I would like to add a template with answer boxes for students to fill in. If have the template in a Word doc but want to use answer boxes rather than a blank for students to put their answers. Can someone tell me how to do this so that when students put answer in the box it will not move the rest of the text as it does when they fill in a blank in the Word doc template? Thanks for any help you can provide.
I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to do. The online text assignment opens an editor where the student can type in or paste text. For adding answer boxes to the submission form you need to hack the code or script wrapper for the submission page. Is that what you mean? If not, you should probably consider using the database activity where you can design a form with answer boxes, dropdown menus and what not. 
This page
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-19299
seems to imply there is a way to do this within the online text assignment type.
Is this available now, or is it part of future development? Is it a plug-in or does it require code to be added to Moodle?
It looks like it could be a very effective tool.
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-19299
seems to imply there is a way to do this within the online text assignment type.
Is this available now, or is it part of future development? Is it a plug-in or does it require code to be added to Moodle?
It looks like it could be a very effective tool.
This patch requires modifying the database and php. Depending on your Moodle version you may either use the attached file for the php modifications or apply the changes yourself.
Sounds like a cloze question type would suit your needs here would it not? A bit of work to set up but seems as though it would give you what you need. (I haven't used Hot Potatoes but I think it might give you an interface to more easily create cloze question types?)
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Cloze
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Cloze