Internet Explorer 7 and Blackboard

If you are using Internet Explorer 7 for your Blackboard classes, Internet Explorer 7 does not function properly with the Visual Text Box Editor.  The Visual Text Box Editor is needed and used whenever text can be entered.  If you are finding that you are unable to write within the discussion board area, testing, quizzes, essays, content areas, etc. the Visual Text Box Editor will need to be changed.  What we have been experiencing in the discussion board area for example, is that the subject line appears along with the formatting controls, but the box to type your discussion into is missing.  Blackboard suggests the following workarounds:

First: Disable the Visual Text Box Editor in Blackboard

1.  Login to Blackboard

2.  On the My Gateway Tab, click on Personal Information (in the Tools box at the left)

3.  Click on Set Visual Text Box Editor Options

4.  Under Set Availability, choose Unavailable

5.  Click the Submit button

6.  Click OK to return to Personal Information

7.  Click OK to return to the My Gateway Tab

Second:  Add Blackboard and Gateway to your list of “Trusted Sites in IE7” (If you want to use the Visual Text Box Editor)

1.  Login to Blackboard.

2.   Determine if the Blackboard server is in the list of Trusted Sites:   When accessing Blackboard, a green check mark will appear in the Status Bar at the bottom of the screen with the label "Trusted Sites". Your browser is configured properly; no need to continue.

If Restricted Sites (a red circle icon) or Internet (a globe icon) appears instead, the Blackboard server must be added to the list of Trusted Sites. Continue to Step 3.

3. Double-click the Status Bar where the Restricted Sites or the Internet icon appears. The Internet Security Properties box will open.

4. Click on the Trusted Sites icon under the Select a zone to view or change security settings heading. Click Sites to open the Trusted Sites box.

5. The URL for the Blackboard server and Gateway’s server should appear in the Add this website to the zone text box. If not, enter the URL that is used to access Blackboard in the text box.

6. Enter http://gtc.blackboard.com/ 

7. Click Add.

8.  Enter http://www.gtc.edu

9.  Click Add.

10. Click Close.

11. Click OK on the Internet Security Properties box.

12. Refresh the page.

13. A message may appear at the top of the screen in the Internet Explorer Information Bar:
"This website wants to run the following add-on: 'Microsoft (R) Dynamic HTML Editing Control' from 'Microsoft Corporation'. If you trust the website and the add-on and want to allow it to run, click here..."

14. Click the message and select Run ActiveX Control from the context menu.

15. Click Run in the Security Warning box.

16. The Visual Text Box Editor is now configured to operate correctly within this browser.

As a side note:  You can always use Mozilla Firefox for Blackboard.  We haven’t been running into this issue using Firefox.  It only takes seconds to download and the download is free.   You can get Firefox by clicking on the following link:  www.getfirefox.com.