Wikipedia:Phase II feature requests/Interface and user preferences

This page is obsolete! It is an archive of old feature requests that were still active on 2002 July 20, when we moved from Phase II to Phase III of the software. Many requests were implemented then, while others became obsolete due to being rejected by the community. See Wikipedia:Feature requests for current requests.

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Please see the PHP wikipedia (http://wikipedia.sourceforge.net/fpw/wiki.phtml) under development. Most of the requests I see here are already working there. Please help me squish the bugs so we can switch over soon. --Magnus Manske

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When I use six spaces (instead of the underlines used above) to begin a new "semi-paragraph" (a break not as strong as a <p>) Wikipedia leaves the paragraph unformatted. IMO it was better not to use <pre>text<pre> automatically. And I wonder why <a class=encyclopedia href="xxxx">xxx</a> doesn´t work, why it can´t become automatically translated to Wikipedia syntax. Sporadic writers like me may want to use simple things like target="_blank" - things that don´t spoil consistency nor security - why not implement better filtering? I see you´re coding Wikipedia in PHP now, so performance should not be a problem.
Another thing I´d like to have is modification dates, in an extended view mainly for writers. And tables or div layers to paint colors were cool, maybe even transparent colors (CSS?) to show overlapping and several sucessive changes. Grasso

Requests for what goes on outside of the entries--the menubars up top and bottom, etc., user preferences.

• Currently links to entries which do not exist are formatted with a question-mark at the end. This looks unprofessional, similar to old WikiStyle, and distracts from the text. Cascading style sheets offer the possibility to have links in a color other than the ones defined in -body-. It would be nice to display, by default or as an option in the preferences, links to non-existing entries in a different color, e.g. green. If there are problems with the implementation, please add a note here and I'll try to create an HTML example.
  • This should probably be a configurable option, since people using a text browser may not be able to see coloured links -BD

• It should be possible to add a page from the search results page. That is, if I type "foobar" in the search, if no page with that exact name exists, the search result page (in addition to showing the matches) should offer me to "Create an entry about 'foobar' now". This way, you would still have to check for possible matches, but could add new pages easier. That's the way Everything2 does it, BTW, and it works quite nicely.

• Can we have the "edit this page right now!" link back at the top of the page? Or was that voted down? I like it.

• • I second the above -- GWO

• I would like a link somewhere to my own personal page, since there I have linked pages that are of interest to me (in lack of a 'subscribe' feature =). I always search for my own page the first thing when I surf to wikipedia.

• I would like to have a CANCEL Button on the Edits page (Page in Edit mode) added to the two existing ones SUBMIT and PREVIEW. Just to have a clear understanding what is going on and what the system/database is up to. StefanRybo

• • How about a "SPELL CHECK" button, too?

• • • It would be helpful if the spell checking also check for variations of Wiki links, such as "Recent Changes" vs. "Recent Changes". It can eliminate branching of similar pages.

• Automatically update the present (server) date. Link the date to that day's page.

• When I'm editing a topic, I'd like to have the search box available at the bottom of the page. Janet Davis

• • Suggestion: have the search results appear in a new window, so you don't lose whatever it was you're working on. -- Gimbo

• Making the "redirected from" comment at the top of each page an option which is by default off, not on. This feature would clean up wikipedia pages for casual users, and leave the nuts and bolts visible to people who wish to track down the offending

See also : Feature requestsOdDlyCapitaliZed links, etc. Of course (if I may say so) ;-) for this option to work, the caching problem would first have to be resolved. --KQ

• • Under this scheme, how could we ever visit the redirection page? By switching a preference? I dunno, seems like we have to edit redirection pages too often. This would just create confusion, wouldn't it? --LMS

• • Yes, I think you're right. Maybe if we could just exclude them from "Random Page" results

• Provide a user preference to include the preview (formatted version of the page) when entering editing mode. (This would save me one click + wait for almost every page I edit. Buttonius

• A way to do doublecolumns and/or sidebars (so we can have a list 'o links to the right of the text)

• • Double columns are only natively supported by Netscape. However they could be done by using tables. chuckr30

• • Maybe, if such sidebars could be created automatically and for all articles. But what's wrong with having the links at the bottom of the page? If that's reasonably acceptable, why go through the confusion of having links in a sidebar? --LMS

• A link to How does one edit a page/Quick reference[?] from the editing page, to avoid me having to dive through the FAQ every time I can't remember a special character -- DrBob

• • Seconded. Though in fact the quick reference is now on the main How does one edit a page. -- Tarquin

• The SEARCH field and button should be located at the top of the page, just like with search engines, because it feels more intuitive that way. At least the main page should have the SEARCH code in the upper part of the page. -- Trishank Karthik

• • Absolutely! The first thing I want to do if i go to Wikipedia is looking for some word. The way it is now, I always have to scroll down (yeah, my window is small...)

• • • Maybe make its placement a user preference: top, bottom, or both? -- Gimbo

• • • • I think both would be best: for example, take a look at the page generated by a succesful Google search, such as http://www.google.com/search?q=wikipedia

• How about a link at the bottom of each page that would automatically create a bibliography reference (works cited) for a paper? This would probably encourage students to use wikipedia more as a serious reference.

• A drop down box that allows quick and dirty machine translation into other languages on each article of each language's wikipedia.

• Could we have a user interface so that it looks like we're on a corporate webpage, so we could read Wikipedia at work without being conspicuous?

See also : Wikipedia:Phase II feature requests