Editor preview

Editor preview

by Seth Martin -
Number of replies: 6
My institution currently uses Engage for our LMS. It is currently based on Moodle 3.X, but we will soon be upgrading to 4.0. I'm hoping that I can get an answer for both versions.

I am a chemistry and physics instructor and I use lots of formatting, especially LaTeX / MathJax, when I enter text. As far as I have found, none of the editors available allow for previews of what is entered in text areas. So if I type equations in a Quiz question, I have to save the question; open the preview to see if it rendered as expected; if not, reopen the question for editing and make changes; save the question; open the preview again; and repeat this process until it is right.

Many sites (stackechange sites being a prime example; see attached screenshot) provide previews of what is being entered in the editor. Is there a similar feature for any Moodle editor? On a somewhat different topic, is it possible to enter equations in the Markdown editor? I like Markdown for the ease with which I can add headers and formatting with very few keystrokes and not needing to switch to my mouse, but I haven't been able to get MathJax or LaTeX style text to work in the Markdown editor.



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In reply to Seth Martin

Re: Editor preview

by Mary Cooch -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
Hello Seth. I am going to move your post to the dedicated Mathematics tools forum where our equation editor experts (and fans! ) will be able to help you more...
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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Editor preview

by Seth Martin -
Hi Mary,

This isn't just a math issue ,thought that is a large driver for my interest. What I want to know is of there is a way to see all of the formatted text, etc on the same screen as an editor.
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In reply to Seth Martin

Re: Editor preview

by Daniel Thies -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Hi Seth,

That editor looks like the any of the standard Moodle editors that I am familiar with.  It is possible that your provider has added there on editor? Are you able to change the editor preference in your user preferences. The standard Moodle editors Atto (Moodle 2.7+)) and TinyMCE (Moodle 4.1) have a equation editor plugin that includes a preview. There are other 3rd party options for Atto (atto_mathslate, atto_preview, or atto_wiris) that have preview features that work with mathematics. If you, like Markdown the Marklar editor also has a preview.

You may have to ask your admin or vendor to enable one of these. There is not really an excuse not having a mathematics editor in Moodle given the options.

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In reply to Daniel Thies

Re: Editor preview

by Seth Martin -
I haven't tried Marklar. From the documentation I am not sure if it will solve the issues I have, bililut sounds promising. The only trouble is Wiley is usually unwilling to add plugins for "stability".


I do have the ability to change editors in my preferences and have tried several and none have the capabilities I want. Atto requires lots of mouse button clicks for formatting; Markdown makes adding formatting much faster.

For the preview, I'm not looking for a preview for just the equation, I want a preview of the entirety of the entered text with formatting applied. See the screenshot from stackexchange that I posted as an example. 

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In reply to Seth Martin

Re: Editor preview

by Martin Kraska -
I am using Marklar and this is ok for me. Disadvantage is that the editor has no syntax highliging neither for Markdown nor for HTML (I use both formats, at times mixed). It also allows to paste images from the clipboard.

This is a preview from Marklar. 



and this is the edit mode for the same question



This is the final question:



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In reply to Martin Kraska

Re: Editor preview

by Seth Martin -
This seems promising and I have requested it from Wiley. I wish that you could get a live preview as you type (as on stackexchange sites) but with the added technical bits due to the questions, I'm sure this becomes much more challenging. If I wasn't working on teaching, I might try my hand at creating a plugin for it. Anyhow, thank you for the screenshots, that was helpful for knowing what to expect from Marklar.
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