Note: This documentation is for Moodle 2.7. For up-to-date documentation see Text editor.

Text editor: Difference between revisions

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{{Editing text}}
{{Editing text}}
The text editor (sometimes referred to as the 'HTML editor' or even 'TinyMCE') has many icons to assist the user in entering content.  Many of these icons and functions should be familiar to anyone who uses a word processor.  Some examples of where you will see the text editor include: Editing Section headings, description of an activity, writing an answer to a quiz question or editing the content of many blocks.
The text editor (sometimes referred to as the 'HTML editor') has many icons to assist the user in entering content.  Many of these icons and functions should be familiar to anyone who uses a word processor.  However, writing for the web on the web is different, and especially with accessibility and design considerations Atto sometimes you may not do what you expect with a normal editor, or even the old default editor in Moodle.
 
'''Note:''' From Moodle 2.7 onwards, [https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Atto Atto] will be the default HTML text editor for new installations. Atto is a javascript text editor built specifically for Moodle. You can change your default editor (return to TinyMCE) by going to ' Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Text editors > Manage editors ' and change the order of priority. It's also possible to disable the TinyMCE editor and only use a plain text editor from ''Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Text editors > Manage editors.''
For some comment on this, [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=265176 please see this post]
 
Some examples of where you will see the text editor include: Editing Section headings, description of an activity, writing an answer to a quiz question or editing the content of many blocks.
 
The default text editor in Moodle is the Atto editor, built specifically for Moodle. There is also a version of the [[TinyMCE editor]] and a plain text editor.
 
Text editors can be enabled, disabled or a different one set to default from ''Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Text editors > Manage editors''. The order of priority may also be specified here.


An individual user can select an editor in their profile from ''Administration > My Profile settings > Edit profile.''
An individual user can select an editor in their profile from ''Administration > My Profile settings > Edit profile.''


==Collapsing and expanding the  editor==
==Atto HTML editor==
{{New features}}
{{New features}}
The TinyMCE editor first appears with just one row of buttons. Clicking the icon top left will expand it to three rows.


{|
[[File:Atto1.png]]
|[[File:26tinymce1.png|250px|thumb|Collapsed view]]
|[[File:26tinymce2.png|250px|thumb|Expanded view]]
|}


==Toolbar buttons==
Atto Row 1
For those who are not familiar with the tool bar, here are the buttons as grouped in their rows. Remember that the site administrator can edit or provide additional buttons.


Row 1
{|
|[[File:26tinymcerow1.png|400px|thumb]]
|}


{| class="nicetable"
{| class="nicetable"
Line 27: Line 24:
|-
|-
| 1:Expand
| 1:Expand
| 2.Formatting
| 2.Style
| 3.Bold
| 3.Bold
| 4.Italic
| 4.Italic
Line 36: Line 33:
| 8.Unlink  
| 8.Unlink  
|-
|-
| 9.Stop auto linking
| 9.Add image
| 10.Add image
| 10.Add media
| 11.Add emoticon
| 11.Manage embedded files
| 12.Add media
   
|-
| 13.Manage embedded files
|
|
|  
|}
|}
Row 2


{|
|[[File:26tinymcerow2.png|400px|thumb]]
|}


{| class="nicetable"
|-
|-
| 1:Undo
| 2.Redo
| 3.Underline
| 4.Strikethrough
|-
| 5.Subscript
| 6.Superscript
| 7.Align left
| 8.Align centre
|-
| 9.Align right
| 10.Decrease indent
| 11.Increase indent
| 12.Text colour
|-
| 13.Background colour
| 14.Left to Right
| 15.Right to Left
|
|-


|}
[[File:Atto22.png]]
Row 3


{|
Atto Row 2
|[[File:26tinymcerow3.png|400px|thumb]]
|}


{| class="nicetable"
{| class="nicetable"
|-
|-
|-
|-
| 1:Font family
| 1. Underline
| 2.Font size
| 2. Strikethrough
| 3.Edit HTML
| 3. Subscript
| 4.Find
| 4. Superscript
|-
|-
| 5.Find/replace
| 5. Align left
| 6.Insert non-breaking space
| 6. Align centre
| 7.Insert special character
| 7. Align right
| 8.Insert table
| 8. Increase indent
|-
|-
| 9.Clean up messy code
| 9. Decrease indent
| 10.Remove formatting
| 10. Equation editor
| 11.Paste as plain text
| 11. Special character
| 12.Paste from MS Word
| 12. Table
 
|-
|-
| 13.Toggle full screen
| 13. Clear formatting
| 14. Undo/redo
| 15. Undo/redo
| 16. Accessibility checker
|-
|-
| 17. Screenreader helper
|}
| 18. HTML/code view
 
===Colour pickers===
*[[Image:26colourpickers.png]]
There are four levels of selecting a font or background colour,
*A quick pick 5x8 matrix of colours
*"More colours" that links to Picker, Pallet and Named tabs
<gallery>
Image:HTML_editor_color_selector_basic_1.png|A quick pick 5x8 matrix of colors
Image:HTML_editor_color_selector_more_picker_1.png|A rainbow color picker tab
Image:HTML_editor_color_selector_more_pallet_1.png|A Pallet tab with a 18x12 matrix of colors
Image:HTML_editor_color_selector_more_named_1.png|A Named tab with custom pallets
</gallery>
 
====Insert table====
<gallery widths="300px">
Image:HTMLeditor_Insert_Table_general_1.png|General tab
Image:HTMLeditor_Insert_Table_advanced_1.png|Advanced tab
</gallery>
 
'''To add borders to a table'''
 
Cell borders are crucial for helping readers to follow the rows across the screen. If they aren’t showing already you can add them as follows:
 
#In the Wiki page containing your table, click its Edit tab
#Carefully select all the cells of the table
#Then right click (Macs: Command+click or Ctrl+Click) over any part of your selection to get a context menu; from it select Cell > Table Cell Properties; the cell properties dialog box then loads.
#Click on its Advanced tab, set Border Color to black (for instance), then click Apply, and then click Update.
#Click Save; the Wiki page containing your table will then load displaying its borders.
 
==Site administration settings==
 
===Manage editors===
 
A site administrator can enable / disable text editors in ''Settings > Site administration > Plugins > Text editors > Manage editors''. By default the TinyMCE HTML editor and plain text area are enabled.
 
===TinyMCE editor settings===
 
The TinyMCE  HTML editor has its own settings page ''Administration>Site administration>Plugins>Text editors>TinyMCE HTML editor>General settings'' with the following options:
 
====Plugins====
*Buttons for equations, emoticons,images, media, automatic linking, and  legacy spell-checking may be enabled, disabled or uninstall here by clicking on their eye.
*Additionally the equation, emoticon and spell check buttons have links to their Settings screens.
 
[[File:26tinymceplugins.png |thumb|none|upright=2.0|alt="The TinyMCE editor plugins screen" | The TinyMCE editor plugins screen]]
 
=====Manage embedded files=====
{{New features}}
This plugin allows users to add, delete or override files embedded in the current text area, for example in a label or topic summary. (It complements the [[Embedded files repository]])
 
{|
|[[File:26embeddedfiles1.png|thumb|The Manage files button]]
|
|[[File:26embeddefiles2.png|thumb|Managing embedded files from within TinyMCE]]
|}
|}


=====Insert equation=====
==Equation editor==


Accessed from ''Administration>Site administration>Plugins>Text editors>TinyMCE HTML editor>Edit equation'', this allows you to enable or disable the TeX filter in the editor context and thereby display the Dragmath button. If you have a global custom TeX filter, then disable this setting.
{{New features}}If either the [[MathJax filter|MathJax]] or the [[TeX notation filter|TeX notation]] filters are enabled (in ''Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Filters > Manage filters'') then an equation editor button is provided in the toolbar for launching the equation editor.
 
=====Insert emoticon=====
Accessed from ''Administration>Site administration>Plugins>Text editors>TinyMCE HTML editor>Insert emoticon'', this allows you to enable or disable the emoticon filter in the editor context and thereby display the emoticon button.
 
===== Legacy spell checker=====
The legacy spell checker is visible in IE9 and lower only, but not in other browsers. If you want to disable it and and rely on browser spell checker functionality instead, you can do this by disabling the ''legacy spellchecker'' plugin by clicking its eye in ''Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Text editors > TinyMCE HTML editor > General settings''
 
To spell-check via your browser, type your word (which if incorrectly spelt will have red lines under it) and press right click + CTRL
{|
{|
|[[File:Browserspellcheck.png|thumb|Right-click+CTRL for browser spellcheck]]
| [[File:equation editor.png|thumb|Equation editor]]
|}
|}


'''NOTE:'''
==Site administration settings==
While the default spell engine is Google spell which  can be changed in ''Administration>Site administration>Plugins>Text editors>TinyMCE HTML editor'', this is no longer supported by Google and will not work. (Note that it is only visible in IE9 and lower) It is due to  be removed. See MDL-38867. In browser spell check is recommended.


If PSpell is selected then aspell 0.50 or later must be installed on your server and the path to aspell set in Administration > Site administration > Server > System Paths.
===Toolbar settings===


The administrator can specify which plugins to display and in which order from ''Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Text editors > Atto HTML editor > Atto toolbar settings''.
[[File:atto-plugins.png|thumb|center|450px|Atto Plugins]]


You can select a different spell engine from ''Administration> Site administration > Plugins > Text editors > TinyMCE HTML editor>Check spelling'' 
====Toolbar config table====
The toolbar is split into groups of related buttons. The format for the config setting is:


groupname1 = button1, button2, button3
groupname2 = button1, button2, button3


{|
The group names on the left have no effect on how the toolbar works; they just need to be different for each button (and no spaces please). The list of buttons says which button goes in which group and in what order. The exact word to insert here for each button is listed in the "Toolbar config" column above.
|[[File:Spellengine.png|thumb|Choosing a different spell engine]]
|}
According to: http://php.net/manual/en/book.pspell.php


"As of php 5.3. Pspell is no longer supported/bundled. Instead you can use the enchant which is bundled by default in 5.3."
The reason there are names for the groups is that it helps to make you think about how to group the buttons sensibly and not just stick new buttons in random locations. Ie. all the buttons in the "files" group interact with the file picker in some way
===Adding extra buttons===


If PSpell is selected then aspell 0.50 or later must be installed on your server and the path to aspell set in Administration > Site administration > Server > System Paths.
Extra plugins from the list (for example 'Font color' or 'Emoticon') may be added by typing the toolbarconfig term into the toolbar config table.


===Customising the editor toolbar===
[[File:toolbarconfig.png]]


An administrator can remove or add buttons to the TinyMCE editor toolbar by altering the Editor toolbar box in ''Administration>Site administration>Plugins>Text editors>TinyMCE HTML editor>General settings'' as demonstrated in the screencast [http://youtu.be/vTW1DImro9c Customise the text editor in 2.4]
Here for example are the available colours when 'fontcolor' is added:


{|
[[File:fontcolor.png]]
| [[File:editortoolbar.png|thumb|The Editor toolbar box]]
|[[File:horizontalrule.png|thumb|Example of  toolbar with added horizontal rule button]]


The icons are displayed in related groups and the administrator can decide how many groups to display in the default collapsed state of the toolbar (that is, how many groups to display on Row 1).
==== Non default Atto plugins ====
Not all plugins are enabled by default and the administrator of each site should give careful thought as to which plugins they choose to enable for their users. Here are some things to consider before enabling the non-default plugins:


|}
===== Background colour / Font colour =====
While these are very popular plugins, there are downsides to enabling their use on a site. Firstly - user specified colours may conflict visually with the site colours chosen by the theme designer. Even if the colours of the content does not conflict with the colours of the current theme, if the theme is changed in future, or the content is reused on a different site conflicts may be introduced. There are 2 possible types of conflicts, the first is just a visually unappealing combination of colours, the second is a combination of colours that may produce text that is hard to read for some people. It is preferable if the theme designer uses some interesting colours that meet the accessibility standards required for the site in the theme for the site, and the person creating the content simply uses the proper heading levels (for example) to make use of those styles.


====Available fonts list====
===== Emoticons =====
The emoticon plugin inserts text representations of the emoticons in the content. The emoticon filter is responsible for converting these text sequences into proper smiley images. The emoticon filter is not enabled by default, which is why the emoticon plugin for Atto is not enabled by default.


In addition to the default fonts, a site administrator can add extra fonts by typing their name and string in the box in ''Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Text editors > TinyMCE HTML editor>General settings'' as demonstrated in the screencast [http://youtu.be/udP7Bnur30Y How to add extra fonts].
===== No-auto link =====
In general, the more plugins are added to the Atto toolbar, the harder it becomes to find specific plugins. Because the no-auto link plugin is not felt to be widely used it is not enabled by default.


{|
===== Right to left =====
|[[File:comicsans.png|thumb|Example of custom font]]
Because this plugin is only useful for courses where text needs to be written in a mixture of both "left to right" and "right to left" languages, it is not enabled by default.
|}


====Custom configuration====
==== Moodle plugins directory ====


A setting in ''Administration>Site administration>Plugins>Text editors>TinyMCE HTML editor>General settings'' provides  a box in which an administrator can apply custom formats. See MDL-37186 for more details with examples,  and see also the [http://www.tinymce.com/wiki.php/Configuration:formats TinyMCE configuration page]
There are more plugins available for Atto than just those included in a default install.  
See the [https://moodle.org/plugins/browse.php?list=category&id=53 Moodle plugins directory] for additional plugins.
Some example plugins include the following.


{|
===== Toggle preview =====
|[[File:bottomtoolbar.png|thumb| Example 1:Toolbar at the bottom]]
This plugin allows you view the content as it would be seen by a reader.
|[[File:customstyles.png|thumb| Example 2: Custom styles]]
|}


*Example: Moving the toolbar to the bottom:
===== Chemistry plugins =====
There are a number of chemistry plugins that support chemistry equations and structures.


Add the following:
===== Text import plugins =====
{"theme_advanced_toolbar_location" : "bottom"}
There are a number of plugins that support importing text from other sources.
The [https://moodle.org/plugins/view/atto_pastespecial Paste special] plugin minimises the amount of superfluous HTML markup
included when pasting content from an external editor such as Microsoft Word.


*Example: Adding your own custom styles.
The [https://docs.moodle.org/27/en/Atto_Word_import Word import] plugin supports dragging and dropping Word documents into the text box,  
(This might be useful for example if you want a "house style" for important notes, key points or similar)
and cleanly imports the entire contents including embedded images, tables, headings, etc.
In the editor toolbar, enter "styleselect" and then in the custom box add the following code, changing it to suit your purposes:
It also imports Microsoft Equation Editor equations as MathML, which can then be displayed using MathJax.
{"style_formats" : [
  {"title" : "Bold text", "inline" : "b"},
  {"title" : "Red text", "inline" : "span", "styles" : {"color" : "#ff0000"}},
  {"title" : "Red header", "block" : "h1", "styles" : {"color" : "#ff0000"}} ]}


The following will let you use bootstrap CSS classes if you use a bootstrap based theme:
===Equation editor settings===


    {"style_formats" : [
Equation editor commands may be removed, added or reordered in ''Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Text editors > Atto HTML editor > Equation editor settings''.
        {"title" : "Well", "block" : "div", "classes" : "well"},
        {"title" : "Label", "inline" : "span", "classes" : "label"},
        {"title" : "Label - success", "inline" : "span", "classes" : "label label-success"},
        {"title" : "Label - warning", "inline" : "span", "classes" : "label label-warning"},
        {"title" : "Label - important", "inline" : "span", "classes" : "label label-important"},
        {"title" : "Label - info", "inline" : "span", "classes" : "label label-info"},
        {"title" : "Label - inverse", "inline" : "span", "classes" : "label label-inverse"},
        {"title" : "Button", "inline" : "a", "classes" : "btn btn"},
        {"title" : "Button - primary", "inline" : "a", "classes" : "btn btn-primary"},
        {"title" : "Button - info", "inline" : "a", "classes" : "btn btn-info"},
        {"title" : "Button - success", "inline" : "a", "classes" : "btn btn-success"},
        {"title" : "Button - warning", "inline" : "a", "classes" : "btn btn-warning"},
        {"title" : "Button - danger", "inline" : "a", "classes" : "btn btn-danger"},
        {"title" : "Button - inverse", "inline" : "a", "classes" : "btn btn-inverse"}
    ]}


*Example: Enabling copy of rich content with styles from MS Word (tm) and paste into TineMCE without removing important styles:
[[File:equationeditor.png]]


{"paste_retain_style_properties" : "margin, padding, width, height, font-size,  
==Dragging/dropping images into the text editor==
  font-weight, font-family, color, text-align, ul, ol, li,
* If your browser supports it, you can drag and drop images into a [[Page]], [[Questions]] and [[Labels]].
  text-decoration, border, background, float, display"}
* Images dragged into a [[Forum ]] post will not appear unless you are using Atto and have the Plugin for Drag and Drop installed. (https://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=atto_imagedragdrop)
* Images cannot be dragged and dropped using Chrome or IE, but it is possible with Firefox.
* [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=270053 This forum thread] has more discussion on the matter.
* There is a tracker item for drag and drop into Atto here: https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-43996


==See also==
==See also==


===Screencasts===
* [http://youtu.be/GNQSK_fPV98 Moodle HQ screencast demonstrating Atto editor]  
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m2xkm2EyXA&feature=share&list=SPxcO_MFWQBDe8RRnGjoUDqbcm9PSlIoWn&index=4 TinyMCE text editor improvements.]
* [http://youtu.be/ZoOAkpK9Oho The Moodle Text Editor - Atto] MoodleBites video on YouTube
 
*[http://youtu.be/bBZQYGcDaMg Moodle 2.0 HTML Editor - Row 1] MoodleBites video on YouTube 
*[http://youtu.be/uS_M6-eHsxE Moodle 2.0 HTML Editor - Row 2] MoodleBites video on YouTube  
*[http://youtu.be/3rRztnWkhuY Moodle 2.0 HTML Editor - Row 3]  MoodleBites video on YouTube
 
===Other===
 
* [[Text editor FAQ]]
* [[Text editor FAQ]]
* [[Embedded files repository]]
* [[Embedded files repository]]
* [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=258631 New 2.7 Equation Editor - Missing Key Items] forum discussion and associated issue MDL-45067


[[Category:Site administration]]
[[Category:Site administration]]

Revision as of 10:30, 22 October 2015

The text editor (sometimes referred to as the 'HTML editor') has many icons to assist the user in entering content. Many of these icons and functions should be familiar to anyone who uses a word processor. However, writing for the web on the web is different, and especially with accessibility and design considerations Atto sometimes you may not do what you expect with a normal editor, or even the old default editor in Moodle.

For some comment on this, please see this post

Some examples of where you will see the text editor include: Editing Section headings, description of an activity, writing an answer to a quiz question or editing the content of many blocks.

The default text editor in Moodle is the Atto editor, built specifically for Moodle. There is also a version of the TinyMCE editor and a plain text editor.

Text editors can be enabled, disabled or a different one set to default from Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Text editors > Manage editors. The order of priority may also be specified here.

An individual user can select an editor in their profile from Administration > My Profile settings > Edit profile.

Atto HTML editor

New feature
in Moodle 2.7!


Atto1.png

Atto Row 1


1:Expand 2.Style 3.Bold 4.Italic
5.Bulleted list 6.Numbered list 7.Add link 8.Unlink
9.Add image 10.Add media 11.Manage embedded files


Atto22.png

Atto Row 2

1. Underline 2. Strikethrough 3. Subscript 4. Superscript
5. Align left 6. Align centre 7. Align right 8. Increase indent
9. Decrease indent 10. Equation editor 11. Special character 12. Table
13. Clear formatting 14. Undo/redo 15. Undo/redo 16. Accessibility checker
17. Screenreader helper 18. HTML/code view

Equation editor

New feature
in Moodle 2.7!
If either the MathJax or the TeX notation filters are enabled (in Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Filters > Manage filters) then an equation editor button is provided in the toolbar for launching the equation editor.

Equation editor

Site administration settings

Toolbar settings

The administrator can specify which plugins to display and in which order from Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Text editors > Atto HTML editor > Atto toolbar settings.

Atto Plugins

Toolbar config table

The toolbar is split into groups of related buttons. The format for the config setting is:

groupname1 = button1, button2, button3 groupname2 = button1, button2, button3

The group names on the left have no effect on how the toolbar works; they just need to be different for each button (and no spaces please). The list of buttons says which button goes in which group and in what order. The exact word to insert here for each button is listed in the "Toolbar config" column above.

The reason there are names for the groups is that it helps to make you think about how to group the buttons sensibly and not just stick new buttons in random locations. Ie. all the buttons in the "files" group interact with the file picker in some way

Adding extra buttons

Extra plugins from the list (for example 'Font color' or 'Emoticon') may be added by typing the toolbarconfig term into the toolbar config table.

toolbarconfig.png

Here for example are the available colours when 'fontcolor' is added:

fontcolor.png

The icons are displayed in related groups and the administrator can decide how many groups to display in the default collapsed state of the toolbar (that is, how many groups to display on Row 1).

Non default Atto plugins

Not all plugins are enabled by default and the administrator of each site should give careful thought as to which plugins they choose to enable for their users. Here are some things to consider before enabling the non-default plugins:

Background colour / Font colour

While these are very popular plugins, there are downsides to enabling their use on a site. Firstly - user specified colours may conflict visually with the site colours chosen by the theme designer. Even if the colours of the content does not conflict with the colours of the current theme, if the theme is changed in future, or the content is reused on a different site conflicts may be introduced. There are 2 possible types of conflicts, the first is just a visually unappealing combination of colours, the second is a combination of colours that may produce text that is hard to read for some people. It is preferable if the theme designer uses some interesting colours that meet the accessibility standards required for the site in the theme for the site, and the person creating the content simply uses the proper heading levels (for example) to make use of those styles.

Emoticons

The emoticon plugin inserts text representations of the emoticons in the content. The emoticon filter is responsible for converting these text sequences into proper smiley images. The emoticon filter is not enabled by default, which is why the emoticon plugin for Atto is not enabled by default.

No-auto link

In general, the more plugins are added to the Atto toolbar, the harder it becomes to find specific plugins. Because the no-auto link plugin is not felt to be widely used it is not enabled by default.

Right to left

Because this plugin is only useful for courses where text needs to be written in a mixture of both "left to right" and "right to left" languages, it is not enabled by default.

Moodle plugins directory

There are more plugins available for Atto than just those included in a default install. See the Moodle plugins directory for additional plugins. Some example plugins include the following.

Toggle preview

This plugin allows you view the content as it would be seen by a reader.

Chemistry plugins

There are a number of chemistry plugins that support chemistry equations and structures.

Text import plugins

There are a number of plugins that support importing text from other sources. The Paste special plugin minimises the amount of superfluous HTML markup included when pasting content from an external editor such as Microsoft Word.

The Word import plugin supports dragging and dropping Word documents into the text box, and cleanly imports the entire contents including embedded images, tables, headings, etc. It also imports Microsoft Equation Editor equations as MathML, which can then be displayed using MathJax.

Equation editor settings

Equation editor commands may be removed, added or reordered in Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Text editors > Atto HTML editor > Equation editor settings.

equationeditor.png

Dragging/dropping images into the text editor

See also