Recently, jdporter implemented an off-hand suggestion I made prompting me to make the following suggestion:

Frequently, when composing a message, I find I need to refer to What shortcuts can I use for linking to other information?. I think it may useful to add a summary of common shortcuts to the help text in the message composition and preview windows. I hacked for a little while, and came up with the following as a starting point for discussion:

  • Link shortcuts (See complete documentation for more.)
    • I tried to keep it short and to-the-point, but I'm sure it could be improved. (Example: Are scratchpads mentioned often enough to be mentioned? Or do they change frequently enough that we shouldn't encourage their use on pages? I suspect the latter, but I put it in for balance.)

    ...roboticus

    Update: Changed [node:// to [id:// to reference PerlMonks nodes, and removed reference to scratchpad.

    Update: Removed Super Search link and merged two lines...

    Replies are listed 'Best First'.
    Re: Adding writeup hints to compose pages
    by ruzam (Curate) on Feb 27, 2008 at 15:12 UTC
      I don't post often enough to remember the ins and outs of all the various codes and how they're used. When I do need one of those codes, it's a hunt and peck search operation opening new tabs to find them. I'm all for including these in the help text ++. For that matter even the What shortcuts can I use for linking to other information? link here would be most helpful.

      On the same topic, I really dislike that I lose the original post when I go to preview. I'd like to be able to see the original post AND my preview comment together so I get the full sense of my words in context. At the very least there should be a way to switch back from preview to original post.
    		[reply]

        Whether you're posting a new SOPW or responding to one, there's a short list of a fair number of specific codes and a set of links directly to most of the others immediately below the text-input box. The preview window offers the same (you are previewing, aren't you?).

        Noted, however, that there is not a *direct* link to What shortcuts can I use for linking to other information?, so that may be worth having devs and the sitedoc clan consider.

        On the proverbial third hand, however, you can avoid the "hunt and peck" that annoys you by adding links to whatever you'd like to your free nodelet (see Free Nodelet Settings.

        And as to your plaint "that I lose the original post when I go to preview"...

        1. You could open the comment form in a new tab or window, thus preserving direct access to the target of your remarks
          or
        2. you could make use of the fact that the preview page provides links to the node to which you're responding and to the whole thread, either of which is easily accessible by opening one or the other in a new tab or new browser window.

        The latter option is an enhancement added fairly recently and incurs fairly low overhead, for you and the server, whereas including the node or entire thread each time someone clicks "preview" could represent a significant cost in responsiveness.

    		[reply]
    Re: Adding writeup hints to compose pages
    by jdporter (Paladin) on Feb 27, 2008 at 15:02 UTC

      I think this may be a pretty good idea, and I agree with you about linking to pads. Good idea in the chatterbox, not so much in posts.

      Thank you for the suggested short list. It can't be used as is, because you've made a number of errors. For example, there is no [...] shortcut type.

      Update: You're right, node:// exists. But it's undocumented, and for a reason — possibly including that its behavior might change, or it might go away entirely.

      A word spoken in Mind will reach its own level, in the objective world, by its own weight
    		[reply]
    [d/l]
    [select]
        jdporter:

        Odd ... I just reviewed What shortcuts can I use for linking to other information? and see that [...] isn't documented. But it *does* work, as that's the link method I use most frequently. (In fact, it's how I linked the node above.)

        Now that I see [id://...], I'll use that as the preferred form since I like saving keystrokes here and there...

        ...roboticus

        Update: Even more odd... [Super Search] will take you to Super Search, but [id://Super Search] won't. It just appears as [id://Super Search] in the message body.

    		[reply]
    [d/l]
    [select]
    Re: Adding writeup hints to compose pages
    by apl (Monsignor) on Mar 01, 2008 at 21:29 UTC
    [reply]
    Re: Adding writeup hints to compose pages
    by Argel (Prior) on Feb 28, 2008 at 21:10 UTC
        ++

      This is a great idea!

    		[reply]

    Back to Perl Monks Discussion