legend/Quick reference; Wikipedia:Automatic edit summaries; Help:Dummy edit – to post a "follow-up" edit summary when the first is missing, incomplete, or incorrect; Special:Preferences#prefsection-5 – has option for a prompt (message ...