Using the Text Editor Tutorial

Transcription

1 Using the Text Editor Tutorial The Text Editor in Blackboard allows you to create and edit text. Whether you are adding an Item, posting to the Discussion Board, or writing a blog post, the text box for all of these has the same user interface. If you are familiar with Microsoft Word, using the Text Editor within Blackboard will be comparatively straightforward since many of the features and icons are common to word processing in general. In this tutorial, you will learn how to: Change font size and color Include a hyperlink in the text Attach a file to your text (such as video or audio or PDF) Create a table in the text box 1. Navigate to the course you wish to use and choose the type of item or tool you wish to use. 2. Scroll down to the Text Box, which looks like this:

2 3. Click on the double-down arrows to the right of the gray formatting bar (indicated with an arrow below). This will expand the options in the formatting bar. 4. The first row of options on the text box toolbar is for basic editing purposes. Element Name Function Example Notes 1. Text Change text to bold, italics, underline, or strikethrough text Bold Text Italics Underlined Strikethrough 2. Text style Change text to different standard sizes and styles Default is Paragraph 3. Font style Change font Default is Arial 4. Font size Change font size Font size 10 Font size 11 Default is 3 (12 pt font)

3 5. Lists Create either bulleted lists or numbered lists 6. Font color Change text to different colors Font size 12 Example 1 Example 2 You can create one of these lists by selecting the option or highlighting text already in the textbox and then clicking on one of the list options Please keep colors to a maximum of three and if you use red or green, make sure you BOLD those words so students with red/green color blindness may still be able to see them. 7. Highlight Highlight text Example Highlight the text you wish to highlight, then click on the highlight icon 8. Remove formatting Removes formatting from copied text If you copy and paste text into the text editor but wish to remove the formatting so you can begin afresh, you should highlight the text, then click on this option. 5. The second row of options is for additional editing and structuring of your text. This is the Utilities toolbar. Element Name Function Example Notes 1. Cut Removes unwanted Highlight the text you

4 2. Copy and Paste text Copies text and then pastes it in another spot 3. Find Find a word or element by searching the text in the text box 4. Undo and Redo 5. Paragraph alignment 6. Indent 7. Superscript and subscript Will undo or redo the most recent change to the material in the text box Aligns the text within one paragraph to either left, center, right, or justified alignment Add smaller text above or below your regular-sized text 8. Hyperlink Make the text in your textbox an active hyperlink 9. Direction (left to right or right to left) 10. Line and Horizontal Rule Aligns text to either left side of the text box or the right side of the text box Use these to add lines in the text box. X 3 and H 2 O Please click here Direction L to R Text text Text text Direction R to L wish to remove, then select this icon. Highlight the text you wish to copy, then move the cursor to where you wish the text to appear. A dialog box will appear and ask you to type in the word or element to search for Will only allow you to undo or redo the most recent changes to the text Highlight the text you wish to align differently, then select one of the alignment icons. Highlight the text and then paste in the link you would like the text to direct to; we suggest you select open in new window. Similar to paragraph alignment Lines can be used as a visual separation between different types of content.

5 11. Insert nonbreaking space character Creates a space in between text 12. Spell Checker Checks for spelling errors Text followed by a space More text Click on this icon and the dialog box that appears will indicate spelling errors. 6. The last row on the toolbar is for attaching files and adding multimedia to your text. This is the Attachment toolbar. Element Name Function Notes 1. Record from Webcam Allows you to record from your webcam and create a video that is housed within the text item. 2. Insert file Uploads a file into your course and creates a link in the textbox to the file for students to download. 3. Insert/edit image and Insert/edit media Inserts an image or audio file. 4. Math Editor Opens the WIRIS Formula Editor page the visual math equation editor page. This feature can only be accessed if you use YouTube. Every SCC faculty and staff member and student has a YouTube account. Please contact E- Learning for information on how to use YouTube. The file will take up room (each course can be up to 100 MB) so this can affect your course size.* Images can be re-sized. We strongly suggest adding an image description so that screen reader software can describe the image if you have a student with visual impairments. The image file or audio file will take up room (each course can be up to 100 MB) so this can affect your course size.* To learn more, see this link. 5. Insert Mashup Adds a mashup. To learn more, see this link. 6. Show Non- Click to show all

6 Printing Characters nonprinting characters. Click again to hide them from view. 7. Blockquote Format the text as a blockquote. 8. Symbols Opens the Select Special Character window. 9. Emoticons Opens the Insert Emoticon window. 10. Anchor Position the mouse pointer where you want the anchor to appear and click to open the Insert/Edit Anchor window. Use anchors to position (anchor) other items and objects, such as images. 11. Insert/edit Create a table within the table text box. 12. Merge table Merge two or more cells / Split selected table cells into a table cells single cell. 13. HTML Code view / Edit CSS style Click to open the HTML Code View window. Then, you can directly edit the content HTML code. / Edit the cascading style sheet (CSS). Select a symbol to insert at the current mouse pointer position. Select the emoticon to insert at the current mouse pointer position. To learn more, see Using Anchors. These features are intended for experienced web developers. * We strongly recommend that you consider using Cyberduck if you have a number of media files or other large files. To get more information, please submit a ticket here. For more information, please see this Blackboard Inc. website. If you have further questions, please submit a ticket to SCC E-Learning here.