Welcome to the Community, @MarciaSchubert !
You have provided two excellent suggestions for improving Canvas. The best way to do so here is to participate in the ideas and themes process, which is detailed on the page How do Ideas and Themes work in the Instructure Community?
Creating an idea does not provide an immediate solution to the problem you described, though it is a solution. I’m going to mark it as such and hope that our colleagues who have a similar challenge will find the best way to contribute. If you decide to create an idea, please link it here.
