[Inbox] Add rich-content editor to Conversations

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

230 Comments
Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

The Radar idea stage has been removed from the Feature Idea Process.  You can read more about why in the blog post Adaptation: Feature Idea Process Changes.

 

This change will only impact the stage sort of this idea and will not change how it is voted on or how it is considered during prioritization activities.  This change will streamline the list of ideas 'open for voting', making it easier for you to see the true top voted ideas in one sort, here.

DeletedUser
Not applicable

I can't believe that this is still an ongoing issue.
Three and a half years. And it's been on the 'Radar' for two years now. 
Can you not overhaul this?
It's the 21st century. To be forced to use a deficient system that clings to intentionally hobbled (archaic) functionality feels ridiculous and painful.

Rich text tools are deeply known and have been since the 90s (last century). This is incredibly familiar technology. 

There is a human toll to keep in mind, namely wasted time, missed communications and the frustrations arising from both plus having to compensate through workarounds.

Incidentally, I've worked in software dev environments that try to maintain legacy systems, and it sucks; and the maintenance headaches grow the longer that you hang onto them. One implication of this trend is the following: the longer that you don't fix this, the less likely that you're ever going to. (It will be four years in March.)

Please unify all text composition experiences. Make them all good ones. 

Thank you.

tub75538
Community Novice

It seems very silly that I have to add an attachment to the email to show a simple example of proper formatting for students' papers. This needs to be fixed - at least italics, bold, and underline as a bare minimum.

Please resolve this - every other email that I use has these functions. I can even use them on my iphone email apps. 

Thanks,

TL Robinson

bea9
Community Member

Yeah, I don't think we need the full features of the Announcement WYSIWIG, but at least bold, italics, lists, and hyperlinks. That's just basic functionality of email. It's really annoying to paste in giant URLs every time I want to point a student to a specific webpage. 

60640769
Community Novice

We don't recommend the inbox to our users, and this is one of the reasons why. Try telling someone in 2019 that they can't hyperlink or bold text in a message.

tiffany-mitchel
Community Member

Having a rich text editor in the Inbox (Conversations) would be great. My university is in the process of transitioning to Canvas and the lack of rich text editor is something that has already come up a few times. I hope this happens soon.

bdust
Community Novice

I've been using Canvas for a couple of weeks and one of the first things I tried was to send a message to my students. I was surprised that I could not use any standard formatting in the message which was disappointing considering that formatting can be used in most other sections of Canvas.

bdust
Community Novice

I agree with William. This is a glaring oversight on what is otherwise an attractive product.

ken43
Community Novice

Good email etiquette and writing REQUIRES the ability to make the most important information easily and quickly accessible! We need, at minimum!, the ability to have different font styles (bold, italics, etc.), font colors, font sizes, and bullets! There are more options for my writing in this comment box than there are in Canvas emails! 

I use Canvas to convey important dates, information, and requirements to a group of about 50 tutors. They get my emails along with tons of other campus emails... thus, the information that's important needs to be super easy to glance at. 

Please add the rich content editing options to Canvas emails!!!!

becky_rampey
Community Novice

I agree and I also think its silly that we have to vote in order for them to make the product work like it should to begin with.  Just make it more funcitional.  I waste so much time trying to get it to do things it should already do!