Is there a way to "merge" revisions?

Question

Being somewhat of a perfectionist, I tend to edit my own answers multiple times; amending typos, working over the layout and so on. Every edit creates a new revision, even if it was only a slight typo that was removed.

In the meantime, I found that I can edit revisions, which I assume won't create a new revision (or would it?). But for past edits, is there a way to merge multiple own edits into one single revision?

Of course, I won't merge edits made by different users: my question concerns only a situation where there are multiple edits done by myself, not "separated" by edits of others.

Answer 1

There is not a way to merge revisions after the fact. However, edits made less than five minutes after a post's creation or an edit of it will be considered part of the previous revision. It's called the "grace period." Therefore, if you edit your post several times within five minutes, all your changes will be part of one revision, identified with the original "explain your changes" note.

The absence of the feature you propose is almost certainly by design. Being able to see the state of a post at a given time in the past is very useful in checking for abuse or examining the reasons for a question's closure. Fusing several revisions together would muddy the timeline.

When it comes to grammar and spelling fixups, I suggest that you make those before posting. Virtually all major browsers have an integrated spell-checker; I find that feature indispensable. Spend a little time thoroughly proofreading things before you post them, maybe read your text out loud if it helps. Then you'll be producing excellent content with little need for revision.

Answer 2

The best option I can suggest for this type of thing, would be to rollback to an earlier revision and place in your new content. As far as I know, there is no method to merging two together. Any changes will result in a new revision. Even a rollback will continue with a new revision, indicating it was rolled back. Multiple revisions are not a bad thing.

Keep in mind that, if you are doing a large number of edits, and other users are editing too, you do not want to end up in an editing war, as this can end up with the question being locked due to the content being changed constantly.