Using the Rich Text Editor

When creating your study’s content in Homepage message cards, Task Question or Instructions fields, Discussion Topics, and Email Broadcasts, it’s highly likely that you’ll be copying the content from your discussion guide or another source. When doing so, understandably you’d want the text formatting to copy over so that it resembles your discussion guide.  

What is important to note however, is that when copying and pasting text over to the platform, it is possible that some text formatting code gets carried over from whatever your source was. This can interfere with how your task displays to participants, how your participant responses appear, or may create an undesirable outcome from your task. 

For this reason we recommend that any and all formatting that gets copied over is removed. You can use the Remove Formatting Rich Text Editor tool to do this (described below) once the content has been copied over.  

Alternatively, when copy and pasting, do so without any formatting so that only the text and none of the extra code/formatting is pasted into Recollective. To paste without formatting:

• On PC: You can right-click and select 'Paste and Match Style' or use the keyboard command Ctrl+Shift+V
• On Mac: You can right-click and select 'Paste without formatting' or use the keyboard command Cmd+Shift+V

Not to worry,  you’ll have access to numerous formatting options using the Rich Text Editor in order to format your text to your liking (and to match your discussion guide).

This article explains each of the formatting tools available when using the Rich Text Editor. 

Text formatting tools:

The following tools can be used to format the text you input into the above mentioned areas within the Recollective platform: 

Bold: To bold parts of your text, highlight it and select the bold icon

Italics: To italicise parts of your text, highlight it and select the italics icon

Strikethrough: This icon is used to convert your text to strikethrough

Bullets and numbering, outdent and indent: This tool can be used to apply a bullet character or a numeral to the start of a list or paragraph, you can also indent or outdent any text that has a bullet or numeral applied to it. 

Text align: This allows you to left, center or right align your text. It’s also possible to justify your paragraphs.  

Formatting: With the formatting tool, it’s possible to change your font size…

…or style of your text.

Font color: Using this tool, you are able to change your font color and/or background

Tip: Using a larger font size or darker font colour can be beneficial if visibility is a concern within your participant population.

Link

It’s possible to link participants to another page within your study, or external to the Recollective platform. To do this, highlight the text you wish to add the hyperlink to, and select the Link icon. 

When clicked, select Insert link, which opens a window that will allow you to insert the URL. You can furthermore choose whether it should open in a new tab or not. 

Tip: We recommend always opening a link in a new tab so that participants are not directed away from the platform or task. 

Use the same icon to also remove a hyperlink from the text. 

Remove formatting

This tool has two uses. First, you can use this to remove undesired formatting that you added using the Rich Text Editor. On the other hand, if content gets copied over from another source, you can use the Remove Formatting tool to remove any formatting or code that may have copied over. 

Embedding media

Using the Insert image… tool, photo media can be embedded in your Home Page message cards, Task Question or Instructions fields, Discussion Topics, and Email Broadcasts.

Insert image: Simply select the Insert Image... icon from the Rich Text Editor toolbar to add your photo(s) directly into the Question or Instructions box.

HTML

If you have some knowledge of HTML code, feel free to use the HTML editor to customize your text and media appearance, style or layout. 

This is also where you’ll be able to identify whether any unwanted formatting or code copied over from your source, and if so, it can be deleted from the HTML code. 

The HTML editor is not available in the Fill the Blanks task for or response template. 

Insert table

Sometimes you may need to insert a table into your Home Page message cards, Task Question or Instructions fields, Discussion Topics, or Email Broadcasts.

The Rich Text Editor includes a Table tool, which allows you to add or remove rows and columns from your table. 

• Tables that are 4+ columns.  Beyond 2-3 columns can impact participants’ experience on mobile as participants will have to do horizontal scrolling to see the other columns, and older phones may not allow for this. This can also cause difficulty when reviewing tables response on the platform as some columns may not be visible.
• Tables with photo or scale blanks since these are required to be full width within the response template. If they are included in the table, responses for this task cannot be viewed within the platform. 

Insert horizontal lines

This tool furthermore allows you to separate text with a horizontal line. 

Fullscreen

Use the Fullscreen tool to enlarge your text editor screen so that all other site elements are hidden. Once enlarged, you can just click the same icon again to minimize the window to the default size.