Excel

1. Introduction
2. Files You Need
3. Upload Excel File
4. Save as Webpage
5. HTML File Method
6. Convert Excel to HTML
7. Publish to Blackboard
8. Publish to WebCT
9. Resources

Publishing Excel to Blackboard

Blackboard is a course management system that is commonly used for publishing and maintaining online content.

To publish to Blackboard, there are two general steps:

1. Create a folder for the file(s).
2. Upload your file(s) to the Blackboard server.

Organizing Files: Folders

The first task in publishing an Excel document to Blackboard is to create a new folder, also known as a directory. Within this folder, you will place your file(s).

To create a new folder:

1. Log into your course as the course manager (instructor).
    
2. Select the "Control Panel" option in the navigation list (bottom left side of the screen).
    
3. Select the location where you would like the folder to be placed. For this example, select "Course Documents."
    
4. Select "Add Folder"
    
5. Under the "Folder Information" section, provide the name of the new folder. For this example, name the new folder "Accessible HTML Documents."
   
   Note: You should create one common folder into which you place all your accessible files.
   
    
6. Under the "Folder Information" section, provide text that offers a description of the new folder. For this example, provide the text as "This folder contains all of the accessible HTML documents for the course."
    
7. Select "Submit" (bottom of the screen).
    
8. The name of the folder and its description are displayed in Blackboard at the specified location. For this example, the folder "Accessible HTML Documents" is listed under "Course Documents"(see Image 18 ).
   
   

   Image 18: New folder displayed in Blackboard
   
   

To create a sub-folder:

1. Log into your course as the course manager (instructor).
    
2. Select the "Control Panel" option in the navigation list (bottom left side of the screen).
    
3. Select the folder where you want to place the sub-folder. For this example, select "Course Documents" then "Accessible HTML Documents".
    
4. Select "Add Folder." (see Image 19).
   
   

   Image 19: Sublevel folder created in Blackboard
   
   
    
5. In the "Folder Information" section, provide the name of the new subfolder. For this example, name the new subfolder "Grades Spreadsheet."
    
6. In the "Folder Information" section, provide text that offers a description of the new subfolder. For this example, provide the text as "This is a spreadsheet of grades for the class."
    
7. Select "Submit" (bottom of the screen).
    
8. The name of the subfolder and its description are displayed in Blackboard at the specified location. For this example, the subfolder "Grades Spreadsheet" is listed under "Accessible HTML Documents" (which is under "Course Documents").

Uploading Files

The second task in publishing an Excel document to Blackboard is to upload all the files.

To upload a file:

1. Log into your course as the course manager (instructor).
    
2. Select the "Control Panel" option in the navigation list (bottom left side of the screen).
    
3. Select the folder into which the file should be uploaded. For this example, select "Course Documents" then "Accessible HTML Documents" and then "Grades Spreadsheet."
    
4. Select "Add Item" (top of the screen).
    
5. Provide text that offers a description of the file to be uploaded. For this example, provide the text as "This is a spreadsheet of all the grades. Please read this as soon as possible and contact the instructor if you have any questions."

6. In the "Content Attachments" section, select "Browse."
    
7. This opens a "Choose File" dialog box (bottom of the screen) for you to locate the file on your computer that you want to upload to Blackboard. For this example, select the file named "page1.htm" (see Image 20).
   
   

   Image 20: Uploading page1.htm file into Blackboard
   
   
    
8. Select "Open" to confirm the file selection and close the "Choose File" dialog box.
    
9. Select "Submit" (bottom of the screen).
    
10. Blackboard will upload the file and check if there are any associated image files.
    
    
    Note: Depending on the file size, the time to upload will vary.
    
     
11. 
    

    Image 21: Selecting the associated image files for page1.htm
    
    If any associated image files have not been uploaded, a "Broken image upload" screen will appear with a list of the "missing" image files (under the "Missing Images Detected" section). For this example, the file named "page1.htm" has several associated image files that need to be uploaded (see Image 21) .

12. At this point, you have successfully loaded the accessible HTML document and the associated image links to the Blackboard course for the first spreadsheet page, but there are two other pages, page2.htm and page3.htm (and their associated files).  You now need to repeat the process to upload page2.htm, page3.htm, as well as their associated image files to the "Grades Spreadsheet" folder (see Image 22).
    
    

    Image 22: Adding page2.htm to Grades spreadsheet HTML page
    
    
     
13. You will also need to upload the following three long description files:

• long_desc_1.htm,
• long_desc_2.htm,
• and long_desc_3.htm. 

To upload an associated image file detected by Blackboard to be "missing":

1. In the "Broken image upload" screen, go to the "Missing Images Detected" section.
2. Select "Browse" (to the right of each associated file).
3. This opens a "Choose File" dialog box (bottom of the screen) for you to locate the file on your computer that needs to be upload to Blackboard.
4. Select "Open" to confirm the file selection and close the "Choose File" dialog box.
5. Repeat steps (a - d) for each "missing" image file that is listed.
6. After all "missing" image files have been entered, select "Submit" (bottom of the screen).
   Note: On your computer, a file may be stored in a separate folder from the associated files, such as images or audio. For this example, the file named "page1.htm" had its associated image files stored in a separate folder called "Final". When a file is loaded to Blackboard, the links that are in the file to its associated image files are automatically updated to their location in Blackboard. Thus, although it should be similar, the directory structure of files on your computer does not need to exactly match the directory structure of files in Blackboard.
7. Once all associated image files have been uploaded to Blackboard, you will receive confirmation that the file has been successfully uploaded.
    
8. If there are other types of files, such as audio, video, etc. (but not images) that are referenced (or linked) within the file that was just uploaded, then these will need to be associated in Blackboard. For this example, the file named "long_desc_1.htm" needs to be associated with the uploaded file of "page1.htm."

To associate files other than images:

1. Log into your course as the course manager (instructor).
2. Select the "Control Panel" option in the navigation list (bottom left side of the screen).
3. Select the same folder as where the file that was just uploaded is located. For this example, select "Course Documents" then "Accessible HTML Documents" and then "Grades Spreadsheet".
4. Select "Modify" (to the right of the folder name).
   Note: This will allow you to alter the existing link that was created when the file named "page1.htm" was uploaded.
5. The "Add Content" screen should appear; in the "Content Attachments" section, select "Browse."
6. This opens a "Choose File" dialog box (bottom of the screen) for you to locate the file on your computer that you want to upload to Blackboard. For this example, select the file named "long_desc_1.htm."
7. Select "Open" to confirm the file selection and close the "Choose File" dialog box.
8. You will be returned to the "Add Content" screen.
9. By default, Blackboard will create a link to the file. For this example, the link to "long_desc_1.htm" would appear within the file named "page1.htm." In the "Content Attachments" section, you can specify a name for the link to the file. For this example, name the link "Grades Spreadsheet(Excel, 46KB)" to denote the file type and size.
   
   
   Note: Be certain that the name of the link makes sense when read out of context. Avoid using the filename or names such as "Read more", "Word document", or "Click here."
10. In the "Options" section, you can change the visibility of the file; this keeps users from seeing several files and selecting the incorrect one. To leave the file visible, keep the default answer of "yes" to the question "Do you want to make the content visible".
11. Select "Submit" (bottom of the screen).
12. You will receive a confirmation that the file has been successfully uploaded and added to the content.
    
    Note: Depending on the file size, the time to upload will vary.
13. Repeat steps (d - l) for each file that needs to be associated.

10. 
    

    Image 23: All six HTML files associated with Grades spreadsheet
    
    When you have uploaded a total of 6 HTML files and the associated 4 image files, your spreadsheet is completely uploaded to Blackboard (see Image 23). If you have audio and/or video clips or other files linked within any HTML document, you will need to upload these as well into the same folder which holds that HTML document.

Viewing Uploaded File

Once all associated files such as images and audio have been uploaded, you can view (or as needed download) the completed file within Blackboard by selecting the link to that file. For this example, select "Course Documents" then "Accessible HTML Documents" and then "Grades Spreadsheet " to view the file named "page1.htm" (see Image 24).

Image 24: Viewing completely uploaded file in Blackboard

The next page will discuss publishing Excel documents to the course management system, WebCT.

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