How to post a document
From Academic Computing
This section takes you through the basic steps of posting a document, making folders to organize files, and previewing how students will see the files on Blackboard.
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[edit] How to Post a Document
The purpose of this exercise is to show how to post a document to Blackboard. You can use the same general steps to post other documents to your course. To post your syllabus, go to the control panel of your course. The Content Areas contains links to tools for posting information.
Click on the area you want to upload to—in this instance, the Syllabus link. You will see a screen similar to the one below.
Next, click on the Item icon, 
, to take you to the Add Content screen. The Add Content screen is divided into the following 4 sections.
- 1 Content Information
- 2 Upload Content
- 3 Set Date Restrictions & Viewing Options
- 4 Submit
[edit] The Add Content Screen
[edit] Content Information
The first section of the Add Content screen is Content Information. This section lets you name the item, and enter text information in the form of Smart Text, Plain Text, or HTML. By Default the text field is set to accept Smart Text.
Smart text is useful format for converting web addresses into active links. For example if you type http://www.usf.edu into the text box, it will convert it to a clickable link.
If you do not want web addresses to be converted to links, use the Plain Text option.
Use the HTML option if you prefer to use HTML markup.
You can copy and paste information from a text editor or word processor in the text box. However, you will loss the formatting of the original document. If want to copy a webpage, we recommend you set the text option to HTML, and copy and paste the HTML source into the text box.
To insert a mathematical equation, use the 
button—a web-based math editor will appear. To reuse an equation click the 
button. To activate the spellchecker click the 
button. To use these features you will need to have Java installed http://www.sun.com
[edit] Upload Content
Scroll down to the second section of the Add Content screen to upload your content.
To attach a file or document click the Browse button. After you search and select the file to upload, the path and name of the file will appear in the File to Attach box. In the next box you can rename the link to the file. This action is optional – using it will not alter the file. The Special Action box is a drop down list with the following options.
- Create a link to this file
- Display media file within the page
- Unpackage this file
Create a link to this file is the default option, we recommend using this option for files containing written text such as Office files (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) and PDFs. The Display media file within the page option is used to embed media files such as Mpeg, AVI, QuickTime, MP3, and Wav files into the web page. If you choose to use this option, we recommend keeping your media file sizes less than 5 MB (mega bytes). This is approximately 1-2 minutes of video or 4-5 minutes of sound. If you have fairly large media files (over 8-10MB) we recommend using the Create a link to this file option instead. The Unpackage this file option allows you to unzip and display the contents of ZIP files in BlackBoard. A .zip file is a compressed file that can store multiple files within a single file. If you have archived a website stored as ZIP file, you can use this feature to directly unpack the archived website into Blackboard.
[edit] Set Date Restrictions & Viewing Options
The third section of the Add Content screen allows you to set viewing restrictions and tracking information.
[edit] Submit
When you are finished setting all the preferences, scroll down to the fourth (and last) section to submit your content. If you are not satisfied you can cancel and start over again.
If you are uploading video or sound files it may take several minutes to complete depending on your connection speed to the internet. If it takes too long to upload (over 15 minutes) the session may time out. If this happens try reducing the size of the attachment, or upload the file to an alternate location and provide a link to the file by adding an External Link instead of an Item. If there were no errors you will get a confirmation receipt. If you get an error make sure your web browser and operating system are up-to-date. If you still receive errors, please call our Helpdesk at 974-1222 for assistance.
[edit] Organize Documents With Folders
Folders allow you to further organize your materials. To use a folder you must be in the Instructor view (also called Edit view) of a content area. The Instructor’s view will have a tool bar at the top of the screen allowing you to add Items, Folders, etc. You can choose the Content Area you wish to edit through the Control Panel.
To add a Folder, click on the Add Folder Icon, from the tool bar menu, and you will see the Add Folder screen. The Add Folder screen is divided into 3 sections.
- Folder Information
- Options
- Submit
The information in the Add Folder section is similar to the Add Item screen, except the attachment section is omitted. After you click submit, you will see a new folder on the screen.
[edit] Move and/or Copy items
Whenever you post an item in the content areas of your course, you can copy these items to other content sections or to a different course in which you have instructor’s privileges. To move or copy an item you must first be inside the Instructor view of a content area. The Instructor’s view will have a tool bar at the top of the screen allowing you to add Items, Folders, etc. Let us assume you recently created a folder called Lecture Schedule and you want to copy your Syllabus to this folder. To copy your syllabus, first click the Copy icon next to your Syllabus.
Clicking the Copy button will take you to the Copy Item screen
On the copy item screen, select a course from the Destination Course field. You can copy the item to the current course or another course in which you have instructor privileges. Next select a Destination Folder. This is the location inside the course where you want to place the copied item. The "Delete item after copy?" option allows you to either retain or delete the original item. If you choose to delete the original, you will effectively be moving the item to the destination instead of simply copying the item there. The Copy is useful for copying single items from course to course. If you are trying to copy large sections of your course you will need to use a different method called Course Copy which will be discussed in a later class.
[edit] Previewing & Editing Content from the Student View
If you want to quickly preview your syllabus from the student view, Bread Crumbs are available at the top of most screens to help you navigate through your course. Below is an example of BlackBoard’s bread crumbs.
To preview your syllabus, click on the course name in the bread crumbs list; for example the instructor of this course would click on ACT Test Course: Test Course 2 to return to the student view. Whenever you are in the student view of a content area, you can edit the content using the Edit View feature without going through the control panel. The Edit View link is in the upper right hand side of the screen. This link is only available for Instructors and TA’s.
The student view will open up with tools to let you edit the item.
You can return to the student view by clicking on the Display View link in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
[edit] See Also
Introduction to myUSF for Faculty
How to send email through Blackboard
How to post Announcements on Blackboard
File Exchange for Groups
