Using or Diabling the Text Box Editor

We have made an enhanced (WYSIWYG) text box editor available, allowing users who use Internet Explorer many more options when they add content and post messages to Blackboard course sites.

This new text box is available when Instructors add announcements and content in Content Areas such as Course Information, Course Documents, etc. and also appears when both Instructors and students post to the discussion board forums. In the area where you type your content or discussion board posting, you will now see a text formatting menu, and, below it, various other tools. These tools allow you to format text in a way similar to how you would in a word processing program -- you can change text size and font; add bold, italics, underlining; change alignment; add numbers or bullets; and indent. In Content Areas, Instructors can attach a variety of documents, including images and other files.

This feature is available only when using Internet Explorer. For it to work properly, you must have "Run Active X controls and plug-ins" enabled (Tools/Internet Options/Security tab/Custom level).

If you use another browser (Mozilla, Firefox, etc.), this feature is not available and the familiar, basic editor appears as usual.

If you use Internet Explorer and do NOT want to use this feature, or if the feature is not working properly (individual security settings on certain computers may affect this feature's availability), you can disable it by going to Tools/Personal Information/Set Visual Text Box Editor Options and selecting Unavailable. This will enable the familiar basic editor in its place.