An item's history can be viewed in the context of all actions by shift-hovering over the Journal. This has utility in the presence of refactoring but works better with shorter pages. Here we consider how we might bring actions closer to the items they have constructed.
The casual reader is content to read the story as it has been written. Conversely, the collaborating author needs to see the detailed evolution of the work in order to make effective contributions.
# Interaction
We favor shift-hover as a "spring loaded" control that avoids pitfalls of moded interfaces. We will argue assuming that it or an equivalent is available.
Applicable actions float above an item on shift-hover. Editor provides further diff color coding.
Shift-hover over an item should float copies of applicable actions above an item. Should the cursor move over these actions, that revision of the individual item will be render in place until shift is released.
Shift-hover over an item editor should float copies of applicable actions above the editor. Hover over actions will render the revision of the markup until shift is released.
Shift-hover scrubbing over actions will highlight diffs from one revision to the next. A pastel background color code will distinguish adds and removes from preserved text.
# Considerations
Full item history is not available for items copied into a page from other sources. The same history inspection should be available for remote pages in order to complete the history of any item.
Color coding differences will require temporary substitution of span sequences for the current textarea implementation.
When there are a large number of applicable actions some form of multiple line or scrolling view on one line will be required to access all actions.
Dates or other action annotations might be usefully integrated into the shift-hover display.