Forums | E-Learning Practitioners

22 July 2015, 16:26

Welcome to the upgraded QMplus

Wednesday, 22nd July 2015

Thank you for your patience whilst we upgraded QMplus.  You can now log in to your new learning environment at http://qmplus.qmul.ac.uk.

Although QMplus may look the same on the surface, there are new features and functionality that are now available. Before you dive into the new system, here are some useful links about the upgrade that you might be interested in...

• When you access QMplus, you will now be using Moodle version 2.8.5.  This means that new functionality as part of the upgraded version is available for you to start using for the first time.  For an overview of what's new, see July Upgrade - New Features List
• Our designers have been busy adding new options for you when building your QMplus courses: there is a brand new text editor, new styles and it's now easier to build "topic zero".  For full details, see: What's new in the QMplus theme.
• Now that we have upgraded, we are almost ready for rollover.  From next week Tuesday, 28 July 2015, you'll be able to schedule a fresh course for next year.  To find out how, see QMplus Archive and Rollover - your questions answered.
• Finally, there are some issues that were uncovered during the upgrade and we are aware that there may be other issues with the new system that we didn't catch in our testing. To fix these issues, we've scheduled a post-upgrade release on 25 August 2015.  To find out what will be included so far, see QMplus August Release.

We hope you enjoy the new system.  Let us have your feedback by emailing us at elearning@qmul.ac.uk or you can tweet us at @qmulelearning.

23 July 2015, 11:00

Hi -

I'm just using the new text editor to edit HTML, and although the colour highlighting is great, there are two niggles:

1) I had a lot of HTML commented out before the upgrade (intending to uncomment when needed). All the stuff in comments has now gone. So I have to do that again.

2) I can't see a button to maximise the editor pane. This used to be a useful feature on the old editor. Has it been removed? Or am I not looking in the right place?

Thanks.

23 July 2015, 12:40

Dear Martin

I've noted the same issue (2) with the new HTML editor: it is frustrating not to have that full-screen toggle. I did find that I could semi-replicate this functionality by using a combination of the 'Zoom In' option on the QMplus top nav bar, and then (in Chrome) using the drag handle at the bottom-right of the pane to increase the size of the editor. But it would be nice to have the old option restored (it's still in QMplus Hub, I see!).

Cheers,

Richard

27 July 2015, 20:54

Yes, the way the editor eats HTML comments is very annoying. As a workaround I'm using script comments instead, i.e. instead of

<!-- Comment -->

I'm now using

<script>/** Multi-line comment **/</script>

or

<script>
// Single-line comment
</script>

The editor reformats these comments but otherwise preserves them.

When I remember, I pull my previous HTML comments out of the source for the page before I edit it. When I forget, I'm hoping that I will be able to use the archive to retrieve any important comments.

Francis

28 July 2015, 10:14

Hi Francis,

Thanks for the commenting tip.

I'll use the <script> tag in future.

Still, the syntax highlighting is a big improvement

M

29 July 2015, 12:46

Dear colleagues,

I am sorry that you have been having problems with the new ATTO editor. We have recorded your issues under the Known Issues list and we are investigating options for a possible fix in August, although this isn't confirmed - see http://www.elearning.capd.qmul.ac.uk/announcements/qmplus-work-in-progress-15/

OLD EDITOR

In the meantime, if you are really missing the old Tiny MCE editor, we have not removed it and you can choose to revert to this old editor if you prefer. You can do this by editing your profile, and under the preferences option, select 'TinyMCE HTML Editor' under the 'Text Editor' option. I haven't tested if this will bring back any deleted HTML comments, but the 'full screen' option is available, as well as those of you having problems using Tables may find this editor easier for this purpose.

Please note however, that I do not recommend that users switch to the old editor, as there are plans to phase it out and ultimately we would like to get the ATTO editor to a place where it meets your needs. However, if you are desperate, the old editor is currently an available option.

I hope this is helpful.

Best Wishes,

Alysa

05 August 2015, 16:27

I know not everyone is sorry to see such things go, but we're start to encounter some frustrations and complaints around the loss of a 'paste from Word' option in the new HTML editor. The Tiny MCE paste-from-Word did a great job of translating Microsoft mark-up into clean HTML, but ATTO is pretty weak in this respect.

Is there any chance of this being redressed? The overwhelming majority of SED staff author copy in Word, and if there's no reliable and simple method for pasting formatted text into QMplus, I fear we'll see more (rather than fewer) pieces of content created as uploaded word-processed files.

Cheers,

Richard

05 August 2015, 18:01

Hi Richard

Although there is no explicit 'paste from word' icon anymore in the Atto text editor you will find that there is a replacement for it in the form of a button called 'Clear formatiing'. If you paste text in from MSWord and then highlight that text and click the button/icon (a capital T with a small x next to it) the formatting from word will be cleaned up.

As an update for the rest of our group members, we are going to put a full-screen capability for Atto into the August release, but we are unable to install all the science-related Atto plugins at this time. We will keep you informed as to when this will happen.

Regards

Brett

05 August 2015, 20:55

Thanks Brett, that's very helpful, and I really should have played more with ATTO before posting (I'd assumed that icon was some kind of mathematical function!).

It certainly cleans out word-processed formatting, but it is also pretty severe. My recollection is that Tiny MCE's paste-from-Word would retain (for example) bold and italic formatting by imposing <strong> and <em> tags, and this tool doesn't provide that option. But it does save me from stripping down the code manually, or using a third-party app.

Thanks too for the general update.

All best,

Richard

23 July 2015, 17:22

Hello there

The new Atto text editor has a number of custom plugins. We  have focussed on core functionality in the first release but we are working hard on:

1. The Chemistry, Computer science and the Latex editor icons/ capability

2. A full-screen capability icon.

If these plugins pass user testing they could be in the August release.

Regards

Brett