Brookings Web Design

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Hiding & Exposing Panel Content

One of the more useful controls available are Panels. You have the option to have them and their contents either perminantly displayed or you can have them collapsed (hidden). By clicking on their title bar (see example to the right), you can switch between exposing and hiding their contents.

This feature is rather handy when you have additional information available for your visitors, but you don't want them to HAVE to view it. The options are to allow them to view the contents of the panel, leave it exposed or collapse (hide) the information when they are finished viewing it.

When additional information, details about a particular topic, specifications for a given product, etc., are necessary, hiding and exposing that information can be a very handy feature. It keeps the user interface relatively clean and simple yet also eliminates the necessity to create a separate page (for the additional information).

Additional Details

Your information goes here. This is a good control for unobtrusively hiding text that you want your website visitors to have access to, based on demand. If they're not interested, they don't click to expose the info or they can hide it, if it's already exposed.

This feature is useful where you would normally have 'additional info' available, for a particular product's specifications or more details on a subject of interest. Having the ability to hide and expose information is a very handy feature. The Panel control is somewhat similar to the Accordion component, in that respect (collapses and expands).