Pinging @Pginer-WMF and @Esanders . We're using the standard control from VE/NWE, but in SD the problem is more acute because the editor is empty much more frequently. Thoughts about a design approach to this?

Previous discussions about the switch button are on T116417: Come up with a better re-usable UI concept for a button to switch editor-mode; the current one is confusing, and hard to discover.

The options considered were:

• a dual button T116417#2584534
  
• a switch button T116417#2948951
  
• a tab-like option T116417#2949773
  

Also see T183382: Have a way to switch back from preview mode to wikitext mode in Structured discussions. There is a need to have a way to preview your wikitext, and switch to wikitext edit mode. T183382 ill be adressed separately, but should be part of that more global thinking for a better integrated solution.

In T184281#3887581, @Catrope wrote:

Pinging @Pginer-WMF and @Esanders . We're using the standard control from VE/NWE, but in SD the problem is more acute because the editor is empty much more frequently. Thoughts about a design approach to this?

I think that makes sense to show the current mode more clearly, especially when in the more advanced source editing (since many users using the default rich text don't need to be distracted by the existence of multiple modes or advanced options). We can use the current messaging we have for the source editing mode ("wikitext uses markup...") to more clearly state the mode you are in.

The mockup below captures the idea of explicitly stating that it is the source editing mode (in bold and using an icon to make it more prominent):

We can also make the mode selector to reflect the current mode instead of always showing a pencil, but that is a change we probably want to consider also for other editors to keep the pattern consistent. I illustrated it below:

I like the latter suggestion, although I do worry a bit that the eye icon for visual mode is unclear. If it's less clear than the pencil icon, it's a net loss for visual mode (and especially for the VE->WT switch in normal VE).

@Esanders @Deskana what do you guys think about this?

I prefer the former direction, rather than re-opening the can of worms of having a consistent design for edit mode switching between the five products (SD, VE, MF, and the 2010 and 2017 wikitext editors).

So tu put it in a nutshell

• when you are using the wikitext editor, you would have a mention of source editing but improved T184281#3889703
• when you are using the visual editor, the idea would be to display a tooltip to show the switching button T183382#3889725

Pretty much works for me, except that I'm too lazy to click twice, once on the pencil and once on "wikitext" to witch back to the wikitext editor (T183382#3892554). ;)

In T184281#3891430, @Jdforrester-WMF wrote:

I prefer the former direction, rather than re-opening the can of worms of having a consistent design for edit mode switching between the five products (SD, VE, MF, and the 2010 and 2017 wikitext editors).

Agreed.

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