867568 - When generatic a page TOC, if there's text before the first heading, add an "Introduction" link

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(developer.mozilla.org Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[Eric Shepherd [:sheppy]]

What feature should be changed? Please provide the URL of the feature if possible.
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We don't like articles to start with a heading that says "Summary" or "Introduction" because it's obvious that the first paragraph or two are introductory content. However, if you don't have a heading there, there's no link in the TOC to take you to the top of the article.

Please add code so that if there's text before the first heading in the article, an extra "Introduction" link is inserted at the top of the TOC.

Note that this string needs to be localizable.

What problems would this solve?
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This would fix the current inability to get back to the very top of the article using TOC links.

Who would use this?
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Most users.

What would users see?
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An extra link in the TOC to get back to the introduction, where currently there isn't one.

What would users do? What would happen as a result?
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No user action required.

Is there anything else we should know?
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Comment 1

[John Karahalis [:openjck]]

Do many people create articles with an introduction section to get an #anchor link? I wonder why people would do this rather than just linking to the flat page. Our header doesn't take up much space...

Comment 2

[Eric Shepherd [:sheppy]]

(In reply to John Karahalis [:openjck] from comment #1)
> Do many people create articles with an introduction section to get an
> #anchor link? I wonder why people would do this rather than just linking to
> the flat page. Our header doesn't take up much space...

It's not about the anchor for linking to. It's about having the entry in the table of contents on the page itself.

In our new design, in particular, where the TOC will be in the sidebar so it's always visible, instead of scrolling away, it will be important to have a link there to get back to the top of the page.

Comment 3

[John Karahalis [:openjck]]

Ah, I see what you mean.

This is a good observation. We should support the behaviors people are falling into where appropriate. If people are using the table of contents to jump to the top of the page, we should consider helping them do that (and as you point out, in a way that does not hurt the quality of the rest of the page).

We might want to differentiate this special, "go to top" link in some way. If all other links in the Table of Contents point the user to true sections (with headers, etc.), I would imagine some users being confused. "I clicked the 'Introduction' link, but where is the 'Introduction' section?"

Comment 4

[Jean-Yves Perrier [:teoli]]

Or we can just make the text "Table of content" a link to the top...