Using the Moodle Text Editor Tool

Within Moodle you may choose to format the content in a text box, add an image or insert a URL within a specific activity in a module such as a Moodle forum message. In order to do this you will need the Moodle toolbar. In most interactive activities on Moodle a toolbar will appear at the top of text boxes where you are required to add content.

Expand the toolbar
  1. First click on Toggle icon to expand the Toolbar
  2. This will then display all the formatting options. Many of the formatting options are like those in Microsoft Word e.g. changing text size and font, adding colours and bullet points. Hover your mouse over each of the icons to find out what the option does

To insert a link to a URL

  1. Click on the link icon (to link to a bit of text, highlight the text first)
  2. Type in the link/URL address
  3. Tick open in new window
  4. Click Create link

To insert an image

  1. You can either drag and drop the image directly into the text box from your computer
  2. OR click on the image icon
    1. Click on Browse repositories (this should take you the Upload a file option)
    2. Click on Browse to find the document on your computer
    3. Click Upload this file
    4. You will then be given the option to add a description (you may want to add who owns the image or what image is of)
    5. You can indicate the size it should be
    6. You can decide where it will sit in the post e.g. to the right of the text
    7. Then click Save image
  3. Once the image appears on the page you can click on it to change any of the necessary settings

 

To insert a link to a document

  1. Click on the link icon (to link to a bit of text, highlight the text first)
  2. Click on Browse repositories (this should take you the Upload a file option)
  3. Click on Browse to find the document on your computer
  4. Click Upload this file

Breakdown of all the Text Editor options

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. Text typed into the Atto editor is automatically saved if you leave the page. If the user accidentally closes the tab or otherwise leaves the form without submitting, the text in the editor will be restored next time they open the page. To discard a restored draft, the user needs to cancel the form or press the “Undo” button in the editor.

Text Editor Functions

Text Editor Row 1

  1. Expand the menu to view all functions
  2. Text Style e.g. headings
  3. Font size
  4. Font type
  5. Bold text
  6. Italicise text
  7. Bulleted list
  8. Numbered list
  9. Add link
  10. Remove link
  11. Add image
  12. Add media
  13. Record audio (50 MB limit)
  14. Add/Embed Panopto video/audio
  15. Add/embed Planet eStream media
  16. Record video (50 MB limit)
  17. H5P (more information to come)

Additional functions are revealed by selecting the ‘expand’ (1) icon as shown below;

Text Editor Row 2

  1. Underline text
  2. Strikethrough text
  3. Subscript
  4. Superscript
  5. Align text left/centre/right
  6. Decrease/increase indent text
  7. Change colour of the font
  8. Add highlighter colour to font
  9. Equation editor
  10. Special character
  11. Create a table
  12. Clear all word formatting
  13. Undo/redo changes to content
  14. Accessibility checker – One of the tools available in the text editor is an automated accessibility checker which checks for some common errors in the text. These are usually things in the way the text is constructed that can prevent all users from having equal access to information and functionality. The list of problems that the accessibility checker looks for is:
    • Images with missing or empty alt text (unless they have the presentation role)
    • Contrast of font colour and background colour meets WCAG AA guidelines
    • Long blocks of text are sufficiently broken up into headings
    • All tables require captions
    • Tables should not contain merged cells as they are difficult to navigate with screen readers
    • All tables should contain row or column headers
  15. Screenreader help -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.
  16. HTML/code view
  17.  Expand the text editor window

Read more information on using Text Editors here.