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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.
==Using a text editor==


'''Note:''' It's possible to disable the TinyMCE editor and only use a plain text editor from ''Administration>Site administration>Plugins>Text editors>Manage editors.''
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.


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


{|
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.
|[[File:26tinymce1.png|250px|thumb|Collapsed view]]
 
|[[File:26tinymce2.png|250px|thumb|Expanded view]]
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.
|}
 
If more than one text editor is enabled, users can select their preferred editor via their preferences page in the user menu (top right).
 
==Atto HTML editor==
 
[[File:Atto1.png]]


==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="wikitable"
|-
|-
|-
|-
| 1:Expand
| 1:Expand
| 2.Formatting
| 2.Style
| 3.Bold
| 3.Bold
| 4.Italic
| 4.Italic
Line 34: Line 32:
| 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
| 16.Non-breaking space
|-
| 17.Special character
| 18.Table
|
|
|}
Row 3


{|
[[File:Atto22.png]]
|[[File:26tinymcerow3.png|400px|thumb]]
 
|}
Atto Row 2


{| class="nicetable"
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|-
|-
|-
| 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.Clean up messy code
| 6. Align centre
| 7.Remove formatting
| 7. Align right
| 8.Plain text paste
| 8. Increase indent
|-
|-
| 9.MS Word paste
| 9. Decrease indent
| 10.Toggle full screen
| 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
|}
|}
===Image drag and drop===


===Colour pickers===
{{New features}}If your browser allows it (and if it does, you will see a message at the top of your screen when the editing is on) you can add images into the Atto editor simply by dragging them from your computer:
*[[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
[[File:Attodragdrop29.png|thumb|600px|center|Drag an image directly into the editor]]
#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==
===Autosave===


===Manage editors===
Text typed into the Atto editor is automatically saved if you leave the page. The default of 60 seconds may be changed by the administrator in ''Site administration>Plugins>Text editors>Atto HTML editor>Atto toolbar settings.'' If the user accidentally closes the tab or otherwise leaves the form without submitting, the text in the editor will be restored next time he opens the page. To discard  a restored draft, the  user needs to cancel the form or press the "Undo" button in the editor.
[[File:AtttoAutosave.png|thumb|600px|center]]


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.
===Screenreader helper===


===TinyMCE editor settings===
Screen readers basically treat a content editable region like a text box - which is wrong, because it can contain images, links and more.


The TinyMCE  HTML editor has its own settings page ''Administration>Site administration>Plugins>Text editors>TinyMCE HTML editor>General settings'' with the following options:
The screen reader helper provides additional information about the currently selected text (e.g. is it bold), as well as a listing of any images or links in the text.


====Plugins====
==Equation editor==
*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]])


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.
{|
{|
|[[File:26embeddedfiles1.png|thumb|The Manage files button]]
| [[File:equation editor.png|thumb|Equation editor]]
|
|[[File:26embeddefiles2.png|thumb|Managing embedded files from within TinyMCE]]
|}
|}


=====Insert equation=====
==Site administration settings==
 
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.
 
=====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
===Toolbar settings===
{|
|[[File:Browserspellcheck.png|thumb|Right-click+CTRL for browser spellcheck]]
|}


'''NOTE:'''
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''.
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.
[[File:atto-plugins.png|thumb|center|450px|Atto Plugins]]


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 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


You can select a different spell engine from ''Administration> Site administration > Plugins > Text editors > TinyMCE HTML editor>Check spelling'' 
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===
|[[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."
Extra plugins from the list (for example 'Font color' or 'Emoticon') may be added by typing the toolbarconfig term into the toolbar config table.


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.
[[File:toolbarconfig.png]]


===Customising the editor toolbar===
Here for example are the available colours when 'fontcolor' is added:


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]
[[File: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).
| [[File:editortoolbar.png|thumb|The Editor toolbar box]]
|[[File:horizontalrule.png|thumb|Example of simpler toolbar with added horizontal rule button]]
|[[File:inserttime.png|thumb|An "insert time" button has been added]]


====Autosave frequency====
Text is automatically saved at regular intervals so it may be restored when the user returns to a form they had previously left. This setting allows the administrator to specify the time between autosaves. The default is one minute.
==== 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 do 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.
|[[File:bottomtoolbar.png|thumb| Example 1:Toolbar at the bottom]]
|[[File:customstyles.png|thumb| Example 2: Custom styles]]
|}


*Example: Moving the toolbar to the bottom:
===== Toggle preview =====
This plugin allows you view the content as it would be seen by a reader.


Add the following:
===== Chemistry plugins =====
{"theme_advanced_toolbar_location" : "bottom"}
There are a number of chemistry plugins that support chemistry equations and structures.


*Example: Adding your own custom styles.
===== Text import plugins =====
(This might be useful for example if you want a "house style" for important notes, key points or similar)
There are a number of plugins that support importing text from other sources.
In the editor toolbar, enter "styleselect" and then in the custom box add the following code, changing it to suit your purposes:
The [https://moodle.org/plugins/view/atto_pastespecial Paste special] plugin minimises the amount of superfluous HTML markup
{"style_formats" : [
included when pasting content from an external editor such as Microsoft Word.
  {"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:
The [https://docs.moodle.org/29/en/Atto_Word_import 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.


    {"style_formats" : [
===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:
Equation editor commands may be removed, added or reordered in ''Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Text editors > Atto HTML editor > Equation editor settings''.


{"paste_retain_style_properties" : "margin, padding, width, height, font-size,
[[File:equationeditor.png]]
  font-weight, font-family, color, text-align, ul, ol, li,
  text-decoration, border, background, float, display"}


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


* [http://youtu.be/GNQSK_fPV98 Moodle HQ screencast demonstrating Atto editor]
* [http://youtu.be/ZoOAkpK9Oho The Moodle Text Editor - Atto] MoodleBites video on YouTube
* [[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
* [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=265176 No option to re-size with Atto and 2.7+]


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

Latest revision as of 15:17, 10 August 2021

Using a text editor

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.

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.

If more than one text editor is enabled, users can select their preferred editor via their preferences page in the user menu (top right).

Atto HTML editor

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

Image drag and drop

New feature
in Moodle 2.9! If your browser allows it (and if it does, you will see a message at the top of your screen when the editing is on) you can add images into the Atto editor simply by dragging them from your computer:

Drag an image directly into the editor

Autosave

Text typed into the Atto editor is automatically saved if you leave the page. The default of 60 seconds may be changed by the administrator in Site administration>Plugins>Text editors>Atto HTML editor>Atto toolbar settings. If the user accidentally closes the tab or otherwise leaves the form without submitting, the text in the editor will be restored next time he opens the page. To discard a restored draft, the user needs to cancel the form or press the "Undo" button in the editor.

AtttoAutosave.png

Screenreader helper

Screen readers basically treat a content editable region like a text box - which is wrong, because it can contain images, links and more.

The screen reader helper provides additional information about the currently selected text (e.g. is it bold), as well as a listing of any images or links in the text.

Equation editor

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).

Autosave frequency

Text is automatically saved at regular intervals so it may be restored when the user returns to a form they had previously left. This setting allows the administrator to specify the time between autosaves. The default is one minute.

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 do 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

See also

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