Clarification on scope of field-level, contextual editor documentation in Plone

Documentation
1

While reviewing the Plone v6 documentation (User Guide, Editor Guide, and Volto UI docs), I noticed that editor-focused documentation currently exists mainly as global, external documentation pages.

However, I could not find any integrated mechanism for providing field-level, contextual editor guidance directly inside the editing UI (for example, attaching organization-specific documentation or guidance to individual fields or block settings).

My understanding of the GSoC idea around providing more documentation to editors is that it aims to address this gap by embedding contextual documentation into the editor experience itself — so that editors can access rules, tone guidelines, examples, or policies at the point where content decisions are made.

For reference, similar field-level contextual help patterns are commonly used in tools like Google Forms, WordPress (ACF), Jira, or Salesforce, where help icons or inline guidance are attached directly to specific fields to reduce confusion and improve usability.

Is this understanding correct, and is the intended scope of this GSoC idea primarily focused on Volto (for example, block configuration panels and metadata fields), backend forms (z3c.form), or a combination of both?

2

I can say that I won't be a GSoC mentor for the idea. Of course, the idea could go forward outside of GSoC.

For example, there are experiments taking place right now to handle my response to that idea, as described in Google Summer of Code 2026 project ideas - #19 by stevepiercy, where instead of a glob of information that would be editable or configurable, it focuses on a basic Help feature for Volto editors. A Help icon as a question mark ? would display when the block being used while editing content has related documentation in the official Plone 6 documentation and would link to it. Clicking the link would open a new browser tab and take the editor to that page.

3

Thanks for the clarification, Steve.

I understand that this work is moving forward outside of GSoC, with a focus on a lightweight Help (? icon) feature in Volto that links editors to relevant official Plone 6 documentation.

If possible, I would be glad to contribute to this effort and support the Plone community outside of GSoC. Always available :slight_smile: