Did you know? Ensuring your text is formatted correctly

Did you know that there’s a way to reduce problems with inappropriate text formatting?

Sometimes when you copy text from another application (such as Microsoft Word, an e-mail, or a web page) and paste it into a Blackboard text box (such as an item description, a test question or an announcement) you may find that it doesn’t display how you would expect.

Examples of this scenario include incorrect text colours, text displaying in the wrong size, place or font or even text missing completely.  This is normally caused by formatting hidden in Word or web pages which is then carried over to Blackboard during the copy process.  Often the formatting is not copied completely which leads to its strange appearance.

Image of copied text overlapping itself in Blackboard

The solution to this is to remove the formatting from content before you copy it into Blackboard. Then you can copy the content into Blackboard safely. Once you have copied it in, you can use the Visual Textbox Editor (pictured above) to format the text inside Blackboard.

You can view instructions on how to remove the formatting and copy the content only into Blackboard, along with a range of other help articles, in our knowledge base in the Bb-support tab of shuspace.

The ‘Did you know?’ series explores possibilities in e-learning that you may not be aware of.  See other articles from the series.

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