Overview
The text editor is a large field where you enter content that will display within your Moodle course—for example, on the course home page, in forum posts, in lessons or in books.
This content can consist of text, but it can also include links, emoticons, images, videos, maths symbols and tables.
When to use
Whenever you enter significant amounts of content in your Moodle course, or interact with your students within the course, you'll need to use the text editor. It's best to familiarise yourself with all its functions early, so that you can take full advantage of its features, and use it efficiently.
Benefits
Being aware of the full range of the text editor functions will help you be efficient when creating the content you want.
It may also give you ideas about how to present course content in different ways to help students engage with and retain what you teach.
Guide
Step by step instructions
The Moodle text editor
The default TinyMCE text editor consists of an input box and three rows of function buttons, many of which are the same as in commonly used word processing software.
If these rows are not visible, click the Toolbar Toggle button at the top left of the text editor box.
Default text editor function buttons
Click the links in the Function column to view related instructions.
Button/s |
Function |
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Select:
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Undo and redo actions |
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Find, or find-and-replace text |
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Switch fullscreen mode on or off |
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Format font |
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Align text on left, at centre or on right |
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Clean up messy code, format remover, paste as plain text, paste from Microsoft Word |
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Select a colour for text or text-highlighting |
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Text direction (left to right, or right to left) |
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Set as bullet list, numbered list; decrease indent, increase indent |
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Insert or edit a link, remove a link, prevent automatic linking |
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Insert media: image, manage embedded files, draw pictures, emoticon, embedded media (sound, video or applet), equation, non-breaking-space character, custom character. When embedding audio, use MP3 files for the best performance.
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Insert a table |
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Toggle HTML source mode |
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Insert or edit a graph, add maths, maths symbols |
Atto Text Editor
You can also choose to use the Atto HTML editor.
This has a similar array of functions, with the addition of buttons to record audio and video in the editor as well as an Accessibility checker and a Screenreader helper.
To switch to the Atto editor, edit your Moodle profile, and under Preferences, at Text editor, select Atto HTML editor from the drop-down list.
Atto Text Editor function buttons:
Button/s |
Function |
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Format font |
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Create a bullet list or numbered list |
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Insert a link, remove a link |
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Insert media: image, audio/video file, manage files, record audio, record video, draw a picture |
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Underline, Strikethrough, Subscript, Superscript |
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Align text on left, at centre or on right |
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Indent text left or right |
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Equation editor, Insert character, Table, clear formatting |
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Undo and redo actions |
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Accessibility checker, Screenreader helper |
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Echo360 plugin, Toggle HTML source mode |
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Add a horizontal rule line going across the text field |
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Add bootstrap grid columns that can take their own text input |
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Toggle full screen mode |
Copy images between text editors
If you want the same image to display in two places in your Moodle course, you cannot reproduce it by copying the image's URL from the HTML source code in one text editor into a second text editor. That URL is for a temporary file that exists for a single instance of the text editor. The link will break if you cut and paste it into a second text editor.
You can create a second copy by inserting the image from scratch in the second location, or by duplicating the resource or activity in which the editor box occurs. (When a course/resource/activity is imported, or backed up and restored into a second course, all the images are duplicated, and given their own unique link to the relevant legacy course file.)
Additional information
Further assistance
If you experience technical or other issues, consult the Where to get help page.