Blackboard Content Editor

The Content Editor is used when you create or edit Blackboard elements like Items and Pages. The editor is used entirely online, in a web browser, and looks similar to a basic word processor in that it has a toolbar across the top of the editing window. Read more about specific editor features below.

Toolbar Overview

The simplified editor is available on content pages (like lesson Activities pages), discussions, items, and tests.

The toolbar is fully responsive and will adapt to the screen size. As your screen width changes, some buttons may move from the top row to the next row or vice versa. The relative location of all buttons will remain the same. In other words, they will stay in the same left-to-right order as shown here.

Button Functions

Continue reading to learn about the button functions included in the toolbar, in order.

Undo/Redo

Use the undo or redo button to undo or redo recent changes in your document.

Styles Drop down List

The styles button applies styles to your text. This is a critical practice for writing Accessible pages. Most of the text on your page will be styled as a paragraph. When you need to add a heading or subheading...

1. Type the text of the heading on its own line
2. Select the text you typed
3. Use the styles dropdown button to apply the appropriate heading level or other style

Buttons for Formatting Text

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• Bold text. Use bold for emphasis, such as keywords. For optimal effect, use sparingly.
• Italicize text. Use to format titles of novels, movies, etc.
• Clear formatting. Highlight a selection of the text on your page, then click to remove formatting.
• Text color. Highlight existing text, then change the color by choosing from the available colors. Use sparingly. Remember, text color must have sufficient contrast against its background. Best to stick to black, very dark gray, etc. Red is a poor choice due to Accessibility and blue is a poor choice because the text may look like a hyperlink and confuse user.
• Background color. This has the effect of "highlighting" text. Use sparingly and be mindful that color combinations need to meet Accessibility contrast standards.

Check whether your color combinations meet Accessibility standards

Links

Insert links to web pages or online documents in the cloud, such as OneDrive documents. When pasting links to websites such as YouTube, the videos are automatically embedded for inline playback.

Lists and Indenting

• Use the bulleted list icon for lists that are not sequential.
  • TIP: Lists are usually easier for the online viewer to digest than paragraphs are. If you find yourself making a list in a paragraph, consider formatting as a list by breaking into separate lines, highlighting those lines, then clicking the list button.
• Numbered lists are excellent for steps in a process, such as steps in completing an activity or when readings are sequential.
• Increase or decrease indents using the indent buttons.
  • TIP: To make nested lists (lists with sub-lists in them), first write ALL steps on separate lines, then make the entire series into a list using the appropriate button. Finally, highlight the lines that belong to the sub-list and increase their indent. They should automatically become a nested list. Revise or change their list type and style using the list buttons. (See? Wouldn't this be even easier to read if it were a list instead of a paragraph?)

Cut | Copy | Paste | Find & Replace

• Select content, then cut or copy.
• Paste content. Some browsers may not support this function. In that case, use CTRL+V on a PC or CMD+V on a Mac to paste.
  • As before you can paste directly from a webpage or document into the Content Editor using CTRL+V on a PC or CMD+V on a Mac. Now you will be asked if you would like to keep or remove the formatting:
  • Even when Remove Formatting is selected some formatting (headings, bold, italics) and links remain.
  • Under most circumstances, it is recommended that the Remove Formatting option is selected. This prevents incompatible code from websites and documents (like MS Word) from conflicting with pages in Blackboard.
• Use Find and Replace when you want to swap out words or phrases. Clicking this icon will launch a sub-menu, shown below:
  

Text Align: Left | Center | Right

For Accessibility and Usability reasons, it is best to leave your text aligned to the left unless you have a specific case for altering the alignment, such as centering a poem.

Math and Code

• Use the MathType button to write mathematical equations, formulas, and so on.
• Supercript and subscript buttons can be used as a quick way to insert exponents and such inline.
  • The Insert/Edit code sample button can be used for instructors who need to show examples of computer coding.

    More about the Code Sample Button

    The new Code Sample tool allows code snippets to be displayed and properly formatted inline without being processed as actual code and removed for security reasons. There is an extensive list of program languages that this tool can display: Select the language you want, type or paste the script into the Code Sample tool and it will display formatted inline.

Block quote | Special Characters | Horizontal Line

• Instantly format a block quote using the block quote button.
• Add special characters for foreign languages, etc.
• Add a horizontal line in your lesson page. Use sparingly. The Instructional Designers in Online Learning can help you find better strategies for chunking your online content than just throwing in a line ;)

Tables

Easily insert a table. Once you have a table in your document and are editing that table, a floating table menu will also appear to help you add or delete columns or rows.

Accessibility Checker | Spell Checker

• Before submitting your changes click on the Accessibility Checker. This will show any issues with, for example, images without alternative text, colored text contrast ratio, and the lack of formatting such as lists and headings, which are used by assistive technology. The checker uses WCAG 2.0 guidelines.
• The spell check button can help you find errors in your pages.

Preview | Full Screen

• The preview button will show you what your document will look like.
• The full screen button expands the editing area to your entire browser size. Please note that you will need to exit the full screen mode to restore your Submit button, which is necessary for saving your changes.

Source Code | Insert/Edit media

• The source code button will open a window with the HTML code of your page. The code can be edited and saved. This button is best reserved for those who understand HTML, at a minimum.
• Insert media will let you add media to your page. Many users find this to be an easy way to embed Kaltura media, for example.

Add Content

• The Add Content button will open a menu that lets you select content from multiple sources.
  • More detail about using this feature can be found here.
• The Help button opens useful explanations about the tools found in the editor. It even includes a handy reference of keyboard shortcuts.

Tips

Expand the toolbar

• If you can see only one row of the toolbar, instead of the full three rows, click on the ellipsis on the right to expand it.

Avoid excessive formatting

• Please avoid excessive formatting - e.g. the use of multiple fonts and variously colored fonts - as this can be distracting for users and cause accessibility issues. To keep your documents usable and accessible, rely on the Styles dropdown menu to create headings.
• The default styles applied by Blackboard should be responsive and accessible.

Inserting Mathematical and Scientific symbols

• The Mathematics uses WIRIS MathType. For details please see using the (math editor image) Math Editor (Blackboard Help page).
• The editor also allows you to insert symbols useful for Chemistry - see the Chemistry page on the MathType web site.

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