Cutting-and-Pasting Content Directly Into Blackboard

Information – Click on Control Panel Button Typically, most instructors will post the majority of their content under the “Course Information”, “Course Documents” or “Assignments” sections of their course site. This acts as the first level of organization. Instructors can further organize their site by creating Folders in these sections. A Folder is a named placeholder which allows instructors to group a number of files which have commonality. For information on how to create a folder see Step-By-Step Creating A Folder Step 1: To Cut-and-Paste content directly into Blackboard, click on the Control Panel Button.

Click on the Proper Content Area Step 2: This brings up the Control Panel page. Decide which area you want to add your content and click on that area name under “Content Areas”

Click on the Add Item Button Step 3: In this case I clicked on the “Course Documents” area and this brings up the add content page for the Course Documents” Area. To cut-and-paste content directly into Blackboard click on the “Add Item” button.

Type in Name For Content Step 4: This brings up the add content form. In section #1 type in a name for your content or choose one from the drop-down box next to the “Name:”. In this case I have titled the content “Robert Frost At Tufts University”. Leave this page, for now, and open up Your Word Processor

Open Word and Highlight Desired Text Step 5: As seen on the left, I have opened up MS Word and a document inside of it. Highlight all of the desired content. Click on the “Edit” button in the top menu.

Copy Text to Clipboard Step 6: Choose “Copy” from the drop-down list. This will place the contents of the highlighted portion into your computer’s clipboard. As an alternative you can click on “Control + C” or on a MAC “Command + C”. This will copy any highlighted text into your computer’s clipboard. The example here uses MS Word but any text editor will work the same. After copying the text, close your Word processor and return to the Blackboard add content form.

Paste Content Into Text Box Step 7: Click in the large box marked “Text”. Make sure your cursor is flashing in the box. Click on the “Edit” button in the top menu and choose “Paste” As an alternative you can click on “Control + V” or on a MAC “Command + V”. This will paste any highlighted text from your computer’s clipboard.

Screenshot of Text Box This is a screenshot of the “Text” box after the content has been pasted into it. Format your text as needed adding line breaks or paragraphs.

Optional – Add Time Release Optional - If you want your Content to be “time released” check the Display after and/or display until boxes in Section #3. Using the drop-down boxes, choose a date and time that you want the content to become available to students and/or a day and time you want the content to become unavailable to students. If you want the content available at all times then do not place a checkmark in either of the boxes. Content that is unavailable to students are always available to instructors through the control panel. Step 8: Finally, click on the Submit Button.

Confirmation Step 9: Clicking on the Submit button will bring up a “Content Receipt” confirmation. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “OK” (not shown).

Go to Course View Step 10: This will return you to the Add Content page for the “Course Documents” area but now you will see the added content. Note that you can either modify or remove the Document on this page. After adding any content to you Blackboard course site, it is always a good idea to see what it looks like in the “Course” view. To return to the course click on the course ID name ( In this case ENG-101_Nhirsig). Then click on the proper area (in this case “Course Documents”).

View Content Note that in the course view the content appears inside of Blackboard directly (without having to download any file). One disadvantage of cutting-and-pasting content directly into Blackboard is that you will loose all formatting that may have existed in the original document.