Docviewer annotated pdf not displaying different alphabets

[Steph_30]

Hi everyone,

My colleagues of the Arab and Greek language courses contacted me about an issuerelating to the docviewer.

Given that students cannot access previous feedback when they upload a new version of the task, I advised my colleagues to ask their students to download the annotated pdf after each feedback session. However, the pdf does apparently not support the Greek and Arab alphabets (though speedgrader/docviewer does), and instead shows a string of uncoherent symbols where the teachers have added corrections. The students are confused and unsure if they somehow did something wrong.

In the meantime, my colleagues have decided to take multiple screenshots of the speedgrader/docviewer field per assignment submission, and attach these to the feedback. As you can guess, this is a rather cumbersome workaround.

Is there some way these alphabets can be made visible again in the pdf?

Many thanks!

[ColtonSwapp · Accepted solution]

Hello @Steph_30 

I apologize that you are having difficulty with the Docviewer. 

It looks like you are seeing a behavior where the pdf does apparently not support the Greek and Arab alphabets and instead shows a string of uncoherent symbols where the teachers have added corrections. 

It might be best to submit a case to Canvas support to have them take a deeper look into this for you. We have seen a behavior like this in the past when the student submits a file that is using an unsupported font. However, it appears to be happening where the teachers have added comments.  It would be best to have canvas support take a look and verify the if the issue is related to that. 

HERE is a guide on what types of file and fonts can be previewed in the doc viewer on Canvas

[Steph_30]

Thanks for the advice and the font list, @ColtonSwapp !

I'll alert my colleagues and ask them to file a support ticket. Hopefully, we will find a more elegant solution than screenshots soon! 😅

[breklis]

Is this also the case for the Spanish alphabet?  A Spanish teacher reached out to say that when she downloads student submissions with her markups, special characters, such as letters with accents or eñes, appear as strange characters.  Is this a support issue, or is this the intended behavior?  The annotations within speedgrader appear as they should, just not when they are downloaded.  

Thank you!