How to Properly Use the RTF Editor - Students

The safest ways to put text into an RTF (Rich Text Format) editor box [pictured below] are to type it in directly, copy & paste from Word using the Paste from Word button on the RTF editor box toolbar, or copy paste from another RTF editor – like Microsoft Windows WordPad, or a plain text editor – like Windows Notepad.

Type text directly into the RTF Editor box

After typing text directly into the RTF editor box, clicking on the (View/Edit Source) button on the toolbar opens a window showing the underlying html code that is saved with the text. Your browser uses the html code to determine how to display the text on a web page.

If you then apply some formatting to the text – for example making the words “RTF editor box” bold using the B (Bold) button on the toolbar, and then view the source again, you will see some additional html has been added…

Let’s say now you need to edit or replace the text already entered previously in an RTF editor. So, you select all the text and press the Delete key, or right click and select Cut. The text entry area appears empty, but if you click on the View/Edit Source button again, you will see that some of the html code remains.

Important: When text is repeatedly edited, you can end up with a lot of extra, no longer needed html code that can cause newly entered text not to appear as intended. So, if the newly revised text is not displaying properly or you want to replace all the text, display the source, select everything in the source editor box (Ctrl-A) and delete it, then click apply and ok.

Copy & Paste from Microsoft Word

When you create a document in a word processor, there are lots of hidden, embedded codes similar to the html codes shown above. However, those codes are intended for a Printer, not a web page. And, all those codes are copied with the text when you copy and paste the text…

This is just some of the embedded code that was inserted along with the text – there was so much I needed to scroll down in the window so you could see the text as well as the codes….

Now your browser has to look through all this extra code and try to interpret it to display the text on a web page.

The results are sometimes unpredictable…

If you have already created documents in a word processor, you have several options for transferring the text into the RTF editor boxes in WebStudy. You could copy and paste the text from the word processor into the RTF editor box using the Paste from Word button on the RTF Editor toolbar. See example next page:

Clicking the Paste from Word option opens a window where you can use Ctrl-V to Paste your text into the window. Then Click the “ok” button. This pastes the text without any unnecessary printer codes.

Save As Rich Text Format(*.rtf)

Special Characters and Math Symbols

Use the “Special Characters” icon to insert correctly HTML formatted characters such as foreign language letters and fractions.

To insert correctly HTML formatted Math symbols, use the “Equation Editor” icons .

Please see “How To Use the Equation Editor Students” for more detailed information on using the Equation Editor options.

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