Administrators can easily revert a page to the previous revision. This is called a rollback. Any editor can revert a page to an earlier revision manually, by editing the earlier version and then saving it. It is possible to undo the effects of a single edit, even if it was not the most recent edit.
Administrator Rollback
An administrator can quickly revert a page back to the previous revision (back one step). This is called a rollback. To rollback an article:
- visit the article in question, and press the history tab.
- Press the "[rollback]" link next to the top entry
Manual revert
Any editor can revert a page back to any earlier revision. The steps are:
- visit the article in question and press the history tab.
- Find most recent known-good revision of the article and click on the date.
You get a view of the good page, labeled at the top as an out-of-date version.
- Edit the page (press the edit tab). Note in the Summary: box that this is a revert, along with a reason.
- Press Save page
This makes the earlier version the newest version, and effectively reverts all changes made between the two.
Undo a single edit
It is possible to undo the effects of a single edit, even if it was not the most recent change. This is done using the "diff" view from the page history:
- visit the article in question and press the history tab.
- Using the radio buttons next to each revision, select the earlier revision you wish to undo, and then press the "Compare selected versions" button. This shows the "diff" view comparing the differences between the two articles.
- In the heading for the column for the current version (the one on the right) click on the (undo) link to undo just that edit.
This procedure fails if there are conflicts between the edit you are undoing and later edits.