Topic on Talk:VisualEditor on mobile

Mobile keyboard shortcuts for reduced toolbar

4
Pelagic (talkcontribs)

Hi, in the VE toolbar on mobile I only have Undo, Formatting, Link and Cite. (Plus X and > of course.) No items for Headings, Lists, Insert, etc.

I've worked out partly by accident how to create numbered lists, bulleted lists, and headings by typing '#', '1.', '*' or '==' at the beginning of a line. (Aside: things can go awry with the ==== as the characters disappear and there's no visual indication what heading level you're at. A workaround is to type the text first then insert the == in front.)

Also figured out that I could invoke the transclude dialog by typing '{{'. Again through accident and existing typing habits. Whereas I find the pop-up for {{ and [[ is a bit intrusive on desktop, it actually feels more natural on mobile, maybe because the dialogs/cards are full-screen, or because I'm typing more slowly on a touch-screen.

Just today I learned from phab:T202575#4555959 that '<ref' works, and by analogy I also tried '<pre'. This image phab:F25614007 shows ':' for blockquote.

I haven't yet found a way to do indenting, insert symbols, reset to plain paragraph style, etc. without switching to source wikitext mode.

Does anyone have a list or know of other typed tricks (that work when your touch keyboard lacks tab, esc, ctrl, and alt)?

Omotecho (talkcontribs)

Have you tried StyleManual for mobile? I thought it should be on mobile as desktop mode does... Empathy you are learning by knocking on every door-to-door try and error, but you’re not alone ;)

  • Indents with _:_,
  • blockquotes with empty space _ _ at the line beginning.
  • Bolds _;_ at the line beginning, maybe _<b>_ middle of line
  • Sorry, forgot how to disengage dagger lists/indents. Thought two linebreaks but does not work anymore.
Pelagic (talkcontribs)
Omotecho (talkcontribs)

You know, your list is very handy, thanks for sharing! My suggestion above work on VE as well. I, as you do, avoid switching between VE and Wikitext Editing by tricks as above. Or intentionally apply Mobile view on my laptop as I need to enlarge to 120% thus save screen space without Desktop toolbars.

Off topic. Yes, we lack editing buttons on Mobile VE, or you tap “Desktop view” link at the very bottom, continue using VE and manage to work on the small screen... I do it on iPhone as Desktop VE toolbar is handy. But on laptop and Firefox, many times shift between Mobile and Desktop view “crushes”, but auto-recovers. Cheers,

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