Hi all - i am a new moodle user and am putting together lessons. I would like to be able to edit them offline - is there some way to export the various pages and branch tables to a word doc?
Anne
Hello Anne,
There is no easy way to export as you have asked, and actually using Word could cause you a lot of problems. MS Word doesn't just have the words and pictures etc and tags like bold or font colour - it also has tons of other code which gets moved over to Moodle and is completely extraneous and can, basically, muck up your pages. (A way round this is to take Word text, put it in a basic text editor and change it to RTF - there is a button in the Moodle editor which is supposed to strip Word text, but this isn't particularly effective. This as you can see is long-winded though!)
It would be better to edit in something like Notepad; something simple. Why do you not want to edit in Moodle within the page? I really think this is the best way. With the HMTL editor that's there, it's pretty easy and will have all the main features (like font changes, indents, tables etc etc) that you're likely to need. I edit straight in the page and our lessons are highly stylised and very rich in both content and features.
As for exporting, you can't really do it anyway - the only real way of doing it is copy each screen (either in normal edit mode or with the HTML off if you want to edit the code for JavaScript etc) and pasting into something else.
There is no easy way to export as you have asked, and actually using Word could cause you a lot of problems. MS Word doesn't just have the words and pictures etc and tags like bold or font colour - it also has tons of other code which gets moved over to Moodle and is completely extraneous and can, basically, muck up your pages. (A way round this is to take Word text, put it in a basic text editor and change it to RTF - there is a button in the Moodle editor which is supposed to strip Word text, but this isn't particularly effective. This as you can see is long-winded though!)
It would be better to edit in something like Notepad; something simple. Why do you not want to edit in Moodle within the page? I really think this is the best way. With the HMTL editor that's there, it's pretty easy and will have all the main features (like font changes, indents, tables etc etc) that you're likely to need. I edit straight in the page and our lessons are highly stylised and very rich in both content and features.
As for exporting, you can't really do it anyway - the only real way of doing it is copy each screen (either in normal edit mode or with the HTML off if you want to edit the code for JavaScript etc) and pasting into something else.
Hi,
To add to what Scarlet is saying. Consider buidling your courses using a version of a complete install package of Moodle on your computer.
Some of us are suggesting to our overworked and volunteer module code writers, that a text import function would be nice, where we could at least compose pages in a word processor and have them come in using something like a GIFT format.
I have hacked a bit of code to import just images and another to import ppts with some modifications and installed it on a localhost version of Moodle. I do all my importing and building of my lessons/course on my desktop computer(s). Then I back up my computer version and restore it to a course on the web. I get clever with what I back up and restore
But as Scarlet said, you can not export a lesson to a word doc and then import it back. And certainly Word likes to insert other stuff as hidden code that even the clean Word button does not get rid of. I found that googledocs was not bad, and only took a little tweaking of some formats once it was copied into a Lesson content page.
However, with a localhost, you can copy text from one Moodle page to another web based Moodle page, usually without having to push the Toggle HTML source button on both pages.
Hope this helps. Chris
To add to what Scarlet is saying. Consider buidling your courses using a version of a complete install package of Moodle on your computer.
Some of us are suggesting to our overworked and volunteer module code writers, that a text import function would be nice, where we could at least compose pages in a word processor and have them come in using something like a GIFT format.
I have hacked a bit of code to import just images and another to import ppts with some modifications and installed it on a localhost version of Moodle. I do all my importing and building of my lessons/course on my desktop computer(s). Then I back up my computer version and restore it to a course on the web. I get clever with what I back up and restore
But as Scarlet said, you can not export a lesson to a word doc and then import it back. And certainly Word likes to insert other stuff as hidden code that even the clean Word button does not get rid of. I found that googledocs was not bad, and only took a little tweaking of some formats once it was copied into a Lesson content page.
However, with a localhost, you can copy text from one Moodle page to another web based Moodle page, usually without having to push the Toggle HTML source button on both pages.
Hope this helps. Chris
Thanks Chris and Scarlet - both your replies are helpful. I am quite happy to edit in the lesson mode, but I am working with an SME who wants to make his additions and input to a word doc. I have managed to copy and paste the entire lesson (17 pages) across to a word doc with each page as a table and it will be simply enough to edit, but, as you say, I will have to be more careful when I import the word version back to the lesson. Will try with googledocs or notepad. thanks again.
Hey Anne,
Merely 17 pages of cut and paste. Piece of cake.
Chris
Merely 17 pages of cut and paste.
Chris
Sorry I couldn't be more positive! Please be careful with the SME's word document, when stripping it of the Word code you may lose any formatting they have done. Make sure you keep their original word doc (if they have used a lot of formatting, like bullets etc) to refer to.
Will this person not be open to learning a new skill!?! Perhaps they could be persuaded to edit direct in Moodle too, if they can be sold on the idea that what they want exactly can be kept this way and may be lost if they do it via Word. Many of our SME's have started to take an interest in editing direct, as it's yet another skill and they get satisfaction from how immediately their work is shown!
Will this person not be open to learning a new skill!?! Perhaps they could be persuaded to edit direct in Moodle too, if they can be sold on the idea that what they want exactly can be kept this way and may be lost if they do it via Word. Many of our SME's have started to take an interest in editing direct, as it's yet another skill and they get satisfaction from how immediately their work is shown!