Problems with Word Doc Formatting?

[cgurysh]

Has anyone experienced issues with formatting changing in a Word Document upload to an assignment. We have had the formatting change not only in the Croc Doc view but also when downloading the file submission?

[sbartholomew]

Hi Cara - I have not heard of this before.  Please send me an email with an example and I will look into it for you.

[JamieWills]

This is still very much a frustrating issue. I, too, just watched a student submit an essay from Office 365 Word Online to a Canvas assignment, and all the indenting and the centering of the title was lost. This needs to be addressed! Students are having points taken off by teachers for poor MLA, but in fact, the MLA was done perfectly. Please, Canvas, address this.

Jamie Wills

Cherokee County School District

Canton, GA

[pwalsh]

I have only ever had a real problem with the Crocodoc formatting. Once I download the file the formatting seems to be as intended. In my business class formatting is important, and I download anything that doesn't look right before I grade it just to be sure.

When the formatting's a problem with the download it's usually because I'm grading on a computer running a different version of Office than what the student used to submit the file. I can't really blame that on Canvas, though.

[tzook]

I have had both. It seemed to stem from students using an older version of Word, or using software other than Word (Open Office, or Pages) and saving their document as a .doc

I tended to only notice the issues when students had highly formatted documents, like equations or tables.

Never found a solution for the older software issue. I started using Google Docs and had students submit URLs. If you can get past the potential "cheating" issues with late alterations, it may work better.

[mandren_kreps · Accepted solution]

I have also experienced this. I watched a student submit an office 365 word document. The document had every paragraph indented but after submitting all the indentions went away. I also had a student come to me and say she submitted a document from office 365 that was double spaced but after submitting it, it was only single spaced. I did not witness this one. The only work around that I have found is downloading the 365 online doc to the desktop version of word...fixing the formatting, saving and uploading into canvas. Any guidance would be welcomed. 

[rnewton5]

I noticed the same problem when students submitted an office 365 word document. Their paragraphs were indented, but the indentations went away once it was submitted on Canvas through the Office 365 tab.

The workaround, downloading the document from Office 365 and re-uploading, is an extra step that negates the utility of allowing students to upload directly from Office 365.

Any advice on how to fix this problem between Office 365 and Canvas?

[CASSIEBROUSSARD]

This issue has been marked as solved, but I don't see where Canvas offered a solution to these formatting issues. Has this been solved? Thanks!

[JenniferFoster1]

I too am experiencing this issue with students' MLA formatted essays. I see them on their computers properly formatted, but everything changes when uploaded to Canvas. Be it indents, Headers, font, or line spacing. Please help me understand how to correct this issue. I grade on formatting, and I clearly cannot. I did not have this issue last semester - same assignment. 

[washingt]

I had to create a PDF to solve the problem.

[CASSIEBROUSSARD]

I am also seeing this issue and when I grade student essays for formatting, it is a real problem. The idea that students need to download a PDF before they submit, as someone else suggested, is not a real solution. Although, I do appreciate that workaround.

I'm going to ask again a year later, has anyone found a solution for this issue between Office 365 and Canvas?

[rhaught]

The issue is occurring still as had students and instructors report that formatting is being changed in the upload plus remains when the instructor downloads the file. Besides downloading the doc to a device and formatting there or downloading as a PDF then uploading has there been any discussion on fixing the issue?

[jvoelker]

Yes, I had students share with me yesterday that they are encountering these same problems. One was working from an online version of Word, another from Office 365, and another from the Word app on their computer. They were extremely frustrated, particularly since the format of their documents is important for this class where we are working on resumes and cover letters. Additional support and correction of these issues from Canvas would be extremely helpful.