Templates: Hide description field when switching to List layout

[jameskoster]

Since template descriptions can sometimes be quite long, they are not handled beautifully in data views list layout:

When switching from the default layout (Grid) to List, it might be good to auto-hide the description field.

Original issue

In the template management data view – list layout – the description isn't particularly useful for two main reasons:

1. Most descriptions are too long to be fully visible
2. Some templates do not have descriptions at all, resulting in an unhelpful – which takes up a lot of vertical space

Removing the description would reduce a lot of noise and save space:

[carolinan]

I don't think removing them is the best solution. We know that users are still struggling with concepts of index, home, and front page. The descriptions definitely have value for these users.

I am not able to see where this vertical layout is used? How do I access it? Did you mean to only hide it on narrow screens?

[jameskoster]

I am not able to see where this vertical layout is used?

Enable the "New admin views" experiment in Gutenberg then navigate to Appearance > Editor > Templates > Manage all templates. From there change the layout to "List" in the view options.

Since this view is optimised for quickly browsing records in a more visual manner, I don't know that the description is required in the list. It can be accessed easily once it's possible to reach the details panel for each record (see #57523).

[jameskoster]

I think this is much less of an issue since Grid was made the default layout for templates, but it would be good to auto-hide the description when switching from grid to list layout.

[jasmussen]

If you can invoke the normalized details panel / inspector in this view, then you'd be able to see the description there.

[jameskoster]

Yup. You could also manually expose the description in view options if you really need to see it in this layout.