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General information
If your instructor has created a class blogging site, he or she might have activated a third-party plug-in for "advanced HTML editing" when you enter or edit your blog posts.
When that plug-in is turned on, you have the ability to perform direct WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") editing with fonts, links, images, etc. When turned off, or when your browser doesn't support this feature, only basic editing routines will be available.
Only your instructor can activate or deactivate the advanced editor, so if you experience problems with the editor, you should notify him or her.
Platform/Browser implementations
The nature of this plug-in means there are various issues with different platforms and browsers. Some browsers (especially older versions) simply don't work with the plug-in, while others offer only partial functionality. Unfortunately, there's little we can do to offer a uniform experience across the full range of hardware and software in use by SRJC students.
In general, it appears Firefox offers the best overall performance and the fewest quirks when using advanced HTML editing.
In all cases, if you attempt to use advanced HTML editing with a browser that doesn't support the plug-in, the CATE system should automatically switch over to basic editing.
Here are some notes about issues with various browsers.
Windows
- Firefox: Overall, the best performance.
- Flock: Unknown.
- Internet Explorer: Generally good performance, but some quirkiness. A simple "enter" is treated as a double-space (P tag) while a "shift-enter" is required for a single-space (BR tag).
- Mozilla: Unknown.
- Netscape: Generally good performance.
- Opera: Not supported at all.
- Safari 3.x: Generally good performance.
Mac
- Camino: Unknown.
- Firefox: Overall, the best performance.
- Internet Explorer: Not supported at all.
- Netscape: Generally good performance.
- Opera: Not supported at all.
- Safari 3.x: Generally good performance.
- Safari 1.x and 2.x: Not supported at all.
- Shiira: Not supported at all.
In general, note that the Mac platform does not fully support the ability to copy a large swath of text, graphics, and links (from another webpage, from Word, etc) and paste into the editor with all formatting intact.
Known issues with specific buttons and functions
Some specific buttons/functions in the advanced HTML editor have known issues. Please be aware of the following.
Unindent button
This button is problematical when using Internet Explorer.
Insert Image button
If you insert multiple images within one editing window, the system can get a little confused. This usually clears up if you save your work and then return to continue editing.
Table button(s)
In some browsers, a full range of buttons appears for various table-editing functions. In others, only a single button appears. Not all table-editing features are available in all browsers. Internet Explorer seems to have the widest range of table options.
Links button
If you use the Link button to create a link on a word or phrase, later return to that word or phrase and highlight it, and then click the Link button, the URL shown as the destination for the link will probably be wrong. That's just a bug in the display, because the actual URL of the link will remain as you originally set it. However, if you now click "OK," in some situations the editor will change the URL to the wrong one.
Corrine's Hints
Working in the Advanced HTML Editing window can be quirky and you may feel it is a bit clumsy until you get use to its idiosyncrasies. Following are a list of hints to help you identify some of the quirks and suggestions for best working methods. Testing was done on a PC with IE 6, IE 7 and Firefox, and on a Mac with Firefox. When referring to IE, the information is for PC only.
Formatting Text
- Copy and paste headings and subheadings—then change the text, so that you do not have to format each time.
- Formatted Text—On a PC—when you copy and paste formatted text from a document (such as a Word Document), the formatting will come in with the text on either IE or Firefox, but will not on a Mac.
- Formatting Text—On a Mac, setting body text formatting—once you have set the formatting on a block of text, you can copy and paste it to another place in the document (such as below a new heading). Then, copy the text you want to place into the new spot, highlight the newly pasted text and paste over it. The formatting will hold. This way you don't have to repeatedly set formatting for each block of text.
- Occasionally, you cannot place the cursor where you want. Confirm or Cancel the Editing window and then go back in by clicking on the Edit Text button again.
- In IE—when pasting in text, it may not show up right away. If it doesn't appear to come in, hit the Enter key.
Tables
- Use the table feature to create colored blocks behind text
- To set width, background color, border, and border color for tables, you need to use IE on a PC (or if you know the HTML tags, you can use the HTML view). On all other browser and platform combinations, you can click and drag a table to expand the width visually, you cannot set a size in either pixels or percentage or a color.
- To edit a table's properties, on IE, click on the Table Properties button (next to the Bucket).
- You can highlight, copy and paste tables—to highlight a table, click below the table and drag upwards (text will highlight too).
- To change color of table cells on IE, put your cursor in the table cell and then click on the Bucket button to open a color picker.
- Be careful when trying to delete tables on IE, you may easily delete text preceding the table when you do not intend to. Deleting tables can be problematic in IE. You may have to delete text with it and reinsert the text.
- In IE—when copying and pasting a table, it may not show up right away. If it doesn't appear to come in, hit the Enter key.
Images
- When inserting images in Firefox on either a PC or a Mac, the Insert Image dialog box will automatically show the first image you have inserted during a work session, including its URL and all of the options you chose for it. You will need to change the URL and then hit the Set button to see the new image in the dialog box. Then, choose your other settings. This is also true if you click on an image and want to re-edit the settings, you will need to re-enter the proper URL and click the Set button before committing to your new settings.
- In IE, you will not always get an accurate preview of the horizontal spacing in the Insert Image dialog box.
Spacing
- In IE, hitting the Enter key will cause the cursor to go down 2 lines. Using the Shift key with the Enter key will cause the cursor to bump down just one line.
- In IE 7, if you use the Enter key and space down too far, backspace and the cursor will most likely go to the next line (sometimes takes two backspaces).
- In IE, be careful when backspacing, especially to delete tables, it may delete some text as well. Keep watch of your wanted text when backspacing.
See also: Users Guide for Advanced HTML Editing
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