The design of what happens when a document with glossary terms attached is published to WordPress is difficult since there are so many ways it could be handled and there should be degrees of reveal for the reader without the reader being confused: It should be possible to not have any glossary text visible, to have the short definition visible and to access the full definition and then the full graph connected kahuna.
Visual tests
There should be a way to indicate that certain text has a glossary term available for reading but which is not opened up (in brackets to show the short definition). See are some tests using () ( • ∫ ‡ + ⋮ which should not stand out when scanning the page but be clear when reading a sentence. This is the same logic as Bold being designed to see when scanning a page but italic should only call attention to itself when reading a sentence, it should not be eye-catching at page view level:
Experiments In-Situ
However, the issue comes up that if the term is used at the end of a sentence it would be and that would be ugly, so therefore it seems best to make it fit inside brackets Frode Hegland∫ However, the issue comes up that if the term is used at the end of a sentence it would be and that would be ugly, so therefore it seems best to make it fit inside brackets However, the issue comes up that if the term is used at the end of a sentence it would be and that would be ugly, so therefore it seems best to make it fit inside brackets Frode Hegland‡ However, the issue comes up that if the term is used at the end of a sentence it would be and that would be ugly, so therefore it seems best to make it fit inside brackets However, the issue comes up that if the term is used at the end of a sentence it would be and that would be ugly, so therefore it seems best to make it fit inside brackets Frode Hegland+ However, the issue comes up that if the term is used at the end of a sentence it would be and that would be ugly, so therefore it seems best to make it fit inside brackets However, the issue comes up that if the term is used at the end of a sentence it would be and that would be ugly, so therefore it seems best to make it fit inside brackets However, the issue comes up that if the term is used at the end of a sentence it would be and that would be ugly, so therefore it seems best to make it fit inside brackets Frode Hegland⋮ However, the issue comes up that if the term is used at the end of a sentence it would be and that would be ugly, so therefore it seems best to make it fit inside brackets
Solution
One solution is to have the short definition in brackets but by default the view is with an icon after the glossary term which, when clicked, open (all of) the short definitions as shown below, with spaces either side of the brackets and a vertical ellipsis at the end⋮ to indicate click for options.
- some text and then the term which in this case is fish⋮ with other text to follow to better show context
So the user clicks on ⋮ which then instantly in-line expands to show the short definition in brackets:
- some text and then the term which in this case is fish ( a marine animal that swims ⋮ ) with other text to follow to better show context
If the user clicks on the vertical ellipsis it opens to show options:
- some text and then the term which in this case is fish ( a marine animal that swims ⋮ [Hide] [Show Full Definition] ) with other text to follow to better show context
Here the user can click to Hide all the short definitions in the document or to open the web page which contains the definition in a new window/tab. This definition page will further have a link to show in a graph database or Liquid Space.