[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #50699: Fix and improve arranging metaboxes

[WordPress Trac]

#50699: Fix and improve arranging metaboxes
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 Reporter:  azaozz                               |       Owner:  azaozz
     Type:  task (blessed)                       |      Status:  assigned
 Priority:  normal                               |   Milestone:  5.6
Component:  Administration                       |     Version:
 Severity:  normal                               |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch needs-testing needs-dev-   |     Focuses:  ui,
  note                                           |  accessibility
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Comment (by afercia):

 > Now that the old Edit Post screen is obsolete, having this only on the
 Dashboard is of a "questionable usefulness" :)

 I'd argue that the Classic Editor plugin has more than 5 millions ''active
 installations'' (we don't know the exact number) thus the relevance of
 this feature on the "old" edit post screen is still very important :)

 I do understand the reasoning that reordering should go in a special
 "mode" of the screen that is not the one used "in production". That makes
 sense to me and, for example, similar "mode switches" are already used in
 the Media Library screen for the "Bulk select" mode and in the Customizer.

 However, the placement of this mode switch within the Screen Options panel
 seems far from ideal to me. It's really buried down in a place where most
 users never go.

 Additionally, the new reordering buttons are a feature specifically
 introduced to solve an accessibility issue that existed since... forever.
 Making the keyboard interaction more difficult seems to defeat the purpose
 of the introduction of the new buttons. With this change, now keyboard
 users have to go through potentially dozens of additional tab stops to go
 back and forth from / to the Screen Options panel and the meta box they
 want to reorder.

 Also mouse / touch users (at least 5 millions users) would find reordering
 more difficult simply because it's not so discoverable.

 Ideally, the controls to reorder a meta box should be "in place" and not
 require to navigate with the keyboard most of the page to go to the Screen
 Options and then back to the meta boxes.


 What about keeping the "mode switch" mechanism but, instead of burying
 down the switch within the Screen Options, use only ''one'' button placed
 in the meta box headers that switches the header to a "reorder mode"?

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/50699#comment:31>
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