Help:Watching pages
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
The watch pages feature allows any logged in user to keep a list of "watched" pages and to be notified of recent edits to these pages. Pages means any draft, module, book or other piece of text in Wikibooks.
Contents |
[edit] Controlling which pages are watched
The page is always watched together with its talk page. All additions to and deletions from the list of watched pages apply to the non-talk page / talk page combination: it's not possible to watch one without watching the other.
- While viewing a page
- The tab / button "Watch" (or "Unwatch") located at the top of each page, adds the current page to your watchlist.
- You will see a message like this:
-
- The page "[PAGE NAME]" has been added to your watchlist, where edits to this page and the associated talk page will be listed. The page will also be bolded in the list of recent changes."
- or this
-
- The page "[PAGE NAME]" has been removed from your watchlist.
- While saving a page
- When saving an edited page, the new watch status (do or do not watch) is determined by the "Watch this page" checkbox.
- If one activates the user preference "Add pages I edit to my watchlist", the checkbox on the edit page will automatically be checked, so unless it is unchecked before saving, the page will be watched upon saving. Additional options are
- "Add pages I create to my watchlist" (if the previous is checked this need not be checked, because creation counts also as an edit),
- "Add pages I move to my watchlist" ,
- "Add pages I delete to my watchlist".
- Editing the whole list
- Two additional links are available on top of Special:Watchlist page:
- Special:Watchlist/edit produces a full list of linked watched pages (including the talk pages). Selecting one or several checkboxes and then clicking "Remove titles" button will remove selected pages from the list.
- Special:Watchlist/raw provides a textarea with a list of watched pages (without listing the talk pages), with one title on every line, sorted by namespace number and then in alphabetic order. This allows editing the list directly, copying it to an external editor, or replacing it with one created elsewhere. Duplicates are automatically removed on saving.
[edit] Watchlist
When the user is logged in, every page has a link to the user's watchlist, also accessible by the link Special:Watchlist. This page shows a list of all recently changed watched pages, separated by days, ordered backward according to the time of the edit.
Each line shows details of each edit: whether minor (m) or major, whether made by a bot (b), the time, a link to the page, the difference between the current version and the last one, the history, the user name, the increase or decrease of the number of bytes, and the edit summary. The page name is bolded if the page has changed after the last time the user viewed the page (while logged in).
[edit] Options
One can hide or show the following types of edits, using the corresponding links: minor edits, bot edits, one's own edits. These can also be set in preferences as initial options when the user comes to Special:Watchlist page.
Another preference option, although named "Maximum number of days to show in watchlist", also sets only the initial value for a period of time for which changes are shown. This period can be easily changed with corresponding links.
There is also a drop-down box that allows to see the changes only in one specific namespace.
Unlike recent changes, watchlist cannot hide edits by logged in/logged out users, there are no links to show only specific number of edits, and there is no way to show all namespaces except one.
[edit] Simple Watchlist
By default watchlist only shows the last edit to each watched page.
There are two possible problems if a page had a non-minor recent edit, but the last edit was marked as minor:
- non-minor edits will not be shown. Since one is typically interested in all changes since one last checked, in this case the history of the page needs to be checked.
- if watchlist is set not to show minor changes, then the page will not appear in the watchlist at all.
Many experienced users prefer to use Expanded Watchlist.
[edit] Expanded Watchlist
With the preference "Expand watchlist to show all changes, not just the most recent" the watchlist will show all recent edits, listed in chronological order.
In this case the preference "Use enhanced recent changes (requires JavaScript)", which toggles enhanced recent changes, also affects the watchlist the same way: recent changes of watched pages are grouped by day, and within a day by page.
Another preference option is "Maximum number of changes to show in expanded watchlist".
[edit] Other effects of watching a page
The watchlist is only one of the features with regard to watching pages; even without ever using it, specifying pages to watch is useful.
[edit] Recent changes
In Recent Changes watched pages are bolded.
[edit] E-mail notification
Depending on preference settings, you get an e-mail after a watched page has been edited by somebody else. This will not be repeated until you view the page. Note that you have to be logged in when viewing the page, otherwise you will not be notified of further changes. Optionally this notification system can ignore minor changes. See Email notification.
[edit] What you cannot watch
Watchlist only detects actual edits to the wikitext of the page.
- Images and Categories
- Watching an image or a category means watching only the editable part. Watchlist will not show uploads of new versions of images. It is not possible to watch a category in the sense of being notified if pages are added or removed.
[edit] Watching a nonexistent page
One can watch a nonexistent page. This page will appear in the watchlist changes when somebody creates it.
[edit] Page moves and the watchlist
If a page you have watched is moved to a new title, the new title will be automatically added to your watchlist. Even if the page is later moved back, the new title will remain in your watchlist along with the old one.
Even if the new title is deleted after the page has been moved back, a note about the deletion will appear on your watchlist and the title will remain in your list of watched pages. If you notice mysterious nonexistent pages appearing on your watchlist, this is the most likely explanation.
[edit] Privacy of watchlists
Ordinary users and administrators cannot tell what is in your watchlist, or who is watching any particular page. Developers who have access to the servers that hold the Wikipedia database can figure out this kind of information. Publicly available database dumps do not include this kind of information.
