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I hear ANGEL Support is getting asked this question a lot these days. I'd like to provide an in-depth look at the answer.

First, the remarks field in drop boxes have always had a 2500 character limit. Prior to a recent update ANGEL would silently not save any characters beyond that limit. To prevent this type of data loss, ANGEL now warns you that you've exceeded the limit.

Second, a common question seems to be that ANGEL claims that more than 2500 characters have been entered even when the user has only entered a few letters. This is the result of an unfortunate interaction between Microsoft Word and, well, everything else including the ANGEL HTML editor. Let's take a look at why this occurs and what can be done about it.

Start by opening Microsoft Word (I'm using Word 2008 for MacOS X). Type a word into it. Now, copy that word and paste it into any text field in ANGEL that uses the HTML editor. Then, click the Source button (the rightmost button).

Yikes! Look at all that text! When you copy text in Word, that is what Word sends to your clipboard. When you paste your text into an application that allows text to be formatted, that's what is sent. That text comprises the structure and formatting commands that Word uses to save your files. That Word content is pasted this way is both good and bad when you're pasting text into ANGEL. It's good in that you can format and style text in Word then paste it into the HTML editor when you're ready and have all of that formatting and styling be retained. It's bad in that you wind up with a ridiculous amount of text in the HTML source when you paste into an HTML editor. Because all of this text is saved in ANGEL, it counts toward the 2500 character limit.

For example, when I performed the above steps I typed the word Hi! into Word. This resulted in 3,424 characters being sent to the ANGEL HTML editor.

Dealing with text pasted from Word is a thorny problem for inline HTML editors. A common method to deal with it is for the editor to bundle a feature that attempts to strip extraneous Word text. The ANGEL HTML editor has a Paste From Word feature that tries to do this. When I used that to paste Hi! from Word, 1,434 characters were pasted. That's better, but may not be good enough if you have a large amount of text.

Another method is to use the Paste As Plain Text feature. Unfortunately, this results in all of the text Word sends—including the formatting commands—being pasted as plain text. Not an improvement.

The ANGEL team hopes that ANGEL Learning will find a workable solution to this particular problem. For the time being, however, you can try using one of the methods below when entering remarks for a drop box submission or using the HTML editor anywhere in ANGEL. Have a different method that works for you? Suggest it in the comments!

1. Compose your response exclusively in the ANGEL HTML editor.

Advantages: No bloat from Word. Can style text directly in the editor.

Disadvantages: No draft feature in ANGEL for saving and working on your response without sending it to the student.

2. Click the Source button before pasting your text.

Advantages: Your web browser should paste the text you composed in Word with no Word formatting. You can then style text in the HTML editor.

Disadvantages: All formatting is lost when pasted. Not all text may be pasted.

3. Compose your response in a plain text editor such as Notepad (in Windows) or Text Edit using the Make Plain Text feature (on MacOS X). When ready, paste the text into ANGEL and style it using the HTML editor.

Advantages: Text can be saved and edited on your computer, allowing you to take as much time as you need before pasting it into ANGEL.

Disadvantage: Cannot style text, insert math equations, or using tables in a plain text editor, necessitating waiting until you are ready to use the HTML editor to perform these functions.

4. Compose your response using an HTML editor on your computer, such as Dreamweaver or iWeb.

Advantages: Text can be saved and edited on your computer, allowing you to take as much time as you need before pasting it into ANGEL. Text can also be styled with HTML and pasted into the Source view of the ANGEL HTML editor.

Disadvantage: Requires installing (and possibly purchasing) and learning how to use your chosen software.

5. Compose your response in any application on your computer, then upload it as a Word document, PDF document, HTML document, plain text file, or other file type.

Advantages: Text can be saved and edited on your computer, allowing you to take as much time as you need before uploading your file into ANGEL.

Disadvantage: Students will need to open your file in an application outside of the web browser, which is inefficient and possibly annoying. Students may need to purchase and install software if the format you use is not supported by any software currently installed on their computer.