Suggesting a correction in place#
The helper area is not the only way in. On any page of the site, you can select the wording that reads wrongly and suggest a replacement for that exact span. You never leave the page.
You never have to know what a dictionary key is, or which table a posting field lives in. The page works that out from what you selected.
Turning it on#
The switch is in your account menu, beside Sign out, and it reads Suggest corrections.
It is off by default, and that is deliberate. A helper is a reader first, and selecting text has to keep working normally for copying.
Nobody else sees the switch. If you do not hold the helper role, the layer does not load at all, and the markup it reads is inert.
Making a suggestion#
- Select the wording. Anywhere on the site.
- A small Suggest a correction control appears. Press it, or press Alt and S with something selected.
- Say what is wrong with it. That one is needed.
- Offer what it should say, if you know. That one is not.
- Send it.
The box tells you what it captured, and says plainly:
Nothing is applied automatically. A person reads every suggestion first.
Adjusting what you selected#
Touch selection is imprecise. So the box shows the captured wording, with controls to move the start and the end one word at a time.
Use them instead of trying to drag a perfect selection on a phone.
On a phone#
Below 1024px the box is a sheet from the bottom of the screen, and the wording you selected stays visible above it. On a wide screen it opens in a panel beside the text.
It is the same pattern the search filters and the apply panel use.
The quiet underline#
Wording somebody has already raised carries a quiet underline with a count beside it.
That is what turns this from a suggestion box into a review pass. You can see what has already been said and not say it again.
2 already raised about these words. Add another only if it is a different point.
Admins see the underlines too, and not the box. They are reading what helpers have raised, and suggesting is done by whoever holds the role for that language.
By keyboard#
Everything here is reachable without a pointer. Select with the keyboard and press Alt and S. Underlined spans are focusable in reading order.
Interface wording is a code change#
If what you selected is a label or a button, the box says so. The suggestion is still worth making, and it still goes into the same queue.
What happens to it afterwards is different, because that wording is in the code and not in the database. See What happens next.
When a suggestion loses its place#
A suggestion stores the exact wording you selected, plus a short run of text on either side. That is how it can still be found after the surrounding text has been edited.
When it cannot be found any more, an admin sees it marked as detached instead of being applied to the wrong place. Nothing is guessed.
One queue#
A suggestion and a report from a posting land in the same list. An admin works through one queue, whether the item came from a form or from a selection.