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Usability improvements for LM editor

1 Description

Even if the current editor is already a big step forward in usability, there are still some things to improve:

Default settings

In ILIAS 4.0, some useful new features are disabled by default. They need to be activated in the Administration. I suggest to enable these features as long as they do not change a module profoundly.
  • Time Scheduled Page Activation
Alex, 19.6.2011: done (for new installations)

First chapter and page

Every Learning Module has to have one chapter and one page. ILIAS should create both automatically when a new LM has been created. The new editor offers us a simple way to show both empty items.
Alex, 19.6.2011: done.

Show where title is needed

For all new chapters and pages, the LM editor is currently showing an empty form field. Why not using JS to add a grey "Please enter title" notice that vanishes once a title has been entered?
Alex, 19.6.2011: Standard "New Chapter" / "New Page" text is used.

Main menu navigation in editor mode

At the time being, I always need to click on the LM title when I want to go from the page or chapter editor to the editor main menu. Why not adding a "Editor menu" button on top of the Chapter and Pages frame?

Alex, 19.6.2011: We did not find a good GUI representation for such a link yet. Moreover any link on the left side may be overlooked, if the title already is. I added a "back link" to the tabs on the right side for now.

Sorting of page elements in ADD menu

The sorting of elements that could be added to a page could be improved. It should consider the type of element, e.g. block and register should be listed close to each other. A possible sorting could look like this:
  1. Text
  2. Picture/...
  3. Question
  4. File list
  5. Extended list
  6. Data table
  7. Extended table
  8. Code
  9. Block
  10. Register

Alex Killing: -> After Advanced Lists -> Sections -> Tabs

Alex, 19.6.2011: Done

View and Fix Structure Buttons

Shouldn't we implement the option to change to the presentation view in the same way as we have done it in courses. Preview is a link in the tab menu, not a button within a tab. And I would strongly recommend to move the "Fix structure" button to an new submenu "Maintenance" (or something similar). At the current position it gets to much attention.

Alex Killing: We add a "Presentation View" link to the right of the learning module and chapter tabs. We also put the "Chapters", "All Pages", "Questions" and "Links" tab together under a new "Content" tab on the left.

Alex, 19.6.2011: Done

New sorting for layouts

I recommend to re-sort the available layouts for a LM according to their "popularity": TOC (standard), TOC Dynamic, One-Window, Two-W.., Three-W, Presentation, Full Screen

Alex, 19.6.2011: done.

Collapsed forms for unused features in media object editor

Collapsed forms for not used features improve usability very much. This JS-based effect is already used in the media object editor for some options (e.g. Adjust Size). It should be used also for the full screen option. At the time being I see forms for Size and Caption even if fuss screen is set to None (BTW: I would use the description "No full screen view" instead of None).

Alex, 19.6.2011: There is no common solution in the form class for this. This would require some general form GUI discussion (which has somewhere started in this wiki), a guideline decision and some funding.

Displaying the content of a selected media pool

You can easily insert pictures and media files from a media pool into a LM page. But the presentation of the media pool itself might still be improved. You only see the selected folder of the pool but not the pool itself. This should be changed!

Alex Killing: Replace "Parent Folder" link by breacrumbs. Add "Choose from Pool:..."/"Choose from Folder:..." to the title. Rename "Select Media Pool" to "Switch to other Media Pool".

Alex, 19.6.2011: done.

New elements for paragraph editing

The restriction of formatting in paragraphs is a result of the underlying DTD. But I highly recommend to add at least some more elements that are often used / required:
  • Superscript and subscript (not everyone knows the HTML tags for them)
  • Non-breakable space (if you add it in HTML it will be removed the next time someone opens the paragraph)

There is a specific feature request Add subscript and superscript. Feature is currently scheduled for 4.5.

Editing page elements

The current editing of page elements (4.2.0 alpha3) could still easily be improved:
  • Selected page elements (by double-click) should have a clearer border colour. At the time being, grey is used. I recommend something more eye-catching - like green or blue (red is already reserved for de-activated elements). Alex, 19.6.2011: done.
  • An option to "Select All" should be added to the bottom of the page, e.g. to ease copying the entire page content into another page (at the time being, this costs too much mouse clicks...).
  • Edit menu of a page element should also offer Cut and Copy (at the time being only available at the bottom...).
  • Function buttons at the bottom should also be offered on top (like in other forms, too).

Improving Editor Administration Section

Due to exisiting usability problems of the administration section "Advanced editing" and the changes in the editor with 4.2, this administration section needs to modified to improve usability. A suggestion has been published at the page Advanced Editing Administration.

2 Status

3 Additional Information

  • If you want to know more about this feature, its implementation or funding, please contact: Matthias Kunkel

4 Discussion

Please also implement for SCORM2004-Editor.

It would be better if the ILIAS LM editor is replaced by the SCORM 2004 editor and some additional import & export formats (i.e. ILIAS LM) could be read or generated by the latter. IMHO it doesn't make sense to offer and maintain two different content development tools with many redundant features side by side.

JF 12 Jul 2010: We postpone the feature to 4.2.

Florian Suittenpointner, 01-12-2010:
I'd like to add a comment I received from the participants of one of my trainings:
The buttons for switching between presentation and edit mode should be in the same position in the screen.
By now, the button "View" (switching from edit to presentation mode) is on top right, the button "Edit Page" (switching from presentation to edit mode) is on bottom right.

Florian Suittenpointner, 01-12-2010:
Please see also my suggestions at Default options for navigation buttons in ILIAS Learning Modules.

DZenker, 18.2.2011:
Another improvement for paragraph editing/formatting: a button to remove all paragraph formatting tags inside the paragraph (or marked text), since it's very time consuming to do this seperately by hand, and there's no search&replace feature.

DZenker, 23.2.2011:
Replacement of the old jsMath by its modern successor MathJax:
I implemented MathJax in our ILIAS installation which was easy, since it's only necessary to change some lines of source code and the URL to the MathJax main script. The only problem was that in preview the ILIAS version string is transfered to the MathJax main script which makes it inoperable, so I had to make a work-around. But it's worth the trouble, since the MathJax rendering of LaTex and MathML is much better than that of the old jsMath since it uses TEX webfonts, it works with all browsers I have tested and no further option settings from the user are necessary. Thus, I recommend to integrate MathJax into the next ILIAS release.

JF 5 Jul 2011: We move the MathJax proposal to this page: Latex Revision (since Latex support is a general service used in other ILIAS components, too).

5 Follow-up

Last edited: 17. Apr 2025, 15:10, Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel]