Talk:Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements

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Discussions: Desktop Improvements • Accessibility for reading.

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• Feedback on the functionalities we have already deployed. (Please see Reading/Web/Accessibility for reading/Known issues before reporting bugs.)

• Expanding the list of existing gadgets and user scripts that are related to providing a better desktop experience.

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Vector 2022 skin search box keyboard shortcut doesn't work at smaller window sizes

⇧ Shift Alt F is a useful Windows keyboard shortcut in Wikipedia that puts the text insertion point into the search box at the top of the page. This allows the user to quickly search for a new article without having to use the mouse. The Vector (2022) skin has this feature, but it only works when the browser window is a certain minimum size. For example, it doesn't work (= inputting the shortcut does nothing) when the browser window is less than ~75% the width of my monitor. But if I increase the window size to ~80% of monitor width or maximize the window, it works. In the Vector legacy (2010) skin, the keyboard shortcut works at any browser window size.

Please give Vector (2022) the same Ctrl-Shift-F keyboard shortcut working functionality at all browser window sizes that Vector legacy (2010) has.

-Ripsky4501 (talk) 19:36, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

Visibility of Wikipedia search field

Following content copied from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals), as advised.

Invariably the first thing I want to do after landing at the Wikipedia home page is search for the article that I want to look at. I think it would be sensible to make the search field permanently visible. There is already room there at the top of the page, and although only a click away, it seems unnecessary to have to click on the magnifier. Why not just have the field there ready to type into? Am I right in thinking that it used to be that way? I wonder why it was changed. 2A00:23C8:7B0C:9A01:8A7:5D88:5F57:107E (talk) 19:53, 8 September 2024 (UTC)

I think the magnifying glass only appears when the window is narrower than some threshold (looks like about 1100 px). I'm not sure why they do that; there's plenty of space left at all but the most extremely narrow widths to allow for a full search box. But in any case, this is really a Vector 2022 skin issue, not something enwiki has any direct control over. Perhaps ask on meta:Talk:Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements? RoySmith (talk) 20:04, 8 September 2024 (UTC)

You're right, it's dynamically controlled. I didn't realise that. When I lower the browser zoom level the search field becomes visible. It seems to me that all that needs to be done is adjust the "trigger" level at which it is displayed, so it is only suppressed when there is "obviously" not enough room to type a search query. 2A00:23C8:7B0C:9A01:8A7:5D88:5F57:107E (talk) 20:32, 8 September 2024 (UTC)

Yes, but to repeat what I said earlier, this is not anything that is under the control of enwiki. This is a feature of the Vector 2022 skin, which is under the control of the Wikimedia Foundation web team and best discussed at meta:Talk:Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements. RoySmith (talk) 20:50, 8 September 2024 (UTC)

Page does not exist / link does not work, though actually I see now that there is another link there pointing to the correct page. 2A00:23C8:7B0C:9A01:8A7:5D88:5F57:107E (talk) 21:03, 8 September 2024 (UTC)

We've been getting an influx of questions over this at places like the English Wikipedia's help desk and Teahouse. Was there a recent skin update, WMF staff? I suppose my real question here is:
Is there a link to a changelog? Tenryuu (talk) 15:39, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

@Tenryuu: There’s an overly detailed change log called Git history. I don’t know of a less detailed (and thus more usable) change log. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 21:33, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

What type of mobile Wikipedia landing page are you talking about? The web or the app? Progamer15 (talk) 20:08, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

just realized that this is the wrong topic Progamer15 (talk) 20:08, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

User icons

User icons do not show up at top right of the page. Please look here --Superyetkin (talk) 16:42, 13 September 2024 (UTC)

Severe mobile usability issues with Vector-2022

I'm not sure when it happened other than it must have been some time after February 1st, 2024, though there seems to be a pretty severe usability issue with mobile devices that use some aspect ratios.

Testing was done with responsiveness dev tools in Firefox to emulate a mobile using 858px height and the "Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 10; SM-G988U) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Brave Chrome/87.0.4280.66 Mobile Safari/537.36-481" user agent. My Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is 1080x2316 so 400x858 uses its approximate 0.47:1 aspect ratio. Testing was done using the MangoRPG wiki on Miraheze. For reproduction: After setting the resolution to 400x858 with the user agent listed a refresh of the page is necessary for the changes to propagate successfully. Adjust horizontal resolution from there.

Please note that the direct pixel values used are largely irrelevant so long as the aspect ratios are maintained. I believe aspect ratio or percents are used rather than direct px values - a good practice in general for compatibility. Direct values will be given however with the test setup so it is easy to reproduce the same results.

With that test setup the following observations were made: After 720px width the icon (img.mw-logo-icon) is zapped. After 500px the space on the left side of the page starts getting eaten into. The mw-page-container shifts to the right as width decreases but the div.vector-header-container does not - that's what all the logo stuff is contained in which has the ☰ hamburger menu, icon, and wiki name. The vector-main-menu-landmark (☰ hamburger menu) getting removed from the screen at 415x858px. Without the navigation menu the wiki thus becomes unusable. For most users I had test the wiki on mobile devices, the ☰ was at least half cut off for all testers which cuts off a portion of the actual navigation when it is used, harming usability even then. The ellipses (...) menu is also cut off of the screen and text cuts off of the screen along with the header if using MRHeader|header or even a level 5 header as they do not wrap for some reason. Shrinking the page or scrolling to the right one can see the cut off text and ellipses menu but scrolling to the left for the ☰ hamburger menu is impossible.

I've attempted to fix it with a custom CSS for the Vector-2022 skin but I'm sadly not an advanced enough user to do so successfully.

Circa February of 2024 the ☰ hamburger menu, logo icon, and wiki name would display without being cut off on mobile devices at 1080x2316 resolution (0.47:1 aspect ratio). I'm not sure what was done to break it as I'm not sure where the changelog even is.

For functionality I recommend that the ☰ hamburger menu should never be be able to be hidden off the left side of the screen similar to how mw-page-container shifts along with its padding regardless of aspect ratio or resolution and if there's space for it the logo icon should display - I can't think of any device that couldn't display a 50x50px icon and smaller ☰ menu. The wiki name (mw-logo-wordmark) should also display if possible. On one line if it can without obstructing the top right menus such as search, ..., and notifications; otherwise wrapping.

-TiffyWiki (talk) 00:19, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

Update - I managed to fix it on my end after determining the cause.

/* no erasing ☰ */
@media screen and (max-width: 999px) {
  .vector-button-flush-left {
    margin-left: 20px !important;
  }
}
/* no erasing logo */
.mw-logo-icon {
  display: block !important;
}
/* no ... going off screen */
@media screen and (max-width: 999px) {
  .vector-user-links.vector-user-links-wide {
    margin-right: 35px !important;
  }
}

You can probably discern from this what the cause was. But here are the offenders:

@media (min-width: 720px) {
  .mw-logo-icon {
    display: block;
  }
}
@media screen and (max-width: 999px) {
  .vector-button-flush-right {
    margin-right: -12px;
  }
}
@media screen and (max-width: 999px) {
  .vector-button-flush-left {
    margin-left: -12px;
  }
}

I of course recommend correcting these for usability.

-TiffyWiki (talk)

Issue with "tabelle-kopf-fixiert" in German Wikipedia

Vector-2022 does not work with tables in German Wikipedia of:

class="wikitable sortable tabelle-kopf-fixiert"

See: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diskussion:Der_Sonntags-Stammtisch#tabelle-kopf-fixiert

Looks like the issue is already getting discussed here as well:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorlage_Diskussion:Tabellenstile#tabelle-kopf-fixiert_und_Vector2022

- Berny68 (talk) 04:57, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

Screen Real Estate

The new format on Desktop improves on certain aspects, but overcorrects certain others. Previously, the lines in articles were too long, that's true, but now they are too short. When reading articles, 66% of my monitor is blank white space from the right and the left. Somewhere between the old format and new is a happy middle ground. Maybe since the site already gives users the option to adjust text size, they can also be given the ability to adjust the margins? GaDub (talk) 03:08, 6 November 2024 (UTC)

@GaDub: Hello, you can read this page to know more the detail and design reason behind limited width feature. You can also share your ideas by submitting wishes to the Community Wishlist. Thanks. SCP-2000 (talk) 05:28, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

Can Wikipedia's "wide mode" be back?

Unless I am missing on some settings that change where the text and GUI windows should wrap n' stuff Slaythe (talk) 06:42, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

Update: Limited width mode seems to be bugged? Slaythe (talk) 06:47, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

Another update: it went back to wide width. I guess what's needed is to close Wikipedia and then reenter. Slaythe (talk) 07:02, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

@Slaythe Hello, you can follow this instruction to change the content width. Thanks. SCP-2000 (talk) 09:21, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

通过颜色区分有无内链

使用旧版Vector或其他皮肤复制带有内链（2个或以上）的一段话时，在带格式粘贴的句子中有内链的字词和普通字词是不同的颜色，而使用Vector 2022复制粘贴则会显示同种颜色。请问在使用Vector 2022时怎么得到前者的效果？Scorpio2001 (talk) 00:34, 23 November 2024 (UTC)

Feature request: expand table of contents

Hello. Can you consider adding a "expand/collapse" button in table of contents to show/hide all section titles of or below the second level (and maybe a feature to remember the last choice of status)? A motivation is that in some article the table of contents looks so simple [1]. 慈居 (talk) 03:29, 19 December 2024 (UTC)

Wikidata Skin Feature Missing

In Wikidata, only the Vector Legacy skin seems to show a box of wikipedia links on the right side of the entries - an unfortunate limitation:

Xerus2000 (talk) 07:22, 19 December 2024 (UTC)

New Vector also shows them on the right if you set its Width setting to Wide (and you have a wide enough screen). —Tacsipacsi (talk) 22:18, 20 December 2024 (UTC)

Sticky header gone after upgrading to MW 1.43

I upgraded from MW 1.42.3 to 1.43 and now the nice sticky header is gone, only the sticky TOC remains. How can I get it back? I'm using the stock Vector-2022 skin. I see it also affects 1.44. Tactica (talk) 01:18, 29 December 2024 (UTC)

Never mind, I was using 100% magnification in the web browser and the sticky header disappears when going past 90%. Tactica (talk) 04:46, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

Empty space at page sides

On the left side of left vertical navigation and right side of right vertical navigation there is a lot of empty space even when using "wide" mode. Is there a way to use that space e.g. reducing margins between navigation and browser window further? One of the grievances of users is how narrow the new layout is. Ipr1 (talk) 15:18, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

Hey @Ipr1, thanks for coming here to ask this question. I'm afraid the issue is subjective. It depends on the size and resolution of the screen, script, personal taste and expectations, etc. All in all, for now, personal CSS modification is the way to go. We aren't planning on making the interface denser. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 15:15, 12 February 2025 (UTC)

Hmm.. There is the "wide" and "narrow" mode in Vector 2022, which changes something in the edges. Could there be a "widest" setting also so the last part of margins is avoided like in older layouts? I am thinking about situations where people have small laptop screens with limited display space available. Ipr1 (talk) 06:17, 13 February 2025 (UTC)

I mean, we really don't have any plans for introducing such options :/ We are working on Simple Article Summaries now. Perhaps if you could share links to places where people talk about this problem, we would be able to understand the context better and suggest the possible solutions. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 19:25, 14 February 2025 (UTC)

Some people simply switched over to older layout (in Finnish: [2]). Another problem mentioned was that menus started using symbols (picture icons) instead of simple and clear text. Ipr1 (talk) 06:42, 15 February 2025 (UTC)

Wiki logo

Please bring back the wiki logo in Vector 2022 skin. The logo is present in the Vector legacy skin, but not in the new one. https://imgur.com/a/hzwrScy ThatRandomToast (talk) 07:38, 17 February 2025 (UTC)

@ThatRandomToast: You need to configure your wiki to set the appropriate logo in your wiki's LocalSettings.php file. See Manual:FAQ#How do I change the logo? for what you need to set – modern skins like Vector-2022 use the 'icon' value. Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 17:04, 17 February 2025 (UTC)

[BUG VECTOR 2022]: in edit mode typing doesn't work

I switched to vector 2022 and cannot type anymore in the edit source code mode.

Browser: Mozilla Firefox 135.0.1 (64-Bit)

System:

Operating System: Manjaro Linux

KDE Plasma Version: 6.2.5

KDE Frameworks Version: 6.10.0

Qt Version: 6.8.2

Kernel Version: 6.12.12-2-MANJARO (64-bit)

Graphics Platform: X11 Der Älteste (talk) 22:58, 2 March 2025 (UTC)

Thanks @Der Älteste. Would it be possible for you to check if this also happens in different skins and/or without your personalization enabled? To preview how it would work without your personalization enabled, add &safemode=1 to the URL in the editing mode. To preview different skins, add for example &useskin=monobook or &useskin=timeless.

I hope the source code will be working in some of these cases, which would mean that the problem isn't due to Vector 2022. The skin shouldn't be interfering with the editing mode at all, and really rarely do we hear about problems similar to yours.

Thanks! SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 09:37, 3 March 2025 (UTC)

Works now, I don't have any idea why it didn't work yesterday. Der Älteste (talk) 18:32, 3 March 2025 (UTC)

How to make non-article content greyish

I remember that there was a Zebra prototype testing that made non-article content greyish in background color. I liked that. It is somewhat similar to the 9th proposal at Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements/Fifth prototype testing#Borders and backgrounds. What is the CSS code for this? I want that scheme. Thanks! —‍CX Zoom (A/अ/অ) (let's talk|contribs) 19:08, 16 March 2025 (UTC)

Hey @CX Zoom! Here's Zebra, and the color is #f8f9fa. You could also take a look at the background colors palette for some other options. Unfortunately, I can't give you the exact code to copy and paste because we didn't incorporate all of Zebra into the skin. So we don't have anything handy to copy from. The quick solution would be to ask on Discord. Cheers, SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 01:29, 17 March 2025 (UTC)

Thank you very much! —‍CX Zoom (A/अ/অ) (let's talk|contribs) 18:44, 17 March 2025 (UTC)

New sidebar not showing after activating Vector 2022

I recently enabled Vector 2022 in my local city wiki. However, the main menu sidebar does not change to the new layout and the toolbox is also not moved to the right sidebar. I'm a bit lost on what's going wrong here... My changes to Common.css should not have an impact as far as I can see. Using MW 1.39, fresh download of the Vector skin. Maybe someone has an idea how to fix this. Thanks in advance! --GeroO (talk) 09:15, 20 March 2025 (UTC)

Sticky header for anonymous users

Vector 2022 has been deployed a long time ago on many Wikipedias. Yet the sticky header is still available only for registered users. Will it ever get deployed for anonymous users as well? --Paloi Sciurala (talk｜contribs) 16:03, 21 March 2025 (UTC)

Hey @Paloi Sciurala, thanks for the question.

Right now, it's difficult to tell. We aren't focusing on tweaking the skin. Instead, this year, our focus is on Content Discovery.

We are also talking about the plan for the next year, and our part there is Consumer Experiences (WE3). Maybe (but this is just my take) such tweaks could be made part of the Key result WE3.3 (and 3.2, if we add the Donate button there, too). I'd like to encourage you to comment on the draft plan on Meta. Many people from the Foundation will see there that community members are asking about it, and they may get inspired.

Thank you! SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 09:51, 23 March 2025 (UTC)

Wikipedia lagging at 30 fps

So when i was reading an article i noticed something when you click Alerts or Notices it becomes 30 fps and when you go far away from Alerts or notices menu box it becomes normal at 60 fps please fix this

info about browser: Firefox mobile 136 no telemetry uBlock and noscript Depotadore (talk) 13:21, 26 March 2025 (UTC)

Uncommanded change of skin

I have set vector 2010 as my skin for almost any wikimedia project. Since yesterday my Skin was changed to the (ugly) 2022 version. While I understand that the new skin is the only one developed, why do you force it upon the users? Adtonko (talk) 18:23, 2 April 2025 (UTC)

I’ve set Vector 2010 in Special:GlobalPreferences, and have never experienced such problems. If you want to never see Vector 2022, I suggest you to do so as well.

By the way, can it be that you experienced this problem on a wiki that switched to Vector 2022 just yesterday? Local preferences (i.e. those not set on Special:GlobalPreferences) are not stored if they are default, so if you select Vector 2010 on a Vector 2010 wiki, nothing will be stored, and thus you’ll get Vector 2022 once the wiki switches to Vector 2022. As far as I’m aware, this is done to reduce the database size – most preferences never change defaults, and if defaults were also stored in the database, the already way too big database table would be orders of magnitude larger. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 23:33, 2 April 2025 (UTC)

Which wiki you contribute to by the way? Depotadore (talk) 11:31, 5 April 2025 (UTC)