Inline Previews in the Rich Content Editor (Old and New)

[ProfessorBeyrer]

Sometimes I like to turn off the automatic embedding of YouTube videos in the Rich Content Editor. I might be jealous of the space on the web page or maybe do not want to give my students a clue about what will be in the video beyond the link text. There is a way to disable this in the Rich Content Editor, but how we do it is different in the new Rich Content Editor. Because it requires editing raw HTML I'm not sure I would count this as an enhancement.

The first video shows the steps to turn off the inline preview in the old Rich Content Editor. It shows how to do it both before adding the YouTube link and after. Doing it after requires precision in the order:

1. Select the "a" underneath the Rich Content Editor while you are in edit mode
2. Select the Link to URL button in the Rich Content Editor toolbar
3. In the dialog that appears, select the check box to turn off the inline preview
4. Select Update Link

The second video shows how to do the same thing in the new Rich Content Editor. It shows editing the class attribute of the YouTube link to add "inline_disabled":

[James]

 @ProfessorBeyrer ,

When I first opened looked at the videos, I wondered why it took twice as long with the old editor? That goes against every experience I've had with the new RCE where things that were simple are now extraordinarily cumbersome and clumsy. Then I realized you talked more, played more of the video, and showed how to edit an existing link with the first one.

I love your contributions and explanations to people, so please don't take this wrong when I say I hope these videos become obsolete before Canvas forces everyone to start using the new RCE.

[ProfessorBeyrer]

Yes, I hope these videos become obsolete soon. Then my post will become solely a piece of historical evidence and not an actively used resource. That's why I haven't gone through and renamed all of my "Arc" stuff "Studio."

[cholling]

I (and my faculty) are definitely not fans of the new RCE. What used to take a couple of steps, now requires many more - some of which are not intuitive. Your example is a perfect example of that.

[James]

Lauren Williams this note a posted a couple of hours ago in https://community.canvaslms.com/community/ideas/blog/2020/04/30/learning-activities-spring-2020-upda... 

We are planning to make that update around YouTube videos so you can turn off the preview if you wish.

[ProfessorBeyrer]

Thank you James for adding that link to this page!