This practice has results ranging from text not viewable by students, to errors in the Discussion Board, to corruption of Test/Survey questions, to strangely formatted text/unusual symbols.
The cause of this issue is hidden formatting code that is included when using the copy/paste feature from Microsoft Office products. This "bad HTML code" must be removed prior to pasting into Blackboard.
To avoid this issue, use the "Paste from Word" button when pasting content from Microsoft Office in the text editor in Blackboard:
(click image to enlarge)
The "Paste from Word" option preserves your text formatting and tables, but removes any problematic HTML code that may be incompatible with the Blackboard application.
If you have trouble using the Paste From Word feature, here is an alternative manual procedure, which also works:
Use the following procedure to prevent issues when pasting Text from Microsoft Word.:
1. In MS Word, highlight the desired text and copy it.
2. Open Notepad (PC: Start > All Programs> Accessories > Notepad) or TextEdit (Mac) and paste your text into the text editor. This action will remove the formatting codes.
3. In your text editor, highlight the entire block of text again (or push CTRL+A on the keyboard to select all) and copy.
4. Go to the course content area or Discussion Board post in Blackboard and paste the text into Blackboard.
5. Format your text again using Blackboard’s own Text Box Editor functions.
6. Submit your document and check for unusual characters. If one does appear, modify the item and correct the character. Again, submit the item and check your work.
Using the process of "cleaning" your clipboard text of Microsoft Word formatting takes longer but it is very helpful in preventing issues that may occur.
We hope this information is helpful.
