Joop Laan

<p><strong>Inline Context</strong> is a powerful Block Editor enhancement that lets you create inline expandable notes or clean tooltip-style popovers anywhere in your content. It is ideal for <strong>content-rich websites</strong>, including editorial platforms, research sites, online magazines, documentation hubs, and educational blogs that rely on clear explanation without breaking the reader’s focus.</p>
<p>Instead of sending readers to glossary pages or external links, Inline Context allows you to provide definitions, references, clarifications, and annotations <em>in place</em> — keeping readers engaged and your content structured.</p>
<p>Notes can be <strong>reusable</strong>, categorized, styled, centrally managed, and automatically updated everywhere they appear.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/inline-context/?preview=1" rel="ugc">Check the live preview</a></p>
<h4>Why this is valuable for content-heavy websites</h4>
<p>Websites with substantial text often need:</p>
<ul>
<li>definitions and terminology</li>
<li>source references</li>
<li>background information</li>
<li>contextual inline explanations</li>
<li>mini footnotes without scrolling</li>
<li>inline callouts, tips, or warnings</li>
</ul>
<p>Inline Context delivers all of this with a frictionless, accessible user experience. It helps readers stay focused, reduces navigation fatigue, and improves knowledge retention — especially in long articles or research-based content.</p>
<h4>How it works</h4>
<ol>
<li>Highlight text in the Block Editor.</li>
<li>Click <strong>Inline Context</strong>.</li>
<li>Enter your note content (rich text supported).</li>
<li>Optionally assign a category with custom icon & color.</li>
<li>Publish — your note appears inline or as a tooltip, depending on settings.</li>
</ol>
<p>You can also create <strong>reusable</strong> notes from a dedicated Custom Post Type. Updating a reusable note updates all instances site-wide.</p>
<h3>Key Features</h3>
<h4>Display modes</h4>
<ul>
<li>Inline expansion (reveals a small content panel)</li>
<li>Tooltip popovers (floating contextual bubbles)</li>
<li>Smart tooltip positioning to avoid off-screen display</li>
<li>Direct anchor links (<code>#context-note-xxx</code>) for deep linking</li>
<li>Auto-open on page load when accessed via link</li>
</ul>
<h4>Editor productivity</h4>
<ul>
<li>Reusable notes with global updates</li>
<li>Notes Library with usage tracking (shows where each note is used)</li>
<li>Quick Search inside the editor to insert existing notes</li>
<li>Rich text support via ReactQuill (bold, italic, lists, links)</li>
<li>Clean, integrated Rich Text toolbar button</li>
</ul>
<h4>Categories & icons</h4>
<ul>
<li>Create unlimited categories (Definition, Reference, External Article, Tip, Warning, etc.)</li>
<li>Choose from curated Dashicons or any of 300+ icons</li>
<li>Separate icons for open and closed states</li>
</ul>
<h4>Styling & customization</h4>
<p>Full styling control from <strong>Settings <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> Inline Context</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li>Link colors, hover, and focus states</li>
<li>Note padding, spacing, borders, backgrounds, shadows</li>
<li>Tooltip appearance</li>
<li>Chevron/indicator styling</li>
<li>Live interactive preview of all style changes</li>
</ul>
<h4>Accessibility & security</h4>
<ul>
<li>ARIA support, focus lock, Escape key behavior</li>
<li>Keyboard-navigable for both link and note</li>
<li>DOMPurify sanitization of note content</li>
</ul>
<h3>Internationalization</h3>
<p>Inline Context is fully translation-ready.</p>
<h3>Examples & inspiration</h3>
<p>The idea for this plugin originated from a project with Renée Kool — a visual artist working in public art, film, and emerging media. She wanted to create a website where a single link could reveal additional content containing multiple related links. We looked at the Dutch journalism platform De Correspondent, which use subtle inline notes to provide context without interrupting the flow of reading. You can see examples of their inline notes in this article: <a href="https://decorrespondent.nl/15887/hoe-nederland-kampioen-deeltijdwerken-werd/9053b712-3591-0002-29b3-8c7b69eae0c3" rel="nofollow ugc">Hoe Nederland kampioen deeltijdwerken werd</a></p>
<h3>Source code</h3>
<p>Inline Context uses <code>@wordpress/scripts</code> with webpack and npm to build assets.</p>
<p>Full source (including uncompiled JS and CSS) is available at:<br />
<a href="https://github.com/jooplaan/inline-context" rel="nofollow ugc">https://github.com/jooplaan/inline-context</a></p>


Inline Context

Add inline expandable notes or tooltips to provide context, definitions, and references without disrupting the reading flow.

Luis Rodrigues

<p>Fragmentions were proposed by Kevin Marks in a 2014 <a href="http://www.kevinmarks.com/fragmentions.html" rel="nofollow ugc">blog post</a> as a better alternative to hyperlinking using fragments.  Fragmentions use <code>##</code> to match words or phrases in a document.</p>
<p>In the following example, clicking “TL;DR” would jump to the <code><strong></code> element containing “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”:</p>
<pre><code><article>
    <p>
        <a href="##pursuit">TL;DR</a>
    </p>

    <p>
        When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people
        to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
        and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal
        station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a
        decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
        declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
    </p>

    <p>
        We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
        equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
        Rights, that among these are <strong>Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
        Happiness</strong>.
    </p>
</article>
</code></pre>
<p>This plugin relies on <a href="http://www.jonathantneal.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Jonathan Neal</a>‘s <a href="https://github.com/chapmanu/fragmentions" rel="nofollow ugc">Fragmentions script</a>.</p>
<h3>Licenses</h3>
<p>Jonathan Neal’s Fragmentions script is licensed under a CC0 1.0 Universal License:</p>
<p>Public Domain Dedication</p>
<p>The person(s) who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.</p>
<p>You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.</p>
<p>In no way are the patent or trademark rights of any person affected by CC0, nor are the rights that other persons may have in the work or in how the work is used, such as publicity or privacy rights.</p>
<p>Unless expressly stated otherwise, the person(s) who associated a work with this deed makes no warranties about the work, and disclaims liability for all uses of the work, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.</p>
<p>When using or citing the work, you should not imply endorsement by the author or the affirmer.</p>
<p>This is a human-readable summary of the Legal Code (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/" rel="nofollow ugc">read the full text</a>).</p>


Fragmentions

Fragmentions allow linking to document sections on WordPress sites using words or phrases.

Inline Context vs Fragmentions