This post was updated on 08/13/2021. Please clear your cache if you don’t see the updated rich text editor.
As part of the Sakai Conversations tool project, we’ve also streamlined the way you create text in Sakai, by updating Sakai’s Rich Text Editor (RTE). Also commonly called the What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor, the RTE is the set of tools you use to format text in all the places in Sakai where you add information – Announcements, Forums, Test & Quizzes, Assignments, Lessons and more. The RTE is everywhere; it’s a core part of the Sakai experience, and by updating the RTE our goal is to allow both new and expert Sakai users to create accessible content quickly and easily.
Old Rich Text Editor
Compared to new Rich Text Editor
- Simpler toolbar by default: The default view of the toolbar (collapsed into one row), allows easy access to the most commonly-used text formatting options and allows insertion of the most common media types. The left-most button in the RTE (arrow button) is a More Tools dropdown, which gives you access to more tools.
- Editor Profile Preference: Setting the Editor Option under Preferences to “Force full/desktop mode” will now expand the toolbar.
- Autolink: Paste in a url and a link is created automatically.
- Inline link options: Click a link in the text you are editing and, by your cursor, three options will appear to open the link in new window, edit the link, or remove the link.
- Use browser spellcheck: The spellchecking that comes with web browsers is much-improved, so the new RTE uses that rather than the old custom plugin.
- New LaTeX plugin: In addition to wrapping content in double dollar signs,
$$your content here$$, a new plugin that provides a more visual LaTeX writing experience has been added under the More Tools dropdown. LaTeX written in this plugin appears inline and can more easily be interwoven with other text. Note: Not available in Tests & Quizzes.
Those are the most significant updates, although there is more information for technically-minded Sakai users below. We’re really excited for you to experience these changes and hope they make your Sakai experience more enjoyable. If these changes interfere with you from creating content in your site in any way, please reach out to us or stop by our office hours.
More details
The previous RTE design overwhelmed new users and many options were seldom used. We’ve pruned tools that were underused or which made it too easy to create inaccessible or hard to read content. Below is an alphabetical list of the previous RTE options.
| Previous RTE | New RTE | Change |
|---|---|---|
| A11ychecker | A11ychecker | |
| About | Removed | |
| Anchor | Removed | |
| AudioRecorder | AudioRecorder | |
| BGColor | Removed to prevent creating inaccessible content | |
| Left-to-Right | Left-to-Right | |
| Right-to-Left | Right-to-Left | |
| Blockquote | Blockquote | |
| Bold | Bold | |
| BulletedList | BulletedList | |
| CodeSnippet | CodeSnippet | |
| 3rd Party Apps | 3rd Party Apps | |
| Copy | Removed due to browser security changes forcing use of keyboard shortcuts | |
| CreateDiv | Removed | |
| Cut | Removed due to browser security changes forcing use of keyboard shortcuts | |
| Find | Available under Replace | |
| Font | Removed to prevent creating inaccessible content | |
| FontSize | Removed to prevent creating inaccessible content | |
| Format | Update 08/13/21: The format plugin was replaced with a re-vamped set of styles | |
| HorizontalRule | HorizontalRule | |
| Html5video | Removed, check out Warpwire or Panopto for your multimedia needs | |
| Image | Image | |
| Indent | Indent | |
| Italic | Italic | |
| JustifyBlock | JustifyBlock | |
| JustifyCenter | JustifyCenter | |
| JustifyLeft | JustifyLeft | |
| JustifyRight | JustifyRight | |
| Link | Link | |
| Maximize | Maximize | |
| Mathjax | NEW: Not currently available in Tests & Quizzes | |
| NumberedList | NumberedList | |
| Outdent | Outdent | |
| Paste | Paste | |
| PasteText | Removed due to browser security changes forcing use of keyboard shortcuts | |
| PasteFromWord | Update 08/13/21: This has been removed the editor | |
| Preview | Preview | |
| Removed in favor of browser print, or use the Preview button to display and print only the content of your RTE | ||
| Redo | Redo | |
| RemoveFormat | RemoveFormat | |
| Replace | Replace | |
| SelectAll | Removed | |
| ShowBlocks | ShowBlocks | |
| Smiley | Smiley | |
| Source | Source | |
| SpecialChar | SpecialChar | |
| SpellChecker | Replaced by native browser spellcheck | |
| Strike | Strike | |
| Styles | Styles | Update 08/13/21: This has been reconfigured and added back to the editor |
| Subscript | Subscript | |
| Superscript | Superscript | |
| Table | Table | |
| Templates | Templates | |
| TextColor | Removed to prevent creating inaccessible content | |
| Underline | Underline | |
| Undo | Undo | |
| Unlink | Unlink | |
| Warpwire | Warpwire |