On Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:20:42 -0800, roger@rogerchrisman.com wrote:

Hi,

Wouldn't it be great if Table of Contents (TOC) _numbering_ were a user preference, right along with Section Heading numbering?

It could be next to: My preferences > Appearance > Advanced options: [ ] Auto-number headings as: My preferences > Appearance > Advanced options: [ ] Auto-number table of contents

Wouldn't it be even greater if there was a $wgTOCnumbering variable in LocalSettings.php that could be set to "false" to make no TOC numbering the default?

Currently the TOC numbering can be _hidden_ with this CSS in Common.css[1]:

      /* Suppress numbering of items in TOC */
      .tocnumber { display: none; }

I am tired of all the TOC numbering on Wikipedia. Am I alone? Yes I can put the CSS to suppress TOC numbering into my own user's CSS (User:Myusername/common.css), but most _readers_ of Wikipedia, including me, are usually not logged in when they read.

Readers don't have preferences either.

It was easy to get Wikivoyage (now a Wikimedia Foundation wiki) changed over to numberless TOC. I just suggested it on http://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Wikivoyage:Travellers%27_pub#Article_Table_of_... and an Admin did it. Wow! That's the wiki culture I love. Can do.

Thoughts?

[1] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Table_of_contents#Auto-numbering

Roger