[Using Sakai] Character limits and HTML coding

[Christopher Heard]

Dear Sakai users,

Hello! I've been using Sakai for about a year, but I'm new to this mailing list. Is this the right place to report problems with existing Sakai tools and/or to post feature requests/wish lists?

Just in case I'm in the right crowd, here's my issue: when I use the Source option in the rich text editor to write Questions and Model Short Answers for essay/short answer questions, either the editor or Sakai rewrites my code, formatting it in a way that appeals visually to somebody behind the curtain but that introduces a whole bunch of space characters that take my code over the 4,000-character limits in the relevant text areas. Specifically, I use a lot of HTML coding to provide important information in a tabular format to my students. In particular, I use the Model Short Answer text area to provide a rubric for each essay question, so that students can informally self-assess before they get the official assessment from me. I present this information in an HTML table. I keep blank spaces and even carriage returns to a minimum to conserve characters, but either Sakai or FCK Editor insist on putting in a bunch of carriage returns and spaces (to simulate tabs). The effect can be quite significant. In one case, the code I wrote occupies only 3,616 characters in my HTML editor, but when I paste it into Sakai, the forced reformatting takes the character count up to 4,007 characters. The surplus 391 characters are all carriage returns and blank space used to simulate tab stops—pleasing to some programmer's eye but completely irrelevant to the browsers interpreting the code. In essence, the reformatting robs me of 11% of the characters I could use to communicate with my students.

Does anyone know of a way to shut off or override this behavior?

Thank you!

Chris
--
Christopher Heard
Associate Professor of Religion
Pepperdine University
Malibu, CA 90263-4352
Web Site: http://faculty.pepperdine.edu
Personal Blog: http://higgaion.heardworld.com
Online Research Resources: http://www.iTanakh.org

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