[Inbox] Add rich-content editor to Conversations

[seth]

As a user, I would like to be able to use the rich-content editor to compose messages in the Conversations inbox. This would enable me to create Conversations that are on par, formatting- and content-wise, with Announcements. (Students seem to read Conversations messages more diligently than Announcements.)

transferred from the old Community

Originally posted by: Mia Nolan

Special thanks for contributions by: Stefanie Sanders

[Stef_retired]

I would be happy if I could at least use keyboard shortcuts in Canvas Conversations for bold (*bold*), italics, and hyperlinks (although the latter already auto-convert in Canvas messages, I'd prefer to have a clickable link consisting of words rather than a clumsy html:// address).

[themidiman]

Just voted up on this now that it's open for voting.

I've noticed on the announcement feature that rich formatting in the RCE doesn't do justice to the body of the announcement that's repeated in the notification sent out via email. Students have to click on the 'view this in Canvas' link to get the full experience. (i.e. embedded images, inline document renderings, formatted bold/italics/underlining, etc.). It would be nice if this feature went in conjunction with this request. Should that be a separate one? I'll suggest that if I don't find another one that's already got this covered.

[themidiman]

Hi  @James_Kocher_UF ​

I notice a lack of this as well. I created a separate feature request which has been marked to be able to be voted on next voting period:

[themidiman]

Hi stefaniesanders​

I just saw your finding after posting a reply to  @James_Kocher_UF ​

I'll have to play around with the announcement feature with my roles switched so I can see what the format looks like for an announcement sent to students. That is good to hear that students haven't been getting weird looking email notifications on these. I'm off to check!

Be as it may, if the RCE was to be added to the Conversations feature, I'd like to be certain that the notification is on par with the Announcement feature in terms of the rich content displaying to recipients of the message.

[Stef_retired]

andersonj​, my experience has been that students see a more nicely formatted announcement in their email notification--but they still don't see everything that the announcement in Canvas contains. For example, their email notification won't include an embedded image or video. When I can remember to do it, I include the link to a video as well as the embedded version (or I add text on the order of "You'll need to log into the course to view the video"), and I add similar guidance when I use images in announcements. It's a clunky solution, admittedly.

[themidiman]

Good to know, stefaniesanders​

I'll have to experiment. If there is anything lacking like embedded images, I may have to follow your advice until someday the notification display is on par with what shows up in Canvas.

[ndcruz]

It would be great to have an overhaul of the conversations feature so it would be more like regular email, where in addition to using the rich-content editor, one could edit the subject, easily see the name of the file one attaches to a message, save a draft, choose to see messages as conversations or as a list, etc.

[scottdennis]

The inbox in Canvas was originally expressly designed to not be strictly analogous to email.  It was originally intended to be sort of mini-email that you would use to communicate brief little messages and still use your regular email for more in depth communication.  Remember that this was at a time when most LMSs didn't have an internal mail system at all.  Slowly over the time that I've used Canvas the inbox has become more fully featured.  I would not be surprised to see the kind of functionality that you are asking for Noella at some point in the future.

[rpetrina]

Thank you for adding that context. What I have heard from many faculty LMS users is that they get SO much regular email that they like to separate their course email by relying on the LMS for communication with students. That way they are able to sort it by course (because often students do not indicate in the subject line or message content what course they are inquiring about).

[scottdennis]

That makes sense to me, Renee.  I, personally, have always been one to keep my LMS or other system messages separate from my regular email.  I think mainly so that it is all in one place waiting for me when I'm ready to deal with it rather than being intermixed with all the other email I get.