Expand/Close all cut tags on a page

[axiom_of_stripe]

Title:
Expand/Close all cut tags on a page

Area:
cut tags, reading page, recent entries page

Summary:
It would be great to have a way to expand all of the cut tags on a page so that they all are open at once, and likewise to close them all up again.

Description:
An example of a situation in which this would be useful: I was just looking at a journal with a lot of entries that had one or two pictures behind a cut tag. I went through expanding all of the cut tags in place (which was awesome) so that I could see the whole page's worth of pictures at once, and it occurred to me that that's going to be a pretty common desire.

Details: Expand All should open all cut tags and Collapse All should close all cut tags, regardless of whether they've been manually opened or closed. (I've seen some image boards where an "expand all/collapse all" function was actually an "expand all which are closed while closing all which are open" function -- I don't know if that sort of toggle is technically easier to implement, but it's never seemed as useful to me.)

Implementation: My first thought was to have functions which could be embedded in styles (and which would be added to all of the system styles) for expand all/collapse all. Another option would be to have this in the nav bar. It doesn't make sense to me to have it in the entries next to the actual cuts, as that's just lots of clutter when you only need something once.

Drawbacks: Are there server and/or browser issues with opening all of the cuts at once?

Poll #3459 Expand/Close all cut tags on a page

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 40

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
15 (37.5%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
3 (7.5%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
2 (5.0%)

(I have no opinion)
20 (50.0%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[jadelennox]

finding easy to understand icons for the two different kinds of unfolding will be a trick. alt text should be easy, but for users relying on the images it needs to be relatively easy to distinguish between "unfold this cut" and "unfold all cuts". That's worth putting some real thought into designing if this gets implemented.

[axiom_of_stripe]

Having the "all cuts" commands in a different location on the page would help, I'd expect, but this is a good point! Perhaps doubled triangles, to indicate that it handles more than one cut?

[kyrielle]

Sidebar module with links? Expand all cuts, etc.?

Or not unlike the open/close all folders logo Beyond Compare uses, which I find visually very clear. (In this image they are in the upper right, the fourth and fifth icons from the right respectively.)

[afuna]

Hmm, I think what I'd rather have is something in the subject line and in the links below the entry, which lets you unfold all cuts in this entry. Hmm, though I guess that wouldn't be much help with your case!

[axiom_of_stripe]

For the sorts of entries which I usually read, I think that I wouldn't need an entry-level unfold -- that individual-cut unfolding or page-level unfolding are the two options I'd want. For the page-level unfolding, I'm thinking less of skimming a reading page and more of going to an art journal's recent entries (or recent entries by tag) and getting a gallery effect with a single click. What are the sorts of scenarios where opening a single entry's cuts would be useful, do you think?

[afuna]

I'm thinking primarily of reading stuff on my read page, and being able to look over, say, a list of things with one click.

OTOH, if there are a lot of cuts, I may end up clicking just the first one or two to get a peek of what's inside, then clicking through to the entry so it loads in the background.

On the other other hand! I may just do that because there's no per-entry option *g*

[distractionary]

I like both afuna's idea – linking to the entry, with "expand/collapse all cuts in this entry" – and the last one you mentioned in the post; a link in the navbar saying "expand all cuts on this page" and one with "[contract/collapse/recut/close] all cuts on this page".

I have no idea which word would work best for it, though.

We already have the ability to expand or collapse an individual cut (although I also like the idea of being able to collapse a cut at the end of the cut material, as another suggestion here offered); having the option to expand/collapse everything in an entry, or everything on a page, seem to me to be the reasonable further stages of this function.

(I voted "with changes".)

[zvi]

Please, no more navbar text! The thing's already twelve million miles long.