Template:In use

This template page is actively undergoing a major edit for a little while. To help avoid edit conflicts, do not edit it while this notice is displayed. This page was last edited 8 months ago, at 01:30, 7 November 2025 (UTC) (refresh ). Please remove this template if this page hasn't been edited for a significant time. If you added this notice, remember to remove it or replace it with {{under construction }} between editing sessions.

Template documentationview edit history purge

Shortcuts

{{Iu Template:Iu }}
{{WIP Template:WIP }}

Please remember to remove this template as soon as you're finished editing.
Anyone is allowed to remove the template two hours after the time of last edit.

This template notice is intended for pages actively undergoing a major edit process. Wikipedia does not use pre-emptive software article locks on pages, because this would be contrary to the policies of Wikipedia and spirit of openness. When this message is placed, the article remains open to editing, but courteous users should leave it alone until you're done.

You are expected to remove this message in a relatively short while.

Usage

The template is placed at the top of a page you are actively editing for a short period of time, no greater than a few hours at a time. The tag is intended to inform people that someone is currently working on the article, thereby reducing edit conflicts. Please do not leave it in place for longer than necessary, as doing so may unnecessarily discourage others from contributing to the article. Specifying periods of around a day or longer for this template goes against the spirit of simply avoiding edit conflicts; please only use it for sessions where you are actively editing the article. If you plan to take a break from your major edit activity longer than two hours, please remove it during the break.

Using this template will place the including article in Category:Pages actively undergoing a major edit.

Basic usage

{{In use}}

This puts a notice saying the major edit is undergoing "for a little while", adding the time of last edit.

Estimated time needed

{{In use|40 minutes}}

This replaces "a little while" with the supplied unnamed parameter. In this case you believe you need about 40 minutes (from the time of last edit), signaling that any user may remove this notice after such time.

This notice was added

{{In use|time=~~~~~}}

The |time= parameter adds the text "This notice was added" followed by the value of the parameter at the start of the notice. While you could supply any value, you are recommended to supply the current time stamp: {{In use|time=~~~~~}} at the top of any page you want to work on. The five tildes converts to a datestamp of the current time (see WP:5TILDES).

section notice

{{In use|section}}

If a specific section of the page is being edited, adding "section" as the first unnamed parameter changes the notice from "This article" (or "this template" etc) to "This section".

You can alternatively use {{In use section }}. It used to be a stand-alone template but when this template gained the section notice ability in 2009 it was converted to a call to {{In use |section}} with "a little while" supplied as the default parameter for the estimated time needed unnamed parameter. While currently superfluous since this template's default message is the same, the defaults are independent of each other.

section notice and estimated time needed

{{In use|section|40 minutes}}

If you want to estimate a time needed for a section notice, you must supply "section" as the first unnamed parameter.

all three parameters

{{In use|section|40 minutes|time=~~~~~}}

Alternatives

If you wish to indicate that an article is being rebuilt over a longer period of time consider the {{Under construction }} template. That template encourages others to edit the article while indicating that it is a work in progress.

"Freezing" a page from further edits

Main page: Wikipedia:Edit lock

Please be aware that this template does not actually prevent further edits or lock out other editors. It asks other editors to hold off editing as a courtesy.

Wikipedia does not use pre-emptive software article locks on pages, because this would be contrary to the policies of Wikipedia and spirit of openness. Page protection is never to be used for closing down an article's normal development and community editing, and should be used only to prevent actual disruption.

Accessing a "frozen" or stable page version

So you cannot or should not freeze pages. But what about accessing a stable page version? For instance, if you are creating a spoken Wikipedia reading of an article, you definitely want to access the one and same version of that page between recording sessions; you don't want the text you are recording to change half-way through.

Wikipedia offers the Help:Permanent link functionality, where you are assured page stability. Instead of working on the regular version of any article, first click "Permanent link" which you will find in the Tools section of the left sidebar of each Wikipedia article. You can access this page, share it with others, bookmark it etc and you will get the exact same version of the page each time, no matter how much other editors change the actual live page.

Removal

If this template has been left in place for more than two hours since the last edit as reported by this template.

This template uses {{time ago }} to round and display time passed, so once the time since last edit exceeds 2 1/2 hours, the message changes from "2 hours ago" to "3 hours ago", and you can safely assume the placing editor has forgotten to remove it, and you may remove it yourself.

TemplateData

No description.

Template parameters[Edit template data ]
This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.
Parameter		Description	Type	Status
1	`1`	no description	Unknown	optional
2	`2`	no description	Unknown	optional
time	`time`	no description Auto value `~~~~~`	Unknown	required
category	`category`	no description	Unknown	optional