I occasionally add features to the Canvas UI by taking advantage of the custom css and custom js files that can be added to all pages in an account or sub-account. This is a really powerful thing, and needs to be done with some discretion. One of my recent additions is a tool that allows you to hide all non-essential screen elements from a Canvas page, including both side bars, and the top bar containing breadcrumbs,etc. In fact, it hides everything EXCEPT the main content area and the global navigation bar. This is especially helpful when you need to project content from a Canvas page onto a screen, so I’ve  made the button look like a little projector, and I’ve put it into the global navigation bar, so that you can toggle back to the normal page when you are done projecting.

I’ve implemented this in the sub-account i use for all my test courses, so at this point, no one teaching a real course in any of the academic sub-accounts can use it. This post is to teach you the secret handshake that will allow you to call the toggleChrome function from within any UD course. It’s a bit technical, so not for the faint of heart.

Here it is, step-by-step. The first step is the hardest.

1. Open your browser console. If you don’t know how to do this, you will need to visit follow the instructions for your browser OR, just right click inside your browser window, and choose whatever most closely resembles the word “Inspect”. From there, you can probably guess your way though. If the instructions in the page linked above don’t work for you, try a Google search on [your browser] launch console. Or just give up. If you aren’t comfortable searching Google, this page is not for you.
2. In the console, enter one of the following:
   1. udatsToggleChrome() //this one will toggle between the normal and the stripped-down view. Will work for any UD course
   2. $.getScript(“https://apps.ats.udel.edu/canvas/subaccount_ats.js”);//this one will add the projector button to your global nav, and then you can click it to toggle the views. This one should work for any Canvas course.

No matter which method you choose, you need to do it again each time you load a new Canvas page.

For a more permanent solution, you can visit your course settings and move your course into the IT->ATS sub-account. Doing so will disable any customizations that exist in your current sub-account, however, there are only a few sub-accounts that have any customizations, so you are probably OK to go ahead and make that change. You can always change it back later.

It’s Friday morning, and I’m at the Faculty Commons welcome bar. I have my Chromebook on my lap, because I am unable to position myself comfortably for typing here. All-in-all, getting anything done during my bar time has turned out to be as near to impossible as makes no never mind. Apart from physical discomfort based on the height of the bar and the lack of footrests on the bar stools, I just really miss my dual monitors and effortless access to my desktop file system and installed applications. So, I’ve resigned myself to tasks I can perform wholly online, like writing blog posts. I’ll be posting pretty much every Friday, and probably never at any other time.

Two hours is a long time to spend composing one blog post, but of course I am also responsible for answering the phone and helping people walk in during my shift. Time drags when you’re not getting anything done, but at least I only have one two hour shift per week. My next post in this  category will be about my efforts to actually be productive while using my Chromebook. Who knows how many post I’ll end up making this morning. It’s only 9:00, and I’m here until 10:30. Yikes.