Remove use of "Toggle" in strings

[xibe]

Hello!

It would be nice to have WordPress stop using "Toggle" in strings in multiple places and contexts -- most particularly action buttons and helper text.

It's really two possible actions/behaviors, most of the time different ones depending on the context/location/result of the previous clic, and it's always a pain to translate properly (current way in French replace "Toggle" with the French equivalent of "Open/Close". Not elegant).

I could change the text, sure. But the buttons themselves, not so much. They'd need to go from displaying "Toggle" to displaying "Open" or "Close" depending on the current status of the target. That'd require some JavaScript wizardry.

Hence, this ticket.

Thanks!

[afercia]

Yep, "Toggle" is a very difficult word to translate in Italian too, we have "Commutare" but no one uses that word in common language, sounds like something related to electronic components :)
I guess in English the term "Toggle" is handy because can be used for different things, for example to mean "Open/Close" but also "Switch On/Off" like in "Mute Toggle".
Will ask the Italian Polyglots team, bit curious to know how this is handled in other languages too.

[xibe]

In French, depending on the context, "Toggle" is translated into:

• "Toggle section" > Open/close section
• "Toolbar Toggle" > Open/close toolbar
• "Toggle panel" > Open/close bloc
• "until you toggle this option off." > until this option is disabled
• "Mute Toggle" > Stop the sound
• "Toggle Editor Text Direction" > Inverse the direction
• "Toggle add category" > Add a category or not
• "You can toggle between Network Admin and Site Admin" > You can switch from X to Y

Note to @ocean90 : yup, that's 8 strings indeed :)
...aaaaand in the end it seems there are no "Toggle" button. Phew! To be confirmed, please!

[afercia]

Replying to xibe:

it seems there are no "Toggle" button. Phew! To be confirmed, please!

Not sure about buttons text, I think no. But there are buttons aria-label attributes that use "Toggle".

[ramiy]

Same for hebrew. We don't have one word for "open/close", like the english "toggle".

Instead, we can use the "close" string, and when clicked, change it using JS to "open".

[SergeyBiryukov]

Replying to ramiy:

Same for hebrew. We don't have one word for "open/close", like the english "toggle".

Same for Russian. It could be translated as "switch", but that only applies to one of the strings in comment:5, and for the rest we mostly translate it as open/close, show/hide, turn on/off, etc.

[ramiy]

Ok, we all generally agree that this string is not good for i18n. It needs to be changed.

Do you have alternative strings / solutions?

We also need a dev-feedback for the JS solution.

[GaryJ]

Adjust, switch, or alternate?

I guess the emphasis in English, is that it's not just a change, but a binary change between two options. It's one or the other.

[afercia]

Adding two screenshots for reference and better understand how accessibility is involved here. Just two examples, this applies to all the meta boxes and several other controls (e.g. in the Customizer) that use aria-label and aria-expanded attributes.

[afercia]

Was doing some research for an internal project and stumbled upon this:

Microsoft Writing Style Guide
​https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/style-guide/welcome/

A–Z word list and term collections: "toggle"
​https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/style-guide/a-z-word-list-term-collections/t/toggle

Don't use as a verb. Instead, use switch, turn on, or turn off with the name of the toggle or command to describe what the customer must do.

(see the full recommended use there)

If anyone knows of other writing style guides, please do feel free to share.

[Presskopp]

​https://help.apple.com/applestyleguide/#/apsg841c3645

toggle (v.) OK to use in developer materials. Don’t use in user materials; instead, say turn on or off, switch between, or whatever wording is appropriate in the context.

​https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/styleguidelines/index.html

toggle off, toggle on [v.] (the term should not be used.)
Replace with "toggle."
Correct: Toggle the switch to the off position.

[Presskopp]

Statistics:

WP 5.8 (dev) uses "toggle" 13x,
admin: 4x,
network admin: 1x

It is mainly used as "switch on/off", but also in some places simply could be replaced by "enable" or "disable", like in:

Contents will now be pasted as plain text until you toggle this option off.

Toggle it on or off to suit your workflow.