Copying Text and Images from Microsoft Word (Or Similar Text Editing Software)

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Relevant to: faculty and staff

This article contains information considered accurate at the time of publishing. Technology updates, changes in University security practices, policies and procedures may effect the information in this article - updates to articles are scheduled on a periodic basis and will address any required changes.

Introduction

This guide will cover the basics of copying the contents of a word document to an Discussion Topic.

When copying the contents of a document directly into Brightspace, formatting may be lost and need to be recreated.

If your document contains both text and images these will need to each be added separately.

Note: Please keep in mind that Brightspace is not capable of certain formatting functionality that dedicated word processing programs can perform. For example, there are no such things as margins in a Brightspace discussion forum.

Copying and Pasting Text

Start in the Document you've created in Microsoft Word. Copy the text you want to move to your discussion with the following steps:

Click your mouse and hold the button down while dragging it to highlight the section of the document you want to copy
While the text you want to copy is still highlighted, hold the Control key (Ctrl) on your keyboard and tap the C key. Then release Control. You shouldn't see anything happen with this step; this will copy the highlighted text to your computer's clipboard. (If you are using a Mac, the keyboard combination is Command (Cmd) + C).
Next log into Brightspace, enter a course, and select a discussion topic.
When you have entered a discussion topic, select "Start a New Thread" to begin.
Select the text box and then hold Control (Ctrl) and tap the V key. This will paste the content we copied earlier. (If you are using a Mac, the keyboard combination is Command (Cmd) + V). Feel free to go through the post at this point to re-create any lost spacing or indentation you would like to have in your post. Once the formatting has been completed select the Post button.
If you have images you would also like to include, please see the below section on Copying and Inserting Images into a Brightspace Discussion.

Note: You can paste text into the discussion text box without formatting by holding Control (Ctrl) and the Shift key simultaneously and tapping the V key. You may wish to do this if you don't like the way text is copying from the word file (Example: text is too small to read when copied into Brightspace). Macintosh users can use Command (Cmd) + Shift + V.

Copying and Inserting Images

If the image you would like to insert into your Brightspace post is in in your Word Document but not saved to your computer, please start at the first bullet point. If the image is already saved to your computer as an image file you may skip to the third bullet point.

In your document, with your mouse, right click on the image and select Save as Picture.
Save the image to your computer. Note: the Name and Location of the image you saved.
Log into Brightspace, enter a course, and select a discussion topic. Select the "start a new thread" button to begin.
Within the text box, select the location where you'd like the image placed. After this is completed, select the Insert Image icon.
Choose "My Computer" then either select "Upload" to open a file picker or drag the file from your desktop into the dashed box.
If using the file picker, locate the file on your computer then select Open.
Select Add to insert the image into your post. Repeat these steps for each image you would like to add.
Type a short description in the alternative text box - this will be read by anyone reading your post with a screen reader.
Once the image(s) have been uploaded, select the Post button.