Text boxes

Complete text boxes

The best way to enter text is to type directly in the system's text boxes. Boxes designed for longer text also allow you to format your text and even enter hyperlinks.

Insert hyperlink (formatted text boxes only)

1. Put your cursor in the text box and highlight the text you want to hyperlink.

2. Click the first hyperlink tool (chain icon).The hyperlink dialogue box will appear.

3. Enter the URL for the hyperlink.

4. OPTIONAL: Set the target for the link (same window or new window).

5. OPTIONAL: Enter a title for the link.

6. Click insert. Highlighted text will be underlined.

Test inserted hyperlink

To test your hyperlink while it is in a text-entry box (once the text can no longer be edited, the hyperlink will function normally)

1. Put your cursor within the link.

2. Use Control click to open the link.

Remove hyperlink

1. Highlight the linked text.

2. Click the second (broken chain) icon. Link will be removed.

Cut & paste text

This application operates on the Web, which has its own language. Microsoft Word and other word processors do not speak that language, so cutting and pasting from one of them into any Web application causes translation problems, which manifest themselves in several ways:

• The system tells you your Word count is much higher than it is. (Many invisible MS Word formatting characters are pasted in along with the visible text, and the system counts them as words or characters.)
• You are seeing stray symbols and punctuation marks. (There are characters in the Word text the Web language cannot translate, so it does the best it can.)
• Formatting disappears or changes. (There could be format codes inside format codes in the Word text. In this case, the system needs to pick one.)
• Paragraphs merge into one paragraph. (The system cannot see where the text should break or cannot "translate" indents.)
• PDF production is interrupted.(One character the system cannot "translate" can stop PDF production.)
• You get an error message when you save.

Option 1, use tiny mce or paste from Word filter

There is a small program, or plug-in, that can preserve some Word formatting while also making the pasted text more Web friendly. The plug-in appears in the text-box formatting bar as the Word W icon.

• Select and copy the Word text you want to enter into the system.

• On the text-box formatting palette, click the ‘W’ icon. A second text box will open.

• Paste the text from Word into this box.

• Click the Insert button in the lower left of this box. The text will appear in the text box. Word formatting should be preserved.

Option 2: use simple text programs to remove Word codes and formatting altogether

TIP: Use this option if you are having difficulties after pasting from Word.

The locations of simple text programs could vary, but in general Notepad is in the Windows Accessories folder (click Start in the lower left of your screen, then All Programs, then Accessories). On the Mac, click your hard drive icon, then Applications, then TextEdit.

• Open Notepad on the PC or TextEdit on the Mac.
• Copy your text from the original word processing program.
• Paste it into one of these programs. The invisible codes and formatting are removed.
• Cut the text again.
• Paste into the application's text box. The text will appear without formatting.