Formatting Text

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Most of us design content visually. In order to make text stand out, we make it BOLD, or increase the font size. While this works for some students, those that can't see the formatting miss out on some important information. We can, however, use the RCE to design for all students. Let's take a quick look at some features of the RCE to get a better idea.

The first few options on the toolbar allow us to modify the font by making it bold, italic, or underlined. Many create headings within their text by making the font larger and bold, but this method in not accessible. In addition, in web design, using the traditional blue hyperlink color and underlining is used to denote a hyperlink. When students are reading text online and they see an underlined word, they will expect that word to be a link to another page. 

We're not saying you should never use bold, italics, or underlining--we're just saying you should use them correctly. Here are a few quick rules:

• Use bold and/or italics for emphasis. 
• Avoid underlining (unless it's a hyperlink).

 

While we may be tempted to adjust the font color to make information beautiful, or for emphasis when something is really, really, important, keep in mind that color attracts attention (which is good if the information is important), but too much color is distracting (even if just subliminally). Moreover, there are a number of cognitive and visual differences that interfere with the reader's ability to perceive and filter colors. Keep color to a minimum, and be sure the contrast between text and background are adequate (more on that later!). 

 

Many people believe increasing the font size is the best way to make a heading. Stop the press! It's not. Though this makes a visual difference, it doesn't create a true heading (more on that later!). 

Here's an interesting fact about web-based text. Font size is relative. If the font needs to be larger on the computer, zooming in can help control the font size. 

As a rule, don't change the font size to make a heading--there's another tool for that (do you remember which tool? We just covered it in the previous page!) Also, don't change the font size of paragraph text--the user will determine the font size most comfortable for them. 

So, why even include font size on the toolbar, you ask? You can make some text larger--in context--than the rest of the text on the page, for emphasis. Like this: