Using Page

Why a page and not a file?

1. Opens seamlessly - no clunky attempts to launch third party software (e.g. Microsoft Word) which some users may not be able to access.
2. Can be accessed by mobile devices e.g. smartphones (again, not all smartphones can handle word-processed documents)
3. Much easier for the Teacher to edit (i.e. saves time)
4. Much more accessible, and readily configurable for reading (easier to resize text, change colours, etc, in the web browser)
5. Can contain links - e.g. to files, to web pages, or to Glossary entries

When to use a page rather than a file

Use a page if:

• The document doesn't need to be printed
• You need to update it fairly often
• You don't need to impose strict control over the way it looks (for accessibility reasons you should, if educationally appropriate, avoid taking control)
• Your students may need to refer to it (on their smartphone for example) frequently for reference e.g. timetable, schedule, tutorial groups, reading list.

How to create a page

Typing directly into the Editor

See Page module settings

Drag and drop text into a page

It's possible to select text from a website or a word processed document and create a page by drag and drop.

Note: this does not work with IE, Safari 6 or below and is unreliable with Firefox

• Drag and drop upload of text/links must be enabled in Administration > Site administration > Development > Experimental > Experimental settings
• Select the text you wish to use, for example in a Word document. Note: Pasting from MS Word is fraught with danger. See #Pasting from another document below.
• With the editing turned on, drag the text over to the section you want it to appear.
• From the box that appears, choose "Create a new page resource"
• Give it a name and then click "upload".

Select your text and drag into the course page

Give your page a name

The page is created

View of the page created from dragged and dropped text

Pasting from another document

To safeguard against unpredictable, ugly, and inaccessible results, it's important to take some easy extra steps when pasting word processed and other text into web authoring software including Moodle.

1. Open the document containing the text you want to paste into your new Page, and copy that text ready to paste.
2. Follow steps 1-6 for the section above on 'Typing directly into the editor'.
3. When you are ready to paste the content into Moodle, you have two choices:
   • If you want to keep the original formatting then click the Paste From Word icon; a pane loads containing an empty text field and you can press your keyboard's Control and V keys to paste what you copied into the text field; then click the Insert button; your text appears and can be edited within learn.gold. N.b. if the original formatting does not conform to Web accessibility requirements, it won't be transferred.
   • Alternatively, if you want to strip away all formatting, rather than the Paste From Word icon you instead click the Paste As Plain Text icon and proceed to paste directly.
4. Follow steps 8-9 for the section above on 'Typing directly into the editor'.