[ARCHIVED] Speedgrader copy and paste problem

[toraad]

I'm an instructor. While I'm hoping and waiting for a word count feature in Speedgrader/DocViewer, I use copy/paste from DocViewer to Microsoft Word to check if students comply with their word limits on assignments. As I paste the copied text into Word, there always seem to be missing spaces. In seemingly random positions, two or three words are concatenated, making the word count about 15% less than it should be.

I don't think this is a bug in Word or Google Chrome, because I have only had this problem with copy/pasting from Canvas Speedgrader. The problem occurs regardless of paste option used. I even tried pasting the text in WordPad, and got the same problem.

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hello there, @toraad ...

Instead of going through the copy/paste process from the SpeedGrader DocViewer into a Microsoft Word document, have you tried downloading the submitted files instead?  This seems like a more efficient way of opening up those student submissions so that you can review the word count and see exactly what the student paper looks like.  For example, you could use one of these two Guides:

• How do I download all student submissions for an a... - Canvas Community
• How do I use SpeedGrader? - Canvas Community (see the section on "View Sidebar" on how to download a specific student's submission)

If the submission was a PDF file, you can still open up PDFs in Microsoft Word...if you run into situations like that.

Do you think one of these option would work for your needs instead of the copy/paste process that you've been using thus far?  Hope to hear back from you soon.

[toraad]

Thank you very much! Opening the pdf in Word seems to work fine.