Community Wishlist Survey 2021/Editing/Live preview

Random proposal ►◄ Editing The survey has concluded. Here are the results!

Live preview

Problem: Wikitext editors often skip the step of previewing their edits, missing simple typos and formatting errors that could be easily avoided if previewed live.
Who would benefit: Wikitext editors
Proposed solution: Something akin to w:User:TheDJ/Actual Live Preview, though this script hasn't worked for me in years, that would display a live preview side-by-side with the wikitext editor
More comments:
Phabricator tickets:
Proposer: czar 20:05, 22 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

If implemented, this should be a per-edit action (like the existing Preview or Show Changes button), not a per-user preference. I might want a side-by-side preview on a big, wide desktop monitor, but not when using desktop-web on a tablet in portrait mode. For users who change between devices, visiting the pref's each time would be cumbersome. Pelagic (talk) 22:27, 17 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This is a very good idea, but it doesn't go far enough. I propose an enhancement under which an editor could freely toggle between three editing modes:

Only wiki markup editing.
Only visual editing.
Both kinds of editing, available concurrently. In this mode, an editor could choose whether the two editing windows will be side by side or one above the other, and which window will be above or at the left. These preferences could be saved. The editor could then edit the wikitext and quickly see the effect on the appearance of the page. This is what Czar had in mind. With this enhancement, however, the editor also could edit visually and quickly see the effect on the wikitext. Why display a non-editable preview, when a visual editing tool exists? Instead, let's open both the wiki markup editing tool and the visual editing tool simultaneously, on a split screen. The editor could then switch from one kind of editing to the other kind, simply by moving the cursor from one editing window to the other editing window.

Continuous, automatic updating might be impractical. It might require too much processing and data transmission. If so, let it occur on demand, whenever the editor clicks on the Update button or invokes the corresponding keyboard shortcut. Ubzerver (talk) 13:33, 21 December 2020 (UTC) Revised. Ubzerver (talk) 14:15, 24 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I hadn't even noticed that people had suggested this one (based on something I made before). I do have some points on this and I figured I'd add them for future reference.

Yes, it really only works when you have a pretty large/wide screen. My gadget also used to work like that. It would check if your screen was a certain size and only then enable this functionality, without the appropriate width (1200 web pixels), you would only get the 'regular' preview above or below the edit window, with not updates. While this 'worked', it was also rather confusing to many people. Interface elements that 'randomly' disappear often have this effect and it's a bit bad form. Instead, looking at it again, It would probably be better to have a tabbed interface to switch between source and preview mode (the original WE2010 editor actually had such a tabbed mode interface, but it was never released). Then we could have a separate control to switch between tabbed and side-by-side modes if you have sufficient screen real estate and a control to enable/disable live previews.

Another big problem was keeping proper track of what wiki text corresponded to which part of rendered html (allowing you to keep the part you are editing in the displayed part of the preview). With something like parsoid that might be much easier to fix however. And I do agree that live preview should be an option you can easily toggle on and/or off. Ideally it would test the performance and based upon the test increase or decrease how often an update would occur.

Perhaps it is a good idea to think about the resizable panes and boxes inside IDEs etc for instance, that can be pinned and unpinned in various different ways, orientations and layouts. I think that would make for an interesting exploration. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:58, 6 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Voting

Support Owleksandra (talk) 18:38, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Imetsia (talk) 18:46, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support I use the preview function, but the time for Loading the page is frustating if editing more than a handful pages. GeorgHH (talk) 18:54, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Strong support I definitely want that feature when I'm working on wikitext. MarioSuperstar77 (talk) 19:09, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support N.Longo (talk) 19:20, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Dr747 (talk) 19:24, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Thgoiter (talk) 19:55, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Der Fussi 19:56, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support IagoQnsi (talk) 20:00, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Sabas88 (talk) 20:55, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Kisnaak (talk) 21:20, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Jcb cummings (talk) 21:42, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Jlhwung (talk) 21:57, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Thank you! That's amazing شادي (talk) 22:03, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Nw520 (talk) 22:45, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support — Jules ^Talk 23:01, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Wowzers122 (talk) 23:20, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support YFdyh000 (talk) 23:33, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Don-vip (talk) 23:37, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Mihir Narayanan (talk) 23:46, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support supposing it could be toggled. A full preview isn't always necessary. 5225_C (talk • contributions) 00:09, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Hanif Al Husaini (talk) 00:50, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Eric0892 (talk) 01:15, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support BugWarp (talk) 01:48, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support I admit I'm one of those users who would be often benefited by such live preview. Sophivorus (talk) 02:29, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support if toggleable // Lollipoplollipoplollipop :: talk 03:01, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Would lower the barrier to learning markup, totally support. Yeenosaurus (talk) 03:29, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support This would make it way easier to learn to edit, and I think some advanced editors would benefit from it as well. Ezlev (talk) 03:45, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Hickory14 (talk) 05:31, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Xinbenlv (talk) 05:54, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support as an opt-in preference Opalzukor (talk) 08:15, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Michal0803 (talk) 09:17, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Would be useful OrCer (talk) 10:41, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Lion-hearted85 (talk) 10:41, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support + AntEgoSum (talk) 10:47, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Kpjas (talk) 11:13, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Magol (talk) 11:34, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Sohom Datta (talk) 11:50, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Richard Stephens (talk) 12:34, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support MilkyDefer (talk) 12:43, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Steven Sun (talk) 13:42, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support when looking back at changes made by other editors you can use 'diff' so why not as you go along in VE Kaybeesquared (talk) 14:08, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Mannivu · ✉ 15:02, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support — putnik 18:56, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support — DKEdwards (talk) 19:07, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Browk2512 (talk) 21:20, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Nehaoua (talk) 22:29, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Minorax (talk) 22:37, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support dwf² (talk) 22:53, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Jh15s (talk) 00:59, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support - Darwin ^Ahoy! 01:50, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support -- Amanda (aka DQ) 03:23, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support - yona B. (D) 07:35, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Szczot3k (talk) 08:05, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Nonahg (talk) 08:55, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support —Omnilaika02 (talk) 11:32, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Ostrzyciel (talk) 13:16, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Jooja (talk) 15:47, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Srđan (talk) 17:37, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Mhare (talk) 17:37, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Arielllaura (talk) 21:01, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support — HELLKNOWZ ▎TALK ▎enWiki 22:25, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support RSLitman (talk) 02:13, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support This is a great idea. I've always thought that the edit box shouldn't have to take almost the whole width of my screen. It could be resized and the extra space can be better used for something else, such as in this case, the Live preview feature. Some1 (talk) 05:18, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support — Bilorv (talk) 09:38, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support eranroz (talk) 10:31, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Strong support. Very good idea for a prioritary implementation. BoldLuis (talk) 15:25, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support AndyAndyAndyAlbert (talk) 16:18, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support StringRay (talk) 16:27, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support James Martindale (talk) 16:56, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Szalax (talk) 17:00, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 18:42, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Tionran (talk) 18:55, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Remagoxer (talk) 21:18, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support. Meiræ 21:52, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Would be a great alternative to VE Vince789 (talk) 22:10, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support DGG (talk) 01:21, 12 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Liuyun97 (talk) 07:14, 12 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Francois-Pier (talk) 10:43, 12 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support ~Cybularny ^Speak? 11:19, 12 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Mahedi Hasan (talk) 11:20, 12 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Tom Ja (talk) 12:37, 12 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Arash.z (talk) 12:50, 12 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support This would avoid a lot of errors and speed up the work. Full support. Blaspie55 (talk) 15:13, 12 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Mike Linksvayer (talk) 19:11, 12 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support TheLatentOne (talk) 19:59, 12 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support LM150 (talk) 22:13, 12 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Emperork 🐋🐰 00:14, 13 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Kew Gardens 613 (talk) 02:40, 13 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support TeKaBe (talk) 07:57, 13 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support want to mention also w:en:User:Anomie/ajaxpreview, which is something in between live preview and full preview. it shows you "fast preview" (without full page reload) after you press button. Edgars2007 (talk) 10:22, 13 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support 4nn1l2 (talk) 17:23, 13 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Kaviraf (talk) 20:07, 13 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Kimsey0 (talk) 22:27, 13 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support, but only as optional and off by default, as this would be very resource-intensive and not suitable at all for all devices, connections, etc. — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ >^ʌⱷ҅_ᴥⱷ^ʌ< 05:50, 15 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Thanks, EDG 543 (message me) 15:30, 15 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support SeGiba (talk) 18:19, 15 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support This would be an ideal hybrid between the classic editor and the VisualEditor for many people. Iketsi (talk) 02:22, 16 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose This is a big programming effort, so implementing it would mean that on the order of ten other wishes won't get implemented. ◅ SebastianHelm (talk) 11:53, 16 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support G.prof (talk) 15:57, 17 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose not that useful on a mobile device.--Temp3600 (talk) 17:59, 17 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Kocgs (talk) 20:39, 17 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Golmore (talk) 11:02, 18 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support VKG1985 (talk) 17:47, 18 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Grüße vom Sänger ♫^(Reden) 22:13, 18 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Patsagorn Y. (Talk) 04:56, 19 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Nux (talk) 00:33, 20 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Tratser (talk) 06:41, 20 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support 但只作为可选的，并且默认关闭，因为这将是非常资源密集的，不适合于所有的所有设备郑洲扬 (talk) 11:27, 20 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support --Mike Krüger (talk) 11:31, 20 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Malvinero10 (talk) 02:32, 21 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support — tyseria 10:09, 21 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Great--Cgl02 (talk) 12:01, 21 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Khairul hazim (talk) 12:35, 21 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Ubzerver (talk) 13:37, 21 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support EEMIV (talk) 14:46, 21 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Thibaut (talk) 16:55, 21 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Nadzik (talk) 17:19, 21 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 17:58, 21 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support — Baidax ^💬 17:59, 21 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]