Hi, Would it be possible to improve the "user clicks on footnote" workflow by using JavaScript? Currently it goes something like this:
1) User clicks on a footnote in some text, like the [1] in "Wikipedia is great.[1]" 2) The view suddenly jumps down to the bottom of the page. 3) User attempts to remember the number of the footnote they clicked on, and locate the corresponding number in the list. In some cases, this footnote will be at the very top of the current viewing window. Text looks like "1. ^ http://www.someurl.com" 4) User clicks on a web link, if applicable.
How about:
1) User clicks on a footnote in some text, like [1] 2) The footnote expands in place to contain the full text of the footnote: [1 - http://www.someurl.com] 3) User can click on the web link, if applicable 4) Clicking on the [1 -, or the trailing ] (hopefully in a different colour from the contents of the footnote) collapses it again.
Is this desirable and possible?
Steve
On 12/12/06, Steve Bennett stevagewp@gmail.com wrote:
Is this desirable and possible?
It's certainly possible, and I think it would work well. The old style listing could be preserved for printing, screen readers, and JavaScript-disabled browsers. There's really no particular reason to literally transport the traditional footnote metaphor to the web.
On 12/12/06, Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org wrote:
On 12/12/06, Steve Bennett stevagewp@gmail.com wrote:
Is this desirable and possible?
It's certainly possible, and I think it would work well. The old style listing could be preserved for printing, screen readers, and JavaScript-disabled browsers. There's really no particular reason to literally transport the traditional footnote metaphor to the web.
Ah, yes, I had presumed that the footnotes would also be available at the base of the page - there would just no longer be a page-internal link sending you down there. I guess the link coming back from the footnote's definition to its reference should still remain.
Should I enter this into mediazilla?
Steve
Personally, I just use the Back button, but this would still be nice, especially for articles without much after the footnotes: that means that jumping down to the footnote won't put it at the top of the page, so you have to remember the number and hunt for it.
On 12/11/06, Steve Bennett stevagewp@gmail.com wrote:
Should I enter this into mediazilla?
Sure.
Steve Bennett wrote:
Hi, Would it be possible to improve the "user clicks on footnote" workflow by using JavaScript? Currently it goes something like this:
- User clicks on a footnote in some text, like the [1] in "Wikipedia
is great.[1]" 2) The view suddenly jumps down to the bottom of the page. 3) User attempts to remember the number of the footnote they clicked on, and locate the corresponding number in the list. In some cases, this footnote will be at the very top of the current viewing window. Text looks like "1. ^ http://www.someurl.com" 4) User clicks on a web link, if applicable.
How about:
- User clicks on a footnote in some text, like [1]
- The footnote expands in place to contain the full text of the
footnote: [1 - http://www.someurl.com] 3) User can click on the web link, if applicable 4) Clicking on the [1 -, or the trailing ] (hopefully in a different colour from the contents of the footnote) collapses it again.
Is this desirable and possible?
Steve
The Vietnamese Wikipedia currently uses the following CSS code to make it a little easier:
/* Highlight focused footnotes and references */ sup.reference:target, ol.references li:target { background-color: #ffffcc; } sup.reference:target { font-weight: bold; }
I don't think it works in IE (including IE7), but it works just fine in Mozilla-based browsers and Safari, and it's incredibly simple.
Minh Nguyen wrote:
Steve Bennett wrote:
Would it be possible to improve the "user clicks on footnote" workflow by using JavaScript? Currently it goes something like this:
[snip] The Vietnamese Wikipedia currently uses the following CSS code to make it a little easier: [snip] I don't think it works in IE (including IE7), but it works just fine in Mozilla-based browsers and Safari, and it's incredibly simple.
I went looking for information about this trick and it seems like a good idea (although since I'm using IE6 I haven't been able to see exactly how it works yet ;-). It is apparently not that difficult to emulate the effect in Javascript for those older browsers which don't implement CSS that new (it's apparently in the CSS3 draft, and one site said it wouldn't work for IE<6.5 :/).
Maybe this combined method would be the way to go?
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