Entering Spanish into the Blackboard Content Editor

Transcription

1 Entering Spanish into the Blackboard Content Editor William De Wysockie Learning Systems Administrator SWBTS Fort Worth, TX August, 2013

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3 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION : BLACKBOARD S CONTENT EDITOR : UPLOADING SPANISH DOCUMENTS TO BLACKBOARD : TYPING SPANISH DIRECTLY INTO BLACKBOARD USING THE CONTENT EDITOR S CHARACTER MAP

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5 INTRODUCTION There are several ways you can integrate Spanish into Blackboard. You can Upload Spanish language documents (such as Microsoft Word or PDF documents). You can do this via the Content Editor or you can use an attachment option to upload your documents. We ll look at this in section 2. Type Spanish directly into your Blackboard pages using Blackboard s Content Editor. Using the editor, you can type Spanish into discussion board posts, content areas, and tests. This option is covered in section 3. 1 Use the Content Editor s character map to enter special Spanish characters. The map looks like this: We ll explore how to find and use this character map in section 4. While Spanish is the focus here, this document will help you with the task of entering any special characters into Blackboard. 1 You can also copy and paste Spanish into Blackboard from sources such as Microsoft Word. While this is a possible option, it is not recommended. 5

6 Before we begin exploring the different ways that you can enter Spanish into Blackboard, let s look briefly at the Content Editor. This is the primary tool you will be using to enter Spanish text into Blackboard. 6

7 1: Blackboard s Content Editor Blackboard 9.1 Service Pack 10 introduced a new (and vastly improved) Content Editor. This editor allows you to work with languages such as Spanish, ancient Greek, and Hebrew 2 with more flexibility than you had in the past. The Content Editor looks like this: Whenever you add content directly to Blackboard in a discussion board post, in an announcement, or in a content area of your course this is the tool that you will use. Basically, you give your content a title (in the subject field) and enter the content (in the message field). 3 Notice that there are three rows of menu options: 2 For information on entering Greek and Hebrew into Blackboard, see William De Wysockie, Ancient Languages and the New Blackboard Content Editor (2013). If you would like a copy, wdewysockie@swbts.edu. 3 Depending on the context in Blackboard, the field in which you enter content may be labeled Message or Text. 7

8 These menus provide several choices for formatting your text similar to what you have with a word processor (such as Microsoft Word). Here is a tabulation of just a few of the options with their function: Bold text Italicized text Bulleted text Highlighted text The large number of options can be quite overwhelming at first. To learn about each option, click the help button: Here s a quick tip for displaying the full Content Editor menu. When you first see the editor, the menu may be collapsed into just one row: 8

9 To expand the menu, click the down arrows (as pictured below): This will open the full menu: 9

10 Now that we have briefly looked at Blackboard s Content Editor, let s look at how you can use this tool to add Spanish language documents to your Blackboard course. 4 4 For more information on Blackboard Content Editor, see William De Wysockie, Brief Introduction to the New Blackboard Content Editor (2013). If you would like a copy, wdewysockie@swbts.edu. 10

11 2: Uploading Spanish Documents to Blackboard Uploading Spanish language documents is the easiest and most straightforward method of integrating Spanish text into a Blackboard course. The most common types of documents that instructors upload are Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF. In this section, we will look at how to upload these kinds of documents to a course content area. (You can also upload files into such items as course blogs and discussion forums.) On a Blackboard content page, click the Build Content tab. A drop down window provides two options that allow you to insert a file: Item and File. 11

12 What s the difference between these two options? The File option allows you attach a file to a section of your Blackboard course. The Item option allows you to add a file and content. The File option allows you to attach a file. You ascribe a name to this item (this is how the link to the file will be worded) and then attach the document. In the screenshot below, an instructor has given the item a name and attached a file. 12

13 After the instructor submits the page, this is what students see: Clicking this link provides students the choice of opening or downloading the document: 13

14 Now let s look at the Item option an alternative way of uploading a file. Clicking the Item option opens the Create Item page. Not unlike the File option, this page gives you the option of attaching a file. This is how the link to the file will appear to students. Notice that you do not have the ability to give the link a user friendly name as you did with the File option. 14

15 The Create Item page gives you another way to add files via the Content Editor. To do this, click the Insert File option in the Content Editor menu. This opens the Insert Content Link window. Like with the attachment feature, you can browse your computer or your course for the files that you want to insert. Unlike the attachment feature, however, you can add a web link, as well. 15

16 Uploading documents is the easiest and most straightforward method to display Spanishlanguage content in your Blackboard course. However, there may be times when you want to use another method. The next two chapters will show you some alternatives. 16

17 3: Typing Spanish Directly into Blackboard You can type Spanish text directly into the your Blackboard course via the Content Editor. Even if you upload all your course content as downloadable files (covered in section two), there are times when you may need to type Spanish text directly into Blackboard. For example You may need to create an announcement for your class using Blackboard s Announcement feature. You may need to comment on a student post in Blackboard s Discussion Board. If you create online exams in Blackboard, you will need to enter Spanish language text. Creating online assignments requires that you type directions into Blackboard. There are two ways you can type Spanish directly into Blackboard s Content Editor: o Using the Windows language bar (and special keyboard settings) o Using special key combinations to insert special characters Let s look at each of these options. 5 First, if you haven t done so already, you need to prepare your computer to type in Spanish. If you are working in a current Windows environment, then you have the ability to type in both English and Spanish. However, there is some setup involved before you can switch to Spanish and start typing. First, you need to enable a Spanish keyboard layout. A keyboard layout maps the keys on your physical keyboard to special characters. For example, the physical English keyboard does not allow you to type the Spanish character ñ. To type this character, you will need to add the Spanish keyboard layout, which maps a combination of keys to this character. 5 You can also copy and paste Spanish into Blackboard from sources such as Microsoft Word. While this is a possible option, it is not recommended. 17

18 How do you add a Spanish keyboard layout? In a Windows environment, you navigate to the Control Panel and click the Region and Language link. In the Region and Language window, click the Keyboards and Languages tab. Now click the Change keyboards button. You will see something like this: 18

19 Click the Add button to add a keyboard that will allow you type Spanish. Here is a keyboard that one instructor added: 19

20 Notice that there are now two keyboard layouts the original English (United States) keyboard and the new Spanish (Spain, International Sort) keyboard. The Windows operating system provides a way to switch back and forth between keyboards while you are typing. It s called the Language bar and (depending on how you have it configured to appear on your desktop), it will look something like this: In the above screenshot, the language bar is minimized to the desktop s taskbar. If it is not minimized (i.e., full size and undocked), it will look something like this: 20

21 In the above screenshots, the English keyboard is the keyboard that is currently chosen designated by EN in the minimized state and by EN English (United States) in the undocked state. To change your system s keyboard layout to Spanish, click the EN section of the minimized language bar or the EN English (United States) section of the undocked language bar. A menu will appear: In the menu, select the Spanish keyboard layout. Notice that the display on the language bar has changed from EN to ES: 21

22 You can now start typing in Spanish. But how do you type the special Spanish characters? To do this, you need to know how the keys on your physical keyboard are mapped to the accented vowels and special grammatical marks that you want to type. One way to do this is to open the On Screen Keyboard. Click the Start button and start typing the word keyboard in the Search field: A link to the On Screen Keyboard should appear. Click this link to open the On Screen Keyboard. The keyboard will look like this: 22

23 At first, the keyboard may appear with English language keys. If you do not see the Spanish character keys, check the language bar. It may need to be reset to Spanish: The On Screen Keyboard shows you how the keys are mapped. For example, notice in the screenshot below the keys that you would need to press in order to enter the Spanish characters ñ,, and. 23

24 To type the Spanish character ñ (n with the tilde), you would press the key just to the right of the l key. To type the character (the inverted exclamation point), you would press the key just to the left of the Backspace key. To type the character (the inverted question mark), you would press both the Shift key and the key just to the left of the Backspace key (i.e., press both the Shift key and the inverted question mark key at the same time). To add vowels with accents (such as ó), you click the single quotation key and the vowel key in succession (i.e., not at the same time but one after the other). Try this in Blackboard s Content Editor. Navigate to your Blackboard course and open the Content Editor. 24

25 Switch to the Spanish keyboard layout on your computer desktop by toggling the language bar to the Spanish option. Press the key that is mapped to the Spanish character ñ (for the keyboard in the screenshot, this is the key immediately to the right of the l key i.e., the semi colon key). The Spanish letter n with the tilde should appear in the Content Editor s text field: 25

26 As you switch from one application environment to another, the language bar on your desktop may reset. For example, you may be typing Spanish into Microsoft Word. When you switch to the Blackboard Content Editor environment, the language bar may switch back to English. You will need to switch back to Spanish if that is the language you want to type into the Content Editor. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * What if you only occasionally use one of the special Spanish characters? Or one of your students encounters difficulty applying the keyboard layout solution? The Spanish characters can be inserted using what are called ASCII (pronounced as key) codes. Here is a table covering several of the Spanish characters. 26

27 Character ASCII code á 0225 é 0233 í 0237 ó 0243 ú 0250 ñ How does this work? Open the Blackboard Content Editor. To enter a Spanish character in the editor s text field, press the ALT key and keep it suppressed. Now, on your keyboard s numeric pad, press the four numbers in succession (one after the other). Release the ALT key. The special character will appear. For example, to type the letter a with the accent, press the ALT key and keep it suppressed. Now type the numbers 0, 2, 2, and 5 in succession. Release the ALT key. Make sure you press the numbers on the numeric keypad on the right hand side of your keyboard. If you press the numbers above the letter keys, this will not work. 27

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29 4: Using the Content Editor s Character Map The Blackboard Content Editor includes a character map that allows you to choose a special character and insert it into your course content. This process takes longer than typing directly into Blackboard. However, it can serve as a temporary last resort if a student encounters an issue with any of the other options we have discussed. How does it work? Simply click the Symbol option on the Content Editor menu: This opens the character map: 29

30 Notice that when you hover your cursor over a character, the character is displayed in the upper right hand corner of the window with a description. Clicking the character (1) closes the character map window and (2) inserts the special character into your text. 30