[ARCHIVED] Text formatting for multiple blanks in New Quizzes?

[german]

I've gotten pretty good at formatting questions in a nice clear way in OLD quizzes.  But I know it will eventually go away so I was trying to update some of my quizzes to Quizzes.Next / New Quizzes.  I'm tearing my hair out because the new quizzes are so much LESS customizable.

The one major issue I'm having right now is with the "Fill in Multiple Blanks" type of question: I don't see any way to FORMAT the text in a multiple blanks question in new quizzes.  I want something like the screenshot (that is from OLD quizzes) where each blank is on a NEW LINE, and I use tables to nicely separate the parts of the sentences/instructions.  I can't seem to do anything other than have a 'paragraph' (no line breaks, no rich text formatting, no tables, NOTHING formatted) with New Quizzes in the blanks area: the instructions are just "Type a statement, select text, and press Enter to create a new blank" but in that area I can't format the text at all?  All my text there (in the "Type a statement" area) just comes out as one long paragraph with no options for formatting.

Can anyone tell me how I can accomplish multiple blanks in tables or at LEAST with line breaks between the blanks in new quizzes?  How I can make something like the screenshot?

[Stef_retired · Accepted solution]

 @german ‌, you are correct on both counts: in New Quizzes, a question containing multiple blanks does not display on multiple lines, and rich text editing is not available for the answer choices. Please add your support to:

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/14889-allow-new-quizzes-fill-in-the-blanks-to-have-multiple-bl... 

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/3791-new-quizzes-allow-rich-content-editing-for-fill-in-the-bl... 

[german]

To clarify, this is the only way I can see to do this in New Quizzes (screenshot) but my goodness, it is ugly and unwieldy!  I can't even italicize?  Or use any sort of formatting to clue students in to better understanding?

[Stef_retired · Accepted solution]

 @german ‌, you are correct on both counts: in New Quizzes, a question containing multiple blanks does not display on multiple lines, and rich text editing is not available for the answer choices. Please add your support to:

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/14889-allow-new-quizzes-fill-in-the-blanks-to-have-multiple-bl... 

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/3791-new-quizzes-allow-rich-content-editing-for-fill-in-the-bl... 

[18984]

This topic is now over two years old.  It's not like we are asking for much.  But the fact that we literally cannot put something as simple as a LINE BREAK in a multiple FITB question is just sad.  Oh, and if you try to add extra spaces?  Nope they are just ignored.

F + L = 2

90F + 60L = 160

Systems of equations is hard enough on students as is.  Now imagine the above looking like this

F + L = 2 90F + 60L = 160

I understand that full Rich Text Editor capabilities are probably just a pipe dream.  But geeze, GIVE US LINE BREAKS PLEASE!!!!!

TH

[JohnZ]

You *CAN* put blanks on new lines. <--- You can in the bank, but they break when in the test.
Bolding and italicizing can happen, too!

This annoying issue made me think about experimenting with inline HTML- and that is how you get new lines.
 To start a new line in your question, use <br> the text after this will appear on a new line.
To italicize, use <em> and </em>- any text between the <em> and </em> will be italicized.
Bold works with text between <b> and </b> (or <strong> and </strong>

[JohnZ]

One side note that I'm trying to figure out-

When editing the question in the quiz in the question bank editor, using <br> to force line breaks works.
When editing in the question bank editor in the quiz, <br> and other inline HTML tags *don't* work.
Questions with inline HTML will transfer to the question bank without breaking functionality.

The inconsistency is annoying, to say the least.

I have a similar issue with course outcomes only being available when I'm editing a question in the test.
When editing a question in the bank editor, only my district outcomes are visible.

Both issues are a matter of scope, and having consistency across the different modes of editing is important.

An RTF editor for the question makes more sense, but breaks the 'select the word and hit enter' functionality.

[loni_thorson]

This is a decent suggestion if I could find the HTML editor in the item. I don´t want to search through the script for the entire quiz.

[mo_woods]

I couldn't agree more... formatting of multiple blanks (or at least supporting line breaks) is a difference between "Cool! New Quizzes!" and "Eh, seems buggy..."

[chadmin · Accepted solution]

Just want to add another voice to this, line breaks would improve the question type, but we have lecturers using tables and images in Classic multiple drop-down questions

[JohnZ]

@german , @chadmin  I have successfully experimented with tables in the questions- it's doable, but the tags for large tables become very cumbersome to wade through. Every row has to have a <tr></tr> pair, and every column must have <td></td>.

I will experiment further- a possibility is to use an rtf editor to create the table with answers, then switch to HTML editing to copy/paste the HTML into the new quiz question. Then highlighting the words to fill in the blanks to build the question becomes easier.

[chadmin]

Hi @JohnZ , both myself and my colleague have tried this, but our set up doesn't render the html, we just get the tags in our questions.  Have you got some other settings somewhere that we are unaware of?
Thanks

[JohnZ]

@german , @chadmin,  I am a goober- I swapped when it works and when it doesn't. I edited my post to reflect that.

At my school district, we have a choice of 'item banks' in the navigation bar on the left side of the screen. It links to a fullscreen version of the question bank editor that normally only occupies the right half or the screen. If you create the question here, HTML works. (and course outcomes don't) If you create the question in the quiz (not going to the question bank editor), HTML doesn't work, (but course outcomes do.)

[JohnZ]

I created the top half of the question to see if I could get it to work- I typed it into Canvas as a page, entered HTML editing mode, and copied THAT after removing line feeds.
Here's how it looks when it's done in the editor:

 Actually editing the thing looks like this:

.
...and on copying it to a test, the  HTML breaks... And that's a lot of HTML to have splattered around the quiz.
It breaks other questions that look pretty with formatting in the Question bank, as well.

[chadmin]

Yes, that inconsistency is a little bit annoying.  It might be being fixed though as I saw something about "fill in the gaps" from Classic Quizzes coming across with formatting on migration, but not sure if that is on beta yet.  I think it did say that they would not be editable after migration.

[mwheel]

Hello! I just figured it out! You can select the text and go to Format > Clear Formatting

Weirdly enough does not remove the answers, or the tables you put, but it will remove any font changes you add beforehand