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HTML modes character-by-character.
HTML modes character-by-character.
The editor provides a relatively standard toolbar:
===Examples===
The first milestone in Explore/examples has five activities which illustrate the capabilities of basic lessons which can be created by educators with limited computer experience. The examples in the other milestonse require intervention by someone familiar with the Linux and with using the Terminal activity.
The first example is straight text. Such an activity is often used at the beginning of a milestone to introduce its topic.
The second example is a text illustrated by an image. In the edit mode, an image may be added using the camera icon. The camera icon shows all of the images in the Documents folder (/home/olpc/Documents). This folder is made visible in the Journal activity of recent builds of the XO software. Images may be created with the Record activity or as sreenshots (ALT+1). It is wise to give each image a meaningful title as it is added to the Journal. Try to make the title with no spaces (e.g. use a hyphen or underscore or period instead. The best choice is the underscore because the hyphen and period may have special uses. Images may also be created using Sugar activities such as Paint. The image may be copied from the Journal to the Documents folder. Images taken with a mobile phone or digital camera may be copied to the Documents folder from a flash drive. It is often useful to make a diagram on paper and then photograph the paper. Make sure the paper is flat and well lit. A picture of a lesson on a blackboard can also be easily added to a Learn activity.
In the edit mode, there is a camera icon at the top right of the screen. Clicking on this icon shows a screen with thumbnails of the images in the Documents folder. The user selects the correct image for the activity. The user is asked to specify the width and height of the image. The width of the screen is 1200 pixels so a width of 600 will occupy half of the screen. Images are often in a ration of 4:3 so that an image with a width of 600 would have a height of 450. In addition, the user is asked on which screen the image should appear. Finally, the user may specify the image as right or left. An image will appear at the top of the screen to the right or left with text flowing around it. If neither right or left is specified, the image will be centered at the top and the text will begin below the iamge. When the lesson is saved, the Learn activity makes a copy of the image in the activity folder resized to the specification. It adds code which will show the image on the screen. The user clicks on the save icon and then the left arrow to leave the edit mode. The iamge will now be visible in the lesson.
The third example shows a multi-screen lesson. Using scrolling on an XO is awkward at best. It is better to divide a lesson into multiple screens (pages) to prevent the need for scrolling. The Learn activity provides navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen which make it easy for students to move from one screen to the next. The lesson needs to be divided at logical points. This is accomplished by moving the cursor immediately to the left of the first character of the next screen and inserting a 'horizontal rule' using the first tool on the third row of the editor's toolbar.
The fourth example shows a lesson with an image and an audio track. The track can be pre-recorded as in the British Council story or can be recorded by the lesson author. The recording can be made using Record although
the microphone amplification of the XO is often insufficient. It can also be made by an external microphone using Record or using an external voice recorder. As with an image, the clip is copied from the Journal or an external flash drive to the Documents folder. Clicking on the microphone icon at the top of the edit screen shows all of the audio clips in the Documents folder. The user selects the correct clip for the activity. When the lesson is saved, the Learn activity will add the clip to the lesson.
When a student does the activity, there will be a play button on the bottom right of the screen. When clicked the audio clip will play and a pause button will be shown. When the pause button is clicked, the playback stops and the play button is shown. The playback continues independently of the screen shown. The British Council story, for example, allows the student to read the story advancing to the next page in time with the audio track.
The fifth example shows a lesson which includes a quiz. The quiz is entered in a special format developed by Moodle called 'gift'. In edit mode, the lesson may show special comments framed by '/*' and '*/'. The quiz is entered in this form.
The questions are entered between the following lines:
/*Quiz
questions go here
*/
The word Quiz (capitol Q) must be entered after /* with no spaces.
==TinyMCE==
The editor (TinyMCE) provides an edit toolbar:
[[Image:tinymce_toolbar.png]]
[[Image:tinymce_toolbar.png]]