Readability Options
- Profile
- Images
Surnames/tags: wt_apps wikitree_browser_extension
Contents |
Introduction
The Readability Options feature was released in version 1.4 of the WikiTree Browser Extension. It contains many options to alter the way various items like lists, sources, and citations display on profiles. It also includes an option to toggle reading mode, which will declutter the profile by hiding many of WikiTree's UI elements.
Options
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| Recommended Settings |
The main button to enable this feature is under the "Profile" section of the extension. (In prior versions, it was located in the "Style" section next to the Dark Mode feature.) At this time, these options only apply when viewing people, categories, and free-space profiles. When editing profiles or viewing other types of pages, no content will be altered by this feature.
Reading Mode
Enable reading mode
- Default: off
When turned on, this option will automatically hide any of the items set to "in reading mode" when a profile loads. This can be toggled while viewing profiles if the toggle switch (below) is also enabled. (See example)
Show the reading mode toggle switch
- Default: on
This option will add a convenient toggle switch below the main menu header as a shortcut to toggle reading mode while viewing a profile. The status is preserved across pages, so opening the main extension is not necessary to simply turn reading mode on or off.
List Spacing
Adjust spacing between list items
- Default: WikiTree default, Recommended: 75%
Many people have complained that there is not enough spacing between sources, and it makes them harder to read. This option allows you to customize the spacing from the WikiTree default of 5px to a much wider margin.
Remove blank lines between bullet list items
- Default: off, Recommended: on
In order to make profiles more readable, some editors choose to put blank lines between each source list item. While it accomplishes their goal, this does not apply to inline citations, and it creates a full line of spacing between each source, which may be different from most profiles that adhere to the standard format. This option will remove the blank line between adjacent bullet items and apply your spacing chosen above so that all items will be spaced evenly.
Apply spacing rules only to the Sources section
- Default: on
Numbered and bulleted lists are not limited to the Sources section. Editors may put lists of children or any other number of lists throughout a person's biography. To apply your selected spacing rules to all lists, including those not under the Sources header, turn this option off.
Sources Section
Collapse the entire Sources section
- Default: in reading mode
Similar to Ian's original "Collapsible Sources" feature, this will reduce the Sources section to simply a header line with a button to expand the sources. In contrast to the original feature, this will hide all content under the Sources header, not just the list of inline citations. If you click on a citation number in the biography while the sources are collapsed, the entire section will automatically be expanded.
If applied only in reading mode, the toggle button will not be shown in normal mode, and all sources will be displayed. To enable the toggle button without opening each page with the sources collapsed, use the special "only on demand" option.
Bold the first segment of each source
- Default: never, Recommended: always
Another method that many editors have used to make lists of sources more readable is to add a bold fact in front of each source (ie. Birth: "1900 United States Federal Census"). If turned on, this option will attempt to automatically apply the bold style to the first section of sources (a title in quotes, an italicized site name, a link to another page, etc.) to accomplish the same visual effect without requiring any additional text to be added. This option can be sensitive to non-standard source formats and may not be applied in all scenarios.
Remove bold labels from the beginning of sources
- Default: never, Recommended: always
In conjunction with the previous option for sources where editors have manually added a bold fact in front of a source, this option will attempt to remove those labels for more standard formatting. When combined with the option above, the "Birth:" text would be removed, and the bold style would instead be applied to the "1900 United States Federal Census" text,
Remove explicit line breaks from sources
- Default: never, Recommended: in reading mode
Some editors add <br> tags within sources to manually break between lines. While this can help with readability, it can also extend the length of the page. You can choose whether to replace them with spaces to condense the source text.
Remove back-references from the beginning of sources
- Default: in reading mode
On profiles where inline references are used frequently, the arrows and reference numbers that precede the citation text in the Sources section can get quite cluttered. If you don't need to click on the arrow or number to jump back to the spot in the biography where the source was referenced, you can use this option to hide the links so that the sources look cleaner.
Indent plain text in the Sources section
- Default: off, Recommended: on
Plain-text lines in the Sources section like "See also:" are often left-justified and do not look like they line up with the source items. Rather than using a colon to manually indent these items only on specific profiles, this option allows you to control the indentation on all profiles without affecting others who do not prefer this style.
Inline Citations
Hide citation superscripts within the biography
- Default: never
Some editors do not like the way a biography looks with many citation superscripts scattered throughout the text. This option lets you control when and if they are displayed in the biography.
Citation format
- Default: [1][2][3], Recommended: [1,2,3]
Similar to Ian's original "Format Source Reference Numbers" feature, this option lets you control the formatting of adjacent citations. If you think the default format of surrounding each superscript with brackets is too cluttered, you can replace them with commas and/or the brackets.
Citation size
- Default: normal, Recommended: smaller
Ian's original feature also made the citation superscripts smaller than the standard text. This option allows you to select how small (or large) that you want the numbers to be.
Additional spacing between citation numbers
- Default: none
By default, there are no speces between adjacent citations unless an editor explicitly adds them. If they are too close together, this option will allow you to add spacing between the numbers to improve readability.
Clean up citations
- Default: off, Recommended: on
In some cases, editors leave whitespace between a reference tag and the end of the previous statement. Some even purposely add whitespace between references so that they are easier to read. If this option is on, it will automatically compress the whitespace and apply the rules above to format the numbers. Additionally, it will remove the underline from the links to improve readability.
Sort adjacent citations by number
- Default: off, Recommended: on
On profiles where the same citation is referenced multiple times, the reference numbers can be displayed out of order. If this bothers you, this option will sort all adjacent reference numbers so that they are in numeric order.
Hide Profile Elements
Right Section
Collapse and extend the content to full-width
- Default: in reading mode when empty
This option determines whether to hide the column to the right of the profile (containing DNA Connections, Images, Collaboration, Research, etc.). This will allow the biography section to expand to fill the screen.
Note that other extensions may add content to this section. The "when empty" options will check for this and prevent the column from collapsing if desired.
Hide status blocks
- Default: in reading mode
Some profiles have extra status blocks above the right column like the "Project Protected" status for famous people. If you're not editing profiles, you may prefer to hide this.
Hide G2G forum posts
- Default: in reading mode
If a particular profile is referenced in the WikiTree G2G forum, those posts are listed at the top of the right column.
Hide DNA connections
- Default: in reading mode, Recommended: always when empty
While this is a very useful feature on WikiTree, some members may prefer to keep it hidden unless there are connected DNA tests available.
Hide popular images
- Default: in reading mode, Recommended: always
Since there is already a way to view all images at the top of the profile, some members may prefer to keep this section hidden. This also helps avoid duplicate images from cluttering the screen when they are already placed inline in the biography.
Hide collaboration links
- Default: in reading mode, Recommended: always
This members-only section contains convenient links to edit profiles, post comments, and communicate other members by messaging or the forum. While helpful for new members, some active members may prefer to keep it hidden.
Hide the research section
- Default: in reading mode
This members-only section contains a convenient link to search for records on other genealogy websites and sometimes lists matching profiles on FamilySearch.
Top Section
Hide extra widgets and icons in the profile heading
- Default: in reading mode
This option determines whether to hide any items that clutter the header of the profile. This includes the profile privacy status (lock icon) and the scissors links to copy and paste the profile ID/links. In some cases, it may also hide elements added by other extensions or features (like degrees of separation and relationship to you).
Hide top-left thumbnail image
- Default: never, Recommended: in reading mode when default
This option determines whether to hide the thumbnail image in the top-left corner of the profile. In addition to hiding it in reading mode or always, you can also select to only hide it when a default thumbnail is used (the blue/pink silhouette for people or the green tree on free-space pages).
Hide the tabs at the top of the profile
- Default: in reading mode
This option determines whether to hide the tabs (such as Edit, Images, Changes, Privacy, etc.) at the top of the profile.
Hide the navigation buttons under the tabs
- Default: in reading mode
This option determines whether to hide the buttons that navigate to various profile sections (such as Categories, Comments, Matches, Sources, etc.) under the main row of tabs.
Hide the profile manager and last modified section
- Default: in reading mode
This option determines whether to hide the rows above the biography that show Profile manager, created, Last modified, Last tracked change, This page has been accessed ### times, etc.
Hide the Genealogist section
- Default: never
This option determines whether to hide the section at the top of user profiles for WikiTree members. This section usually includes the genealogist information, tags they are following, badges that they have earned, etc.
Biography Section
Hide edit links on the vitals and in the bio
- Default: in reading mode
This option determines whether to hide any edit links throughout the profile (if you are the manager). This includes links such as [uncertain] and [add spouse?] or [add child].
Hide project or research boxes
- Default: never
This option determines whether to hide any project or research boxes above the biography. Since these are generally important, they are not hidden by default.
Hide stickers
- Default: never
This option determines whether to hide any stickers (usually shown at top-right of the biography. This may include flags, name studies, military status, twins, died young, etc., and they can be placed anywhere throughout the biography section.
Hide the table of contents
- Default: in reading mode
While generally useful, the table of contents may not be necessary for smaller profiles in reading mode if the entire profile can fit on a single page. This option determines whether to display the table of sections above the biography.
Hide all tables in the bio
- Default: never
Some profiles may contain embedded tables in the biography. This could be anything from a data table of family members in the census to an adoption or cemetery template. Generally, this is information you probably want to see, but this gives you the option to hide them.
Hide inline images and captions in the bio
- Default: never
Some editors embed captioned images within their biographies. If this makes the biography too cluttered and hard to read, this option gives you the option to hide them. Note: This is different from the "Images" section that is displayed in the sidebar and does not include the thumbnail in the header of the profile.
Collapse the Research Notes section
- Default: never, Recommended: only on demand
Similar to the Collapse Sources option above, this will add a toggle switch beside the Research Notes header. You can also choose to have it automatically collapse the content in reading mode or always.
Bottom Section
Hide comments, memories, and merges
- Default: in reading mode
Some profiles have a "Memories" section at the bottom of the biography. Members can also leave comments on most profiles, including suggestions of similar profiles to be merged (or rejected). While useful for editors, these take up a large portion of the page when simply browsing profiles, so this gives you the option to hide them.
Hide connections to famous people at the bottom
- Default: in reading mode
This option determines whether to hide the section near the bottom of person profiles that lists the connections and degrees from famous people.
Hide categories
- Default: in reading mode
This option determines whether to hide the surname breadcrumbs (S > Smith > John Smith) and the category list (cemeteries, locations, etc.) for a profile.
Hide custom background images
- Default: never
Custom background images are sometimes applied to certain profiles, especially for famous people. This gives you the option to hide them.
Development
This feature was added to the WikiTree Browser Extension in 2023 by Jonathan Duke.[1] Based on responses to a G2G post, development began on an "Accessibility Options" feature to alter the spacing and styling in the Sources section to make profiles more readable for those with vision difficulties.[1][2] After reading a suggestion by Rob Pavey, development continued on a separate "Reading Mode" feature to toggle various elements on and off while browsing profiles.[1][3] Due to their similarity, the two features were updated to use common code for detecting profile elements,[4][5] and they were eventually merged with existing "Collapse Sources" and "Format Source Reference Numbers" features by Ian Beacall to consolidate everything into one feature.[6]
Shared Code
Some code that was initially developed as part of this new feature has been moved to the core of the extension so that it can be shared among all features.
In order to detect the various elements on the various WikiTree profiles, a common method (ensureProfileClasses) was developed to apply CSS classes to the HTML (see profileClasses.js). While there has been some discussion about standardizing the way the HTML is formatted on profiles, hopefully this will help bridge the gap. If you are developing your own features for the extension, you are welcome to utilize this method if you need to identify the profile elements, but note that this code may be vulnerable to HTML changes by WikiTree that could break its detection logic.
Additionally, some of the options above utilize a standard HTML checkbox/label pair to toggle on and off. A custom cascading style sheet (see toggleButton.css) was added to transform a simple checkbox into a toggle switch. It is compatible with dark mode, and it can be sized using a CSS variable.
Debugging
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An additional debugging feature can be added (when building the extension) which highlights the elements marked by ensureProfileClasses. Uncomment the debugging sections in content.js and register_feature_options.js to enable it. It should not be compiled into releases of the extension.
Examples
In addition to this free-space profile, the following profiles are good examples for observing the effects of the various options provided by this feature:
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Duke, Jonathan. Personal recollection on 22 March 2023.
- ↑ GitHub commit dd89cdc by jonathanduke on 25 Feb 2023.
- ↑ GitHub commit 5bab0ad by jonathanduke on 1 Mar 2023.
- ↑ GitHub commit 8d79182 by jonathanduke on 2 Mar 2023.
- ↑ GitHub commit 874509d by jonathanduke on 2 Mar 2023.
- ↑ GitHub commit ba4e698 by jonathanduke on 17 Mar 2023.
Discussion
- G2G post: https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1543388/preferred-formatting-of-references-and-sources
- GitHub issue: https://github.com/wikitree/wikitree-browser-extension/issues/125
See also:
- Friday Night Bingo: https://www.youtube.com/live/vzdru_9mtwk (7 Jul 2023)
- Note: The sources above use various non-standard formats so that this page can be used as an example of the extension's features.
Acknowledgements
- Thanks to Ian Beacall for his collaboration and extensive work on the WikiTree extension (and WikiTree BEE).
- Thanks to Rob Pavey for his detailed proposal of Reading Mode. (WikiTree Sourcer is great, too!)
- Thanks to Murray Maloney for all of his effort in testing, feedback, and documentation.
Memories: 1
- Feedback on Readability Options in the WikiTree Browser Extension Mar 24, 2023.
- Preferred formatting of references and sources Feb 24, 2023.
- Login to edit this profile and add images.
- Private Messages: Send a private message to the Profile Manager. (Best when privacy is an issue.)
- Public Comments: Login to post. (Best for messages specifically directed to those editing this profile. Limit 20 per day.)
