The Content Editor in Blackboard

Exploded View of Content Editor Toolbars

Quick Guide

Text Styles

/ / Applies the selected text style (Bold, Italics, Underline and Strikethrough)

Paragraph and Heading Formats

/ / Applies the selected paragraph format

Fonts

/ / Applies the selected font

Bullet List

/ / Applies the selected style of bullet list

Numbered List

/ / Applies the selected style of numbered list

Text Color

/ / Applies the selected color to text

Highlight Color

/ / Applies the selected highlight color to text

Erase Formatting

/ / Erases formatting from text

Editor Controls

/ / Tools that alter the display of the Content Editor

Cut, Copy, Paste, Find/Replace

/ / Tools for cut, copy, paste and find/replace operations

Undo, Redo

/ / Tools to undo and redo operations

Paragraph Alignment

/ / Applies the selected alignment to paragraph text

Ident, Outdent

/ / Applies indent or outdent to paragraph text

Superscript, Subscript

/ / Applies superscript or subscript to text

Insert/Edit Link, Remove Link

/ / Tools to insert, edit or remove a hyperlink

Direction Left-to-Right, Direction Right-to-Left

/ / Tools to control direction of text

Line, Horizontal Rule, Non-breaking Space

/ / Tools to insert a line, horizontal rule, or non-breaking space

Spell Check

/ / Turns spell check on or off

Insert Media

/ / Inserts or attaches media

Mashups

/ / Inserts mashups

Insert/Control Special Text

/ / Inserts and controls display of special text

Table Operators

/ / Tools to operate on tables

Detailed Guide

Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough (Text Styles)

Bold inserts strong tags <strong</strong>
Italics inserts emphasis tags <em</em
Underlineinserts span tags <span</span> with a style definition:
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Lorem ipsum</span>
Strikethroughinserts span tags <span</span> with a style definition:
<p<span style="text-decoration: line-through;">Lorem ipsum</span</p>

You can apply multiple effects to selected text.

Format (Paragraph and Heading Formats)

Headinginserts HTML heading 4 tags <h4</h4>

Sub Heading 1inserts HTML heading 5 tags <h5</h5>
Sub Heading 2inserts HTML heading 6 tags <h6</h6>
Paragraphinserts HTML paragraph tags<p</p>
Formatted Codeinserts HTML preformatted tags <pre</pre>. This format displays text in a fixed-width font (such as Courier), determined by system settings. It also preserves all internal spacing and line breaks, ordinarily concatenated in HTML. This can be useful for aligning columns of data without using a table.

Text can have only one of these formats at a time. The appearance of the format will depend upon browser, style sheets, etc.

Font Family

/ FontFamilyshows the font family of selected text. The drop arrow show offers an assortment of font-families. The display in the drop boxtypifies the appearance of the fontfamily, but the appearance is actually dependent on your browser. Blackboard defines this list, and this is not the list of fonts on your computer, as seen in other applications.
Blackboard inserts span tags <span</span> with a style statement, such as:
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Lorem ipsum</span>

Font Size

/ Font Sizeshows the font size of selectedtext. The drop arrow displays different font sizes. Blackboard inserts span tags <span</span> with a style statement that specifies a standard HMTL font-size like “small” and “large,” such as:
<span style="font-size: small;">Lorem ipsum</span>
These descriptive sizes approximate the displayed point values. If other style effects are already in place, Blackboard adds the font-size to the existing style statement.

Bullet List (Unordered List)

/ Blackboardinserts unordered list tags <ul</ul> and list item tags <li</li>. The drop arrow displays different types of unordered lists.Blackboard modifies the <ul> tag with a style statement, such as:
ul style="list-style-type: circle;"<li>Lorem ipsum</li</ul

Default inserts unordered list tags but no style definition. The default display is usually a solid black dot, ●.

Circle displays an open circle,○
Disc displays a solid black dot,●—normally the same as Default
Square displays a solid black square,■

Numbered List (Ordered List)

/ Blackboardinserts ordered list tags <ol</ol> and list item tags <li</li>. The drop arrow displays different types of ordered lists. Blackboard modifies the <ul> tag with a style statement, such as:
ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;"<li>Lorem ipsum</li</ul

Default inserts ordered list tags but no style definition. The default usually begins a list of Arabic numbers followed by periods, such as 1.

Lower Alphabegins a list of a lower-case Roman letters followed by periods, such as a.
Lower Greek begins a list of a lower-case Greek letters followed by periods, such as α.
Lower Roman begins a list of a lower-case Roman numerals followed by periods, such as i.
Upper Alphabegins a list of a upper-case Roman letters followed by periods, such as A.
Upper Romanbegins a list of a upper-case Roman numerals followed by periods, such as I.

Text Color

/ Text Colorapplies the chosen color to selected text. The drop arrow displays differ palettes. Blackboard inserts spantags <span</span> with a style definition, such as:
<span style="color: #ff0000;">Lorem ipsum</span>
Once you apply a color, the T icon displays the chosen color. You can continue to apply this color to selected text by repeatedly clicking the T.

Highlight

/ Highlight appliesthe chosen highlight color to selected text. The drop arrow displays differ palettes. Blackboard inserts spantags <span</span> with a style definition, such as:
<span style="background-color: #ff0000;">Lorem ipsum</span>
Once you apply a color, the highlighter icon displays the color. You can continue to apply this color to selected text by repeatedly clicking the highlighter icon.

Remove Formatting

/ Remove Formatting removes style definitions from selected text. It does not delete tags like <h4>, etc.

Preview, Help, Full Screen, Show Less/More

Previewdisplays content in a window outside of the editor
Helpopens a help window about the text editor buttons
Full Screenexpands the Content Editor window
Show Less toggles a one-line toolbar

Cut, Copy, Paste, Find

Cutcuts selected text and places it on the system clipboard
Copycopies selected text and places it on the system clipboard
Pastepastes text from the system clipboard
Findfinds and/or replaces text as you specify. A dialog allows you to control the direction of the search, up or down, and provides an option to match case.

Undo, Redo

/ UndoandRedo iterate stepsbackwards or forwards in the sequence of actions recently taken in the text editor.

Align Left, Center, Align Right, Align Full

Align Left aligns paragraph text flush to the left margin
Align Center centers paragraph text between the right and left margins
Align Right aligns paragraph text flush to the right margin
Align Fullalignsor justifies paragraph text to both the left and right margins simultaneously

Depending on your choice, Blackboard modifies the paragraph tag with a style statement, such as:
<p style="text-align: right;">Lorem ipsum</p>

Indent, Outdent

/ IndentandOutdentiteratively increases or decreases the indentation of aparagraph. Blackboard modifies the paragraph tag with a style statement, such as:
<p style="margin-left: 30px;">Lorem ipsum</p>

Superscript, Subscript

/ Superscript raises (but does not shrink) text by inserting a pair of HTML superscript <sup</sup> tags. Subscript lowers (but does not shrink) text by inserting a pair of HTML subscript <sub</sub> tags. You can combine superscript or subscript with font-size modification.

Insert/Edit Link, Remove Link

/ Insert/Edit Link pops-up a dialog where you define the URL and other parameters for selected text. Blackboard inserts a pair of anchor tags <a</a> including your parameters, such as:
<a href=" ipsum</a>
Remove Link removes the <a</a> tag pair and all associated parameters.

Direction Left to Right, Direction Right toLeft

/ Direction Left to Rightmodifies the paragraph tag to cause text to align to the left margin. Since left-to-right is the default for systems set up for American English, the Direction Left-to-Right tool has no perceptible effect. Direction Right to Left modifies the paragraph tag to cause text to align to the right margin:
<p dir="rtl">Lorem ipsum</p>
The appearance of dir=”rtl” is identfical to a right-aligned paragraph. Dir=”rtl” does not reverse the insertion of characters as would be needed to type languages like Hebrew or Arabic.

Line, Horizontal Line, Insert Nonbreaking Space Character

Line inserts an HTML horizontal rule tag, </hr
Horizontal Rule pops-up a dialog defining certain style properties of the <hr> tag, such as height
Insert Nonbreaking Space inserts a non-breaking space. (Note: The HTML non-breaking space code ( ) does not display in the HTML view in Blackboard.)

Toggle Spell Checker

/ Toggle Spell Checkertoggles real-time detection of spelling errors. The drop box displays three languages for spell-check: US English, Spanish, and UK English.

Browse My YouTube Videos, Insert File, Insert/Edit Image, Insert/Edit Embedded Media, Launch Math Editor

YouTube – Inserts YouTube media from a personal account
Attach – Attaches a file of any type
Images – Inserts an image
Media – Inserts a media file
Equation – Inserts an equation

Insert Mashup

/ Mashups allow you to embed media mashups from:

Panopto
YouTube
SlideShare
Flickr

When you choose a source, a dialog allows you to search that source for content, and then embeds the content in a mash-up format.

Show Nonprinting Characters, Blockquote, Symbol, Emoticons, Anchor

Show Nonprinting Characters toggles to show or hide HTML non-printing characters like   (the non-breaking space). Blackboard hides the   code in its HTML view. This tool indicates the presence of non-breaking spaces and other non-printing characters, with a gray highlight.
Blockquote embeds blockquote tags blockquote</blockquote> around selected text or the paragraph in which the insertion point is located. This indents text from both margins.
Emoticons displays a dialog offering 16 emoticons to insert.
Anchor inserts a named but empty pair of anchors tags, such as:
<a id=”Top”</a>
This creates a “jump to” point in the document. You can jump to the anchor point from another place in the document (or even another document) by inserting a hyperlink calling the anchor point, such as:
<a href=”#Top”>Top of Page</a>.

Table Operators

/ The 10 right-most table operators only become active once you insert a table in the page using the first operator. There are small + and – indicators on the icons to help differentiate the tools’ functions.

Insert/Edit Table opens a dialog that enables you to specify a number of table parameters, such as the number of rows and columns. Blackboard inserts pairs of table-related HTML tags, with a variety of span and style definitions, according to your choices.
Table Row Properties opens a dialog that enables you to set properties for the row or rows selected, or the row in which the insertion point is located.
Table Cell Properties opens a dialog that enables you to set properties for the cell or cells selected, or the cell in which the insertion point is located.
Insert Row Before inserts the same number of rows selected above the first row in the selection, or a single row above the row in which the insertion point is located.
Insert Row After inserts the same number of rows selected below the last row in the selection, or a single row below the row in which the insertion point is located.
Delete Row deletes the row or rows selected, or the row in which the insertion point is located
Insert Column Before inserts the same number of columns selected to the left of the left-most column in the selection, or a single column to the left of the column in which the insertion point is located.
Insert Column After inserts the same number of columns selected to the right of the right-most column in the selection, or a single column to the right of the column in which the insertion point is located.
Delete Column deletes the column or columns selected, or the column in which the insertion point is located.
Merge Cells merges two or more pre-selected cells, either horizontally or vertically. If only the insertion point is in a cell, this operator opens a dialog that allows you to define the merge.
Split Merged Cells restores the number of previously mergedhorizontal (and empty) cells. This operator does not split a previously unmerged cell, and does not operate on vertically merged cells.

HTML Code View, Edit CSS Style

HTML Code View toggles between the default WYSIWYG view and an HTML code editor.
Edit CSS Style opens a complex dialog with Text, Background, Block, Box, Border, List and Positioning tabs. The editor translates the selections you make, in the dialog, into corresponding CSS statements in the HTML code of the page.