Setting your preferences

The Preferences tool enables you to customize the layout and presentation options for your view of Learning Environment.

Access the Preferences tool

1. From My Home, click the Preferences link in the My Settings widget.
2. Use the tabs across the top of the page to view and edit different presentation options:
   • General Preferences
   • Appearance & Accessibility
   • Language & Region
   • Notifications
   • Discussions
   • Email
   • Metadata
   • Pager

Note  Some preferences might not be available depending on how your institution has set up Learning Environment.

General Preferences

Preferences on this tab are not related to a specific tool.

• Online Status Changes your online status so that you appear offline even when you are logged into the system.
• Login Destination Sets a course as the first page you see when you log into the system. This is useful if you are enrolled in one or a few courses.
• CD-ROM Drive Select the drive letter used by your computer's CD-ROM drive. This setting is used when you view course content that references files on a course CD. Not applicable for Mac users.

Appearance & Accessibility

• Font Settings  Adjusting the font face and font size changes the default font and size of the text. It does not affect images, documents, and other objects such as math equations.
• Dialog Setting  The Show secondary window as selector enables secondary windows as pop-ups instead of dialog boxes. This setting helps screen readers and other assistive technologies separate the content of the secondary window from the main window. If you are using assistive technology such as a screen reader, we strongly recommend showing secondary windows as pop-ups.
• HTML Editor Settings The HTML editor enables you to enter text and HTML in the system. It has many additional rich text features, if you use assistive technology such as screen readers, some of these features might be difficult to navigate.
• Math Display  You can display Math using a Java Applet or inline MathML. We recommend MathML If you are using assistive technology.

  Note  Firefox supports the display of inline MathML. Other browsers require the Java applet to render equations.

Language & Region

• Preferred Locale and Language  Sets which locale to use for screen orientation, text, and graphics in the system. Your options correspond to the locale options available at your institution. Administrative staff and course designers can override your preferences for specific pages and courses.
• Clock  Sets whether time displays in 24-hour or 12-hour clock format.
• First Day of the Week  Sets which day appears first in the week in your calendar.
• Date  Sets the display format of dates in the system.
• Number Format  Sets the display format of numbers in the system.
• Percentage Format  Sets the display format of percentages in the system.
• Time Zone  Sets all dates that include times to correspond with the time zone you specify in Learning Environment.

Notifications

• Email Notifications Enables you to add or change the email address the notifications are delivered to and set the frequency you receive them.
• Notification Events Selects the events for which you would like to be notified.

Discussions

• Show the discussion topics list  Sets whether you want to see a list of topics in a left panel when reading messages.
• Show the search bar Sets whether you want to show a search bar in the Message List view.
• Show the preview pane If you are not showing message text on the main page, this option enables you to specify whether to see the full message in a preview pane at the bottom of the page, or to see the full message in a secondary window.
• Display deleted messages Sets whether you can view deleted messages in the Message List view.
• Default Message List View Specifies how you want to visually represent the message hierarchy within the Message List view. Threaded View indents sub-topics underneath their parent topics, whereas Un-threaded View does not.
• Message List Style  Specifies whether to show the text for discussion messages in the main page, or just the titles.
• Message Fields to Display You can choose to also display the Org Defined ID for the message author and the Message ID of the discussion messages in the Message List view.
• Character Limits Specifies the character limit of each message subject in the Message List view.
• Reply Settings Sets whether you want to include original messages with your replies.

Email

• Track activity for messages sent to internal email addresses Tracks the status of sent messages (either read or unread), and when messages are replied to and/or forwarded. The View Recipient Activity link appears on messages in the Sent Mail folder.
• Include original message in email replies Sets whether to include original messages with your replies.
• Send a copy of each outgoing message to [specified email address] Sends a copy of all the emails you send to a specified address. Click the Change email address link to specify the address to which you want to send copies. Changing this address will change your external address for all mail sent from the Desire2Learn application.
• Save a copy of each outgoing message to the ‘Sent Mail’ folder Saves a copy of your sent messages to a folder for convenient record keeping.
• ‘Reply to’ Email Address Enables you to specify what email address you want messages sent from the system to appear from.
• Email Signature Creates an email signature to include at the bottom of your email messages.
• Show the Message Preview pane Enables you to browse emails by displaying them in a preview pane at the bottom of your message list.
• Show the Folder List pane Sets whether you see a list of folders in a left panel when reading messages.
• Mark messages as read when viewed in the Message Preview pane Using the preview pane to read your messages will mark them as read.
• Show internal email addresses in the Address Book Internal addresses for your system contacts will appear in the Address Book.
• Show external email addresses in the Address Book External addresses for your system contacts will appear in the Address Book.
• Allow filtering messages and contacts on group enrollment Controls whether groups and sections are listed in the Filter By field in the message list and the address book.
• Forward incoming messages to an alternate email account Enter an address into this field to have email sent to your Desire2Learn address redirected to this address. Specify how you want to handle the message within the Email tool after it forwards to your email address.

Metadata

• Default Interface Sets whether you view the basic or advanced Metadata view by default.
• Basic Interface Display Sets whether metadata categories appear expanded or collapsed by default in the basic metadata view.

Pager

• Incoming Page Icon Sets whether the Incoming Page icon appears in your navbar. Clearing the Incoming Page Icon check box means you must check for pages manually through the Pager tool.
• Incoming Page Sound Sets what sound the system plays when you have an incoming page.