ILIAS page editor

Special editing options for the ILIAS editor

In ILIAS, the so-called "ILIAS Editor" is an authoring tool that can be used to design page interfaces in various places, e.g:

  • on a page of an ILIAS learning module,
  • on a page of a SCORM learning module (in authoring mode),
  • on a page of a wiki,
  • in a glossary term,
  • in the content view of a test question,
  • in the content view of container objects (see next chapter).

On pages that are edited with the ILIAS editor, all internet-compatible content can be made available:

  • Text (with formatting such as heading, memo sentence, example, etc.)
  • Links to web pages (external) - both text and images
  • Internal links to other chapters or other ILIAS learning modules - both text and images
  • Internet-capable media objects (images, films, speaker texts)<ilEmph/>
  • Non-internet-capable files for download<ilEmph/>
  • Google Maps
  • Programming code (executed or displayed)<ilEmph/>
  • Structuring elements such as bulleted lists, tabs and tables <ilEmph/>
  • Mathematical formulas (LaTex support)

There are some optional features that can be activated when working with the ILIAS editor.

To manage this, click on Administration in the main header and select the Editor option.

Manage text formats of the ILIAS editor in ILIAS learning modules, wikis, SCORM modules, glossaries, test and assessment

In the ILIAS editor, various formats are available for text paragraphs, which can be applied to individual sections of the text.
The availability of these formats can be regulated separately for the various object types in which the ILIAS editor appears, as well as for its use in the content view of container objects.

Proceed as follows:

  1. Call up the relevant page for the object type for which you want to change the availability of formats, e.g. "ILIAS learning modules".
  2. Select the formats that should be available and save.

Activate ILIAS editor for magazine pages

By default, the ILIAS editor is not available in the content view of container objects such as categories, courses or groups, but only within certain learning objects. By enabling this option, however, those responsible for the container object in question have extensive options for customizing its interface and making it more appealing to end users.

To enable the ILIAS editor for the content view of container objects, proceed as follows:

  1. Call up the Repository pages page.
  2. Select the Activate page editing in repository option and save.

Note: If the function is deactivated again, existing texts/media are no longer displayed. However, they remain in the background and become visible again when the function is reactivated.

Set editing lock

You want to prevent several users from working on a text at the same time and prevent the data entered from being accidentally lost.

  1. Open the Administration menu and select the Editor option.
  2. Activate the Edit lock checkbox in the Settings area.
  3. ILIAS shows another form.
  4. Under Minutes, enter the period of time after which other users can edit the text again if the editing user is inactive.
  5. Click on Save.
  6. ILIAS reports "Changes saved"

Notes:

  • You can deactivate the function again using the Edit lock checkbox.
  • This setting applies to the entire ILIAS application and cannot be restricted to individual objects.

Tiny MCE Editor

Activate Tiny MCE Editor

ILIAS has a TinyMCE-supported rich text editor in various places, which offers differentiated editing of texts with most of the options known from writing programs.

"TinyMCE (Tiny Moxiecode Content Editor) is a JavaScript-based free WYSIWYG editor for web applications. [...] With the help of TinyMCE it is possible to create pages and posts without HTML knowledge. Here, the user's input in a text box is converted into HTML code by JavaScript in real time and output as a preview. The operation is very similar to Microsoft Word." http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/TinyMCE

The TinyMCE editor is available at the following locations:

  • Introductory and closing text in the settings of tests and surveys
  • Question texts when creating questions in question pools for tests and surveys
  • Forum posts

Although this editor can be switched on and off independently by the users, the basic possibility of its use can be regulated in the administration area:

You can ensure that styles can be selected again with the Unfix default action. 

  1. Click Administration in the main header and select the Editor option.
  2. Switch to the TinyMCE Editor tab.
  3. Select the (so far only) option Activate TinyMCE for WYSIWYG editing and save.

Manage formats of the TinyMCE editor in test and assessment, surveys, forum posts

Optionally, you can also specify here which editing options the TinyMCE Editor offers at various points in ILIAS by calling up the corresponding subpage of the TinyMCE Editor dialog and selecting all the options you want to allow in the multiple selection menu displayed there, e.g. for tests.
 
The options offered there are named after the corresponding HTML tags, and here is a list of the most important functions that are available in principle but can be deactivated:

  • bold / italic / underlined / strikethrough
  • raised / lowered
  • flush left / flush right / centered / justified
  • Indentation / Listing / Enumeration
  • horizontal bar
  • several heading formats
  • Insert images (but only references) and edit them
  • Inserting and editing tables

Character selection

Enable special character editor for text fields in ILIAS tests

Since version 4.4, a special character editor can be activated, which is then available in basically every text field that a user could fill out in ILIAS, be it an answer in a test question, the title field for a new object to be created, the text of an e-mail or other text fields. The special character editor must first be activated and configured in the administration. It can then be accessed via ... from anywhere.

To activate the special character editor, proceed as follows:

  1. Open the "Administration" menu in the ILIAS header and select the "Editor" option.
  2. Now switch to the "Character selection" tab.
  3. The special character editor is not available by default. However, you can now make it available activated or deactivated:
    • When activated, the special character editor is available to every user immediately and without any action on their part. In this case, you must specify which special characters the editor should offer:
      • From the "Available Unicode character blocks" menu, you can select a (first) section from the possible special characters (so-called "character blocks" from the Unicode character set). You can add further lines at any time using the small ... symbol and also add special characters. If you provide several character blocks, users can scroll from character block to character block in the special character editor.
      • In the "Special selection" text field, you can also enter special characters that are either not included in the list above or that should be the easiest for users to access, because: The "Special selection" is listed on the very first page of the special character editor, i.e. before all other Unicode blocks.
    • When deactivated, each user must decide for themselves whether they wish to have the special character editor available:
      • Users click on the avatar at the top right.
      • ILIAS displays a selection menu.
      • The user selects the Settings entry.
      • ILIAS shows the general settings.
      • Under Selection menu with special characters (Unicode) for tests, the user must make a selection of character blocks himself (and can compile a "Special selection" himself if necessary).
  4. Save at the end.