zulip/templates/zerver/help/change-the-topic-of-a-message.md

# Change the topic of a message

You can easily change the topic of a message by following the following steps.

{!message-actions.md!} the pencil
(<i class="icon-vector-pencil"></i>) icon to begin editing your
message.

2. In the field labeled **Topic**, enter the new topic name for your message.

3. Once you begin typing in the **Topic** field, you will notice that a dropdown
appears to the right of the **Topic** field with the **Change only this message topic**
option selected by default. Click the dropdown to view all options for editing
your message's topic.

    * **Change only this message topic**

        This option only changes the topic of the message that you have selected.

        !!! tip ""
            You may want to select this option if you sent the message to the
            wrong topic.

    * **Change later messages to this topic**

        This option changes the topic of the selected message as well
        as the topic of any messages under the same topic that were
        sent after the selected message.

        !!! tip ""
            You may want to select this option if you feel that some of your
            messages have gone off-topic.

    * **Change previous and following messages to this topic**

        This option changes the topic of the selected message as well
        as any messages under the same topic that were sent before and
        after the selected message.

        !!! tip ""
            You may want to select this option to change the topic for all
            messages with the same topic.

5. After choosing your desired option from the dropdown, click the **Save**
button under the box containing the message's contents.

6. After clicking **Save**, the topic of your edited message(s) will change, and
the message(s) will be marked with **(EDITED)**, confirming the success of the
topic change.