How to remove "Canvas Support" button?

[Kate_F]

Hi,

I am using a Free-for-Teacher canvas account as an instructor and I recently noticed a canvas support button in the bottom right corner of the screen. 

On some pages within modules, the button can get very in the way of the next button in the same location.

At first I assumed it would only show up for me, but when testing the course as a student, I wound up running into the same issue. Is there any way to disable this button so that it does not get in the way of my students?

[Stef_retired]

Thanks for letting us know, @Kate_F . The Canvas Support button is part of a new contextual help feature we've introduced in Free For Teachers accounts, and our team will double-check the placement of the buttons and links to ensure that they don't interfere with the course flow.

[Kate_F]

Thank you Stefanie. I appreciate the help and the quick response!

[tr_williams]

How hard is it just to turn the darn thing off?  It is annoying!

[DeletedUser]

Hello @Kate_F. If I can jump in, the new contextual support is part of our new Free-for-Teacher experience, as @Stef_retired mentioned. When hovering over the support icon, you two arrows will appear on the right side, allowing you to move the support center up or down, which will come in handy to move the icon when toggling to the next Module item for you and your students. I've attached an example similar to yours. Users can move it to fit individual preferences, but cannot remove it entirely from the screen. 

Understand that this is feature is to provide additional support for our Free-for-Teacher users, as we want to continue to give FFT users tools to deliver teaching and learning. Thanks!

[Student20]

The new support button often gets in the way, and then when you move it out of the way it returns to the same spot on the next page and is in the way again. Maybe if there was an option to remove the button altogether it would be helpful. Thanks.

[swansonlawrence]

Hello @Kate_F  . If I can jump in, the new contextual support is part of our new Free-for-Teacher experience, as @Stef_retired  slope 2 blocked mentioned. When hovering over the support icon, you two arrows will appear on the right side, allowing you to move the support center up or down, which will come in handy to move the icon when toggling to the next Module item for you and your students. I've attached an example similar to yours. Users can move it to fit individual preferences, but cannot remove it entirely from the screen. 

Thanks your your share.

[JeffreyWiegley]

Allow me to get rid of this STUPID "feature" It adds nothing that "help" link in the menus wouldn't do better.

[MrLunetta]

In addition to the ability to drag the help up and down the page, an "X" to remove it entirely would be appreciated as there is already a help link in the LHS navigation.

[ChrisLarson3]

Yes, please, please provide the option of removing the button. I am finding that I need to move it on almost every page while designing courses. Thank you  

[ChrisLarson3]

Adding to my comment earlier, each time I click the up/down arrows to move the button, it opens the support page, which is adding a bit of chaos to the build out process. Thank you again for hearing out the challenges with the new feature.   

[KevinMeredith]

We appreciate the feedback @MrLunetta. For clarity, the button here is for in-app support on Canvas features and functionality, whereas the help menu offers a different set of options. These include COVID-19/Remote learning resources, links to the Community, the Free-for-Teacher User Hub, and more. The in-app support is being offered for teachers and students to get additional feature-related support right within the user interface. We're confident that it will help newer users gain quicker familiarity with Canvas. 

Thanks again for the input, it is appreciated. 

[EllisGodard]

Helping new users is great. Annoying those who AREN'T new users is a mistake, and avoidable. You're catering to the newcomers at the expense of frustrating those who will periodically look for alternatives, and they'll remember that you discount the input and experience of those who've used the product for longer.

[JenniferAdmin]

I strongly recommend moving the button to the left side of the screen where it won't interfere with course functionality.

[MrLunetta]

@KevinMeredith Two completely different help options, both with a question mark icon, will certainly make things clear for newer users. This thread is clearly not about removing the ability of users to get help, rather not being able to take off the training wheels. Perhaps an initially enabled "show contextual help" toggle in Account/Settings would better respect the needs of all users. Yes, yes...thanks for the input. I'll see myself out.

[EllisGodard]

YES!! New users won't dive into their profile and settings to find a way to turn it off, but veterans should be permitted to do so.

[tristanseume]

I love the built-in support question mark in principle, but any chance it could be moved a little to the left so it doesn't conflict with the 'Save' or 'Next' buttons when editing or scrolling through pages?

Thanks,

Tristan

[megan_dover]

The new orange question mark button for Canvas Support is in the worst possible location. It interferes with the ability to save content on a page (for teachers specifically) and it is really hard to work around that button based on its size and location (mostly) location to be able to save content on a page, quiz, assignment, etc. Can you please move this button elsewhere or remove it from the main screen to avoid issues with creating and saving content? 

[JosephFurse]

I agree with those suggesting an option to "remove the training wheels," as one commentator put it. The annoyance level of the button is very high when compared to the amount of utility it will provide for a seasoned user of Canvas who already knows how to get support if needed. It's a nicer looking "Clippy," for those who are old enough to remember Microsoft products in the 90s.

[max]

If you use the Brave browser, you can hide it:

1. Make sure shields are up for Canvas.
2. Right click in the browser window, select "Brave -> Block element"
3. Move the mouse to select the largest area around the button, then left-click.
4. Repeat for the remaining part.

A shame we have to treat this as an invasive ad.
Ridiculous shortsightedness with whomever designed and approved it!

[Chris_Hofer]

@max …

Keep in mind that the Brave browser isn’t on the official documentation for Canvas:

What are the browser and computer requirements for Canvas?

[max]

@Chris_Hofer that's not a problem. Brave uses the Chromium core (like the Chrome browser)--it basically is Chrome.

However, if using Chrome, an ad blocker extension could also be trained to take out the ill-mannered orange button.

[nancy_blum]

@max I was unable to hide that annoying orange "help" button with AdBlock, but it seems the eydropper button of uBlock was successful in removing that awful element!

It's silly uBlock was needed to do this, though. The orange "help" button is such poor implementation.

[And I'm really hoping that the use of uBlock doesn't introduce problems for the other elements on the Canvas page.]

[EllisGodard]

Fantastic, Nancy - thanks so much!! UBlock fixed it, though I agree - silly that we're having to use a Chrome extension to make Canvas tolerable, for something they could permit be toggled off in the Canvas settings.

[nancy_blum]

@max I've installed AdBlock on Chrome and have clicked on Hide something on this page to try to hide the incredibly annoying and problematic orange "support" button on Canvas. However, when I click anywhere in the vicinity of that button, it just brings up the support window and doesn't hide that element. Have you succeeded in using AdBlock on Chrome to "take out the ill-mannered orange button" and if so, can you please provide some details about how you got this to work for you? The "support" button is so sensitive: clicking on the up / down arrows to move the button doesn't even work for me but instead brings up the large, dreaded "Support" window.

Last night I tried to change someone's Exam settings on Canvas, but when I tried to click Save, this "support" button apparently got in the way, and the change in settings never got made. This button is causing problems for my students, and there absolutely needs to be some way to move it (far to the left) or to remove it. It's fine to have this "feature" as a default for newbies to Canvas, but I'm sure the developer could devise some setting where people can remove this "feature." And the location right near the Save and Next buttons makes no sense.

[nathanso]

Lately it has become impossible to "hover" over the support button in a way that makes the up/down arrows accessible to move the button. this is beyond annoying. same problem whether i use Firefox or Chrome.

please help! the immovable button really gets in the way of editing pages!!!

[EmmeD]

When I hover over the question mark, the arrows do not appear for me (screenshot below). Any ideas on why this is? Also, I echo the sentiments of others who said it would be nice to have an x, allowing removal of the question mark. It covers the next buttons on almost every page ☹️ and I have been getting complaints/requests on how to remove it. 

[KevinMeredith]

Thanks for bringing this up @EmmeD. We have temporarily disabled the feature in Free-for-Teacher. Note that once we resolve that behavior it will be re-implemented. 

[EmmeD]

That's wonderful. Thank you so much!

[taguingab]

This Canvas Support button is still showing up on my account and the up/down buttons are still not predictably clickable.  When I hover over the button, the arrows appear briefly but then move off screen to the right.  If I hover in that empty space, the up/down arrows flicker back into the page but are not clickable.  If I try to click, sometimes (but not always), the support button moves up.  I have not been able to figure out how to get it move back down again.  macOS 12.4, and this happens in the latest versions of Chrome and Firefox. Please re-disable this button.

[112996]

Canvas Team: Please hear us! Please give us the option to turn this nonsense off. 

It's now stuck in the middle of my screen. I can't move left or right. Just up and down.

I've stopped building assignments for the upcoming school year so that I can instead plead for an out from this tool. 

PLEASE???  With a cherry and whipped cream and all that?

[keathlm]

after reading all of these comments, I'm disappointed that Canvas doesn't care about the use-ability of its platform for teachers. Clearly, we all feel the same way. The button interferes literally EVERY time I try to write a grade comment. 

Please add a "remove" or "move" feature. What a useless, stupid feature. 

[jpwatson]

School starts (for me) tomorrow. The support button is poorly placed and should be moved. Come on, Canvas ... get with it. Move the dang thing to the left side of the screen  or get rid of it altogether.

[KevinMeredith]

We have temporarily disabled the button. Thanks. 

[KevinMeredith]

This has been turned on for our engineering team to troubleshoot the inability to move the icon, just as an FYI. If the behavior continues, we turn it back off. 

[keathlm]

It was really nice to have it gone for a few days, but now it's still happening. Is it going to be removed again soon? Thank you. 

[KevinMeredith · Accepted solution]

The support icon is working correctly now within canvas.instructure.com and k12.instructure.com. You should be able to move it on the right side of the page to your preference. If the inability to move the icon returns, please give us that feedback. 

As a reminder to our FFT users, the support icon serves as an opportunity to get in-app support for features and functionality for our many, many FFT users. Because this particular environment does not have dedicated support personnel, this provides crucial support capabilities for those who need it. 

As always, thank you for your patience and understanding, and thanks for utilizing Canvas Free-for-Teacher.

[ChristiaanClark]

To respect people who are motor-impaired and use technologies like eye gaze software, the page must provide enough spacing (either via padding or a margin) for the Support button to be positioned underneath the Save button.

This can be accomplished by a simple enough CSS code addition of: .ic-app-main-content{margin-bottom:2rem;}.

Please keep in mind that even this free version of Canvas MUST comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (for which there are steep fines for non-compliance that they are made aware of), and other laws across the globe. Your "solution" of a drag-and-drop functionality is completely inaccessible and in violation of these laws (and not to mention a bad user experience overall).

Given that the solution is as simple as adding a margin to increase the height of the page, the response to this issue of not just accessibility for people with disabilities but usability for pretty much all students is extremely tone deaf and dismissive. Please fix this by adding the margin by 9/2/2023 or we will be reporting this to the AODA enforcers.

Christiaan Clark

Accessibility Engineer - Digital A11ies (501c3 Pending)

[KevinMeredith]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We're working on it now. 

Best, 

Kevin

[KevinMeredith]

We have added the requested code. Thank you.