Static Toolbar for New Rich Content Editor

Because all of the important features for linking and adding documents have been moved from the sidebar in Canvas to the top of the Rich Content Editor, it would beneficial (and user-friendly) to have the toolbar remain static at the top of the screen when scrolling through the Rich Content Editor. As it is now, I scroll down to an area and want to add a link or attachment, but I have to scroll back up to reach these tools on the toolbar, which means I have to hope my cursor is still in the correct spot. Having the toolbar remain at the top of the Rich Content Editor, no matter where I scroll, would improve efficiency and ease of use.

Melissa Rasmussen

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

For more information, please read through the Canvas Deploy Notes (2020-07-15) 

69 Comments
dslusser
Community Participant

Ugh, this is so true! I use HTML nearly exclusively and to have the HTML view (along with the accessibility tools) at the bottom of the editing box is a baffling UI/UX choice. I have zero faith that Canvas will fix any of these gripes so I'm working on some Tampermonkey scripts to fix some of these annoyances. I'm close to having one that adds an additional HTML button to the toolbar by the rest of the tools, it still needs a little more testing though. After I get the additional HTML button working, I'll see if I can coax the toolbar into being static as well. 

drummond_r
Community Participant

I agree with everyone on this, that this is a not very user friendly. I hope they look at this, as of now, I am not turning it on when it come available. 

cgaudreau
Community Contributor

 @dslusser ‌  @danielcktan ‌ I've been toying around with the new editor before our institution goes live, and share your outlooks. Not sure if you've also come across this, but wondered if you had: Is there an easy way to add alternative text to links either like the old editor had, or in a yet-to-be-found way like the new image options?

There are a host of workarounds, but this change seems out of sync with current WCAG standards - and especially for a modern web editor whose sole purpose is supporting teaching and learning. (Digging around in the HTML editor is rough enough, and I'd rather not copy code out into a editor in order to easily suss things out.)

<a title= href="http://site.url">link</a>
danielcktan
Community Contributor

HI  @cgal143 ‌,

I agree with you. HTML Title Attribute is important to links as Alternate Text is to images. 

Like you, our team members have to copy the codes out to a HTML editor to add additional HTML attributes.

Another thing I find missing is the ability to add CSS Class to images and links.

Our institution applies responsive layout to our course pages. CSS class allows us to create responsive images that works with the responsive grid system that we implement.

Having the UI to add CSS Class will help us.

danielcktan
Community Contributor

Is there a process to report bugs on the RCE?

We noticed that when we are editing a quiz question, the editable mode of the question will close when we try to insert images from the editor's right panel.All changes were lost.

We end up having to add the image through the code view.

cgaudreau
Community Contributor

Came across this yesterday, from the Canvas Release: New Rich Content Editor (2020-01-18)

"Hi, all,

Our product manager is working on an update regarding the New RCE, and to help her compile all her thoughts, I am closing this document to comments. If you're finding contrary behavior in the New RCE, please submit the information to Canvas Support (or per your institution's support policy) so that we can be made aware and correct those issues.

Thanks so much!

Erin"

erinhallmark‌, can you confirm if this is still the preferred method to submit feedback?

erinhmcmillan
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

Hi, Christohper,

Yes, we prefer bug reports to go through Canvas support (or your institution's support policy) because they're the best to triage the behavior and escalate it if needed.

Thanks!

Erin

lchristianson
Community Novice

Personally, I'd like to see the HTML toggle on the top toolbar, instead of at the bottom. 

Kelvin_Dean
Community Contributor

This afternoon, the RCE enhancements were turned on as an enforced feature in FFT, which is causing me more trouble without a static toolbar (see RCE Enhancements below).

344093_Screen Shot 2020-04-06 at 6.12.50 PM.png

sgarcia1
Community Participant

The issue is not only the non-sticky toolbar, but the height increase itself. When I am editing the page and do any action (write, delete, copy or any action using both keyboard shortcuts or the toolbar), the height increase also takes the view to the top of the page again, making me lose the spot where I wanted to edit and forcing me to scroll all the way down. I have to go back to the old editor until this is fixed.


This video is currently being processed. Please try again in a few minutes.
(view in My Videos)