Moodle 2.0

Chapter 3
Filters
Moodle's Filters read text and media that users put on the site. The Filters can then
do three things with that material: link, interpret, and/or restrict.
In Moodle 2.0 and above, these filters can be enabled site-wide by the administrator,
disabled-sited wide, or turned off by default, with the option of the Teacher enabling
them for individual courses.
First, a filter can automatically link words and phrases to items in your site.
For example, suppose you create a Glossary that contains the phrase "selfdetermination".
If you activate the Glossary Auto-linking filter, whenever that
phrase appears on your site, it will be highlighted and will link to this glossary entry.
When a reader clicks on the phrase, the reader is taken to the glossary entry.
Second, a filter can interpret what you have uploaded. For example, you could
upload a document that is written in the markup language call TeX (think HTML on
steroids). The TeX Notation filter would interpret this document and enable Moodle
to display it correctly. There's also an Algebra Notation filter that interprets a special
markup language for writing math formulas.
Third, a filter can restrict the kind of content that a user can place on the site. For
example, the Word Censorship filter can filter out a list of "bad words" that you don't
want to appear on your site. Every time that text is uploaded or entered, it is checked
against the list of forbidden words.
You'll find the Filters settings under Site Administration | Plugins | Filters. Read
the following descriptions for detailed information about what each filter can do for
your site.
Activity names and Glossary Auto-linking filters
The Auto-linking filters search the text on your site, and automatically link to items
when they find the item mentioned in the text. For example, Glossary Auto-linking
looks for terms that are in any glossary, and when it finds them links the term to the
glossary entry. The term is highlighted, and when a user clicks it, the user is taken to
the glossary.
Activity Names Auto-linking searches course text for the names of course activities.
When it finds the name of an activity, it links to the activity. This means whenever
a student sees the name of an activity, wherever the student is in the course, the
student can just click on the name of the activity and be taken to this activity.
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