A way to save a draft for Text Entries

[emersoncall]

Text Entries are how most of my teachers do their assignments. If I want to start an assignment when I have a little time, and then continue working on it later, the only real way to do so is by writing it in an external application that I can copy and paste into the text box when it's finished. It would be incredibly convenient if I could start writing an assignment in Canvas, and save a draft of it if I have to go before I finish. This would save the trouble of needing to log into Google Docs or a similar application in order to save my draft, and then later needing to find what I've written again and the assignment it was for on Canvas. A way to save drafts could remove the hassle of using an outside application, allow me to work in as short of time periods as needed, and conveniently keep what I've written connected to the assignment that it is for.

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

For more information, please read through Canvas Release Notes (2020-03-21) 

[Stef_retired]

Comments from Instructure

This idea has been developed and is on Canvas Beta. For more information, please read through the Canvas Release Notes (2020-03-21) 

[Stef_retired]

Comments from Instructure

This feature is now part of Canvas. For more information, please read through the Canvas Release Notes (2020-03-21) 

[lshulman]

I have read the Release Notes on this. Seeking clarification.

The notes say "editor autosaves any content that hasn’t yet been submitted for up to one hour."

That is fine, but can users also manually save at any time? Is there a button to "save as draft"?

What if a user leaves the page they are typing on in less than one hour? Will it still auto save?

[Stef_retired]

 @lshulman ‌, I believe this comment under the release notes addresses those questions. There is no manual save, and the local copy is automatically saved for up to one hour.

[lshulman]

Ah, well, in that case, this update does not really address the original idea. The update is nothing more than a temporary (1 hour) save. The idea in question here is for the user to have the option to "save as draft" and be able to return even days later, to complete their work before hitting "submit".

[Stef_retired]

 @lshulman ‌, with this new feature, drafts are passively saved for up to one hour. Our engineers evaluated many, many use cases and identified the pain points that most frequently arise when creating content in the Canvas RCE, and we believe this autosave feature addresses most of them. 

That said, we do plan to iterate on this functionality, and would very much like to evaluate the demand for adding a "Save as Draft" button—so after you've had a chance to use the new feature in context, should you find that having that additional functionality is still needed, would you please submit it as a new idea? It would be great to collect new use cases for that in a context where autosave is now available.

Thanks.