ToolsPanel: Selected ToolsPanel menu options are not persistent

[apeatling]

Prior: #41376

When using the ToolsPanel menu to select design tool options for a block, these selections are not remembered unless the value of a design tool setting has been selected. Simply setting the option as visible is not enough to persist it on block re-selection.

This GIF shows the issue:

[apeatling]

Persisting selected options has been discussed previously in #39561 (comment).

However this discussion was for persisting selected options across multiple blocks of the same type. That warrants caution, however persisting options in the same instance of a block is quite different. In my opinion this goes against user intent and expectation and should be added.

[mtias]

Curious how you'd expect it working after a reload — would you expect a non customized option you selected to show up? Holding onto the session state seems a bit superfluos to me, and I don't think it's worth the extra complexity of handling state that would persist through remounts but not through hard reloads.

[apeatling]

I don't think it is necessary to maintain state after a reload.

However, within a single session, I can see it being a confusion. I can see a user selecting the tools they need, but in the middle selecting a similar block to refer to a setting value. Then they come back to the block to find everything reset.

I haven't run in to this in my real world usage, so it is purely hypothetical on my part -- but it has been reported in the original issue.

[mtias]

I'd consider this low impact for the likely complexity it'd entail to keep track of unmounted component state. We can revisit if it becomes a wider concern.

[annezazu]

Re-opening this as it came up in a discussion with YouTubers with folks requesting this as an option. Specifically, that when an option is enabled that it persists in the future until someone disables it again for typography settings. I recorded a little video showing how this impacts my workflow with a specific example:

styling.options.typography.mov

Curious to hear from @WordPress/outreach as to whether this is something others run into.

[markhowellsmead]

Definitely. See also #62064.

[bacoords]

Big agree on this. There's a number of issues about the persistence of UI controls- it's a very common pain point for most users (There were some a11y concerns about some of them, but I believe they're addressable):

• Stay in the selected Sidebar (Inspector) tab when you switch blocks (for example the Styles tab) #51104
• Sidebar panel selection should persist between blocks #62064
• Add the ability to pin typography settings #45283
• Keyboard Shortcut: Toggling in/out of distraction free mode should remember open panels #59789

[annezazu]

Thank you all for chiming in and cross connecting. Excellent to get a broader spread and more thoughts. Keep it coming!

[markhowellsmead]

There's some great UX feedback in this post on X. What's the best way to get these included here in Github?

https://x.com/KatieKeithBarn2/status/1824362828251201966

[annezazu]

There's some great UX feedback in this post on X. What's the best way to get these included here in Github?

Open or find issues for each item :) Some of these already have issues opened.

[annezazu]

Noting that this came up once more today on a WordPress freelancer online meetup with folks talking about how frustrating it is to go looking for an option, turn it on, and then have it disappear when you move away to work on another block causing you to have to repeat the search cc @techmagick as you were a part of that convo <3