New RCE - pin the sidebar

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

For more information, please read through the Canvas Deploy Notes (2020-11-18).


While I'm loving getting familiar with the new rich content editor my biggest annoyance is that the insert sidebar disappears every time I add a link or image. As a course designer this is greatly slowing down the way I build content in the RCE. It would be great if once the sidebar appears after you have chosen to insert a link or image that you could pin it open so if you are wanting to add multiple images or links then you can, instead of having to repeat the process every time. I'm finding this to be slowing down the content creation experience not enhancing it.

43 Comments
90346946
Community Member

Definitely agree with the issue here and comments above.  As an instructor I find that linking to existing course content is definitely worse with the new RCE.  When a site has lots of pages, there is a lot of scrolling, clicking "load more" (repeat, repeat, repeat).  And then you start that process all over.  Ability to pin the sidebar would help alleviate that problem.

tchilt
Community Participant

We are getting several comments from our faculty about this. The new RCE has drastically increased the number of clicks necessary to embed course files. Instead of having to pin the sidebar, perhaps it stays open until it's closed. There could be an "x" where the pin is in the mockup above. Every time you highlight text to create a link to a file, you have to click the Course Documents icon and go through that process again. It's repetitive and frustrating.

tina_busch
Community Contributor

Hi Todd, we have set the new RCE feature to Allow instead of On due to this reason. Let's hope it gets looked at before being forced on for everyone in June.

jwadec
Community Contributor

Thankful for one school system pleading for an extra 5 days -- they (Instructure) have moved the date to the July release so we get an extra few weeks. I do hope within the next few months that they address a lot of these issues.

Nancy_Webb_CCSF
Community Champion

I totally agree  @mfulton1 , show the folders when inserting images, like you see when inserting a link to Course files.  This method of seeing a handful Course images at a time, not ordered for easy searching, is not going to work for so many courses that have hundreds of images (art courses for one).  Unfortunately displaying images by folder is not part of this idea. Do we need another idea for voting?  I foresee big trouble down the line.

It would also be helpful to choose the destination folder when uploading images/media.  When you upload images for a particular quiz, it would be so great to have them go into a particular folder rather than "Uploaded Media".  Now I am really off track!

Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

 @Nancy_Webb_CCSF ‌, folders will display in the image selection process; however, the workflow to view the folder hierarchy when selecting images is new. From the Image dropdown on the new RCE menubar, select Course Images, and then select All from the dropdown to view the folder structure. 

Nancy_Webb_CCSF
Community Champion

Thank you stefaniesanders- I had looked at the menubar choices, but it all looked the same - didn't delve deeply enough!  That is great and will help  @mfulton1  and everyone.  Maybe someday that will be available when you use the Toolbar option also.

Nancy_Webb_CCSF
Community Champion

Oh dear - I just actually tried it out, and when you choose All as the location for inserting images, it puts a link to the image rather than inserting the image. So that is not really a solution.  Unless stefaniesanders you know of a way around this limitation?  I suppose one could go into the HTML code and change the link to be an img tag, but that's asking a lot of most instructors. (It actually requires a few small changes, but many don't feel comfortable working in HTML.) 

I also found the All choice on the tool in the toolbar, so it is not necessary to go to the menu.  Both the All's insert links to the image.

Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

Wow,  @Nancy_Webb_CCSF , you are absolutely correct: I am so sure that I have tested that multiple times before now, and yet, when I tried it just now, the action results in a link—not the desired embedded image. Would you be willing to create a new idea for this? I'd be happy to work with you on getting that moved forward.

Thanks, and mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. Smiley Happy 

Nancy_Webb_CCSF
Community Champion

Encouraged by stefaniesanders‌ I created an Idea to have a folder view when choosing images for embedding.  I think it goes hand in hand with this pinning idea to make image selection better for us all.  Would appreciate your vote,  @mfulton1  and 90346946‌ - and anyone else who thinks viewing images by folder would be helpful.

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/16822-new-rce-embed-images-from-folder-view