[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
kperez108
Community Novice

I will also point out, the lack of Rich Text Editing when emailing students is NOT ADA-compliant. If I student was using an eReader, this has severely impacted their ability to read it. 

No ADAada compliance‌

pallen5
Community Member

I just voted this up, as I just realized that ALL THE FORMATTING I painstakingly put into messages to my students to give them feedback on computer programming source code was completely removed, and we are just talking about space characters.  OH MY GOD, just put <pre> tags in your html for God's sake!!!!  

I am finding Canvas to be completely useless as a feedback system for my courses.

oozturk
Community Novice

We need this more than ever now in a COVID-19 Era of non-stop remote learning. Come on Canvas!

s_thornhill
Community Novice

I'm with Paul Allen above ... we've been using Blackboard for 15 years her in Cork, Ireland and all our Excel grading systems are geared up to cut and paste into feedback forms to individual students and that system has worked very well. We can no longer do o with Canvas and had to put out a message out to students on how to decipher the scrambled feedback and then deal with all the feedback from students who couldnt decipher it! What a waste of time. Canvas please just add this very basic function as all your competitors already have it!

smaranzana
Community Novice

It is important to have the editor in order to emphasize important parts of our communication.

liz_wright
Community Member

Since we are doing Distance Learning -- this feature would be critical because our communication is limited to written emails and the weekly Google Meet.  The only work-around is to create a message in another program (Canva,etc) and add as an attachment.  Adding a rich content editor would make a would of difference!!

FacultyMG
Community Member

Agreed.

Formatting (bold, italics, lists) would improve readability significantly.

Even this comment tool has a rich text editor.

cgifford1
Community Explorer

Yes!  I would love to have the rich content editor for Canvas Inbox!!

jkokladas
Community Member

It would be great to have a more robust editing tool for the Inbox (even just the simple tools this interface is showing me for this text entry).  Just a smidge of the features of the RCO and basic email like hyperlinking text, making things bold/colored, adding an image within the text.  We want teachers to use the inbox as their main communication tool but it is too limited at this time.

judd_curran
Community Member

Text-editing tools are essential when composing a message to more effectively communicate emphasis and importance.  Yet, the Canvas Conversations Inbox tool omits basic text editing features.  We can use these tools when creating a post like this one.  I even have the ability to embed an image in this post to further articulate what I'm referring to...

Illustration of the text-editing toolbar.Illustration of the text-editing toolbar.

We need a basic text-editing toolbar added to the Canvas Conversations Inbox tool so that messages composed within Canvas can include bold, italics, etc.