Print preview issues with Scorm / html

[Kyle Monette]

Hi all,

When building my course to Scorm in particular, though the following occurs even when building to web html, I'm noticing some issues with 'handouts' and 'worksheets' regarding the print preview.

If the print preview comes up without solutions being displayed, and then I click the box to show them, it often takes several refreshes (and sometimes a few "hard refreshes" of the page) before the latex is compiled correctly in some blocks (such as proofs) and/or before page breaks are nicely aligned again. This occurs more often in Scorm, it seems. I tested on Safari and Chrome.

Sometimes, in Scorm at least, the latex never actually compiles correctly until the entire Scorm link is relaunched.

The nature of Scorm is that, whenever the page is refreshed, it reverts back to the main landing page of the pretext project. So you have to wade back through the TOC until you find the worksheet again, and rinse and repeat.

The reason I'm using Scorm is because I'd prefer for my course materials to remain private. But as students would need to easily and quickly print these handouts before class -- or maybe even during class -- minimizing any hiccups is crucial.

A more meta question would be --- has anyone else made their lecture notes, assignments, etc in pretext but also linked / connected this information to their LMS, such that students can easily export pdfs of the materials (e.g., to use as guided notes)?

Thanks,

Kyle

[Mitch Keller]

Hi Kyle,

I use the embed feature for all my worksheets and annotated notes in my combinatorics class. (In a typical semester, a handful of my students opt out of paper worksheets and just make PDFs from the embedded version on Canvas.) While the materials all live on the open web via Github pages, the students are oblivious to this fact as each worksheet or day of notes is embedded in Canvas for them. Technically, if they decided to view source, they’d be able to find the URL and find things before I mean for them to be released, but unless it’s for something like solutions, I don’t really care about that.

I use SCORM only for my syllabus (not that it’s secret in any way, but it was more convenient from a repository perspective) and a SCORM file that contains my old exam questions and the current semester’s exam solutions. Thus, I only have to update that a couple of times per semester, as I find with Canvas at least, it’s a pain to upload a new copy of a SCORM file. 

Mitch

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[Kyle Monette]

Hi Mitch,

Thank you for your feedback! I appreciate it.

I considered embedding the html files into the LMS pages. However, I found two drawbacks to this, perhaps limited to Brightspace (I'm not sure):

1. The built-in screen reader cannot read the iframe content.

2. If you do 'print preview', you cannot go back to the original handout/worksheet because there is no "back button" in the iframe.

Is this something you've encountered as well? Point (1) may be less critical, and point (2) might just mean a simple comment to the students about having to refresh the LMS page.

thanks again,

Kyle 

[Mitch Keller]

Hi Kyle,

1. I generally consider the built-in screenreader in an LMS to be not fit for purpose. If a student using a proper screenreader can’t access the iframe content, then ping that for Oscar to investigate. (As further evidence of “not fit for purpose”: I pulled up a simple Canvas page that I have with homework solutions in it and fired up Canvas’s immersive reader. It replaces all of the math that is otherwise rendered with MathJax with “Invalid element”.)
2. In Canvas using Chrome, the browser’s back button takes me back from the print preview page on an embed to the original view, so I hadn’t run into that. I don’t think it would be big deal to tell students to do a reload if for some reason they want to go back from the print preview page to the initial version.

Mitch

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pretext-support/eb503f57-2668-4f90-8865-629160d68a67n%40googlegroups.com.

[Oscar Levin]

I have the same workflow as Mitch, but also use Canvas, so maybe the back button works differently in Brightspace.  If that really is true, then I should add a "close" button to the preview that takes the reader back.

As for the screen readers, I have exciting news.  In a day or two, PreTeXt will have a built in screen reader that can actually switch between text and math correctly.  But ssshhhh... we haven't announced it yet.

The math not rendering thing is happening in more situations as well.  That's something I need to look into (refreshing seems to help, but perhaps there is an underlying issue).

[Kyle Monette]

The back button is working in Chrome and Brightspace, which is excellent.

I believe I found (with the help of Claude) a fix for the math not rendering. There were errors in the console that no longer appear with the fixes that are in the recent PR I made. (not ever having made a PR on GitHub before, i really hope I did this right! My sincere apologies if not)

Kyle 

[Rob Beezer]

PR looks fine, I've asked Oscar to review.

Generally we do not want the "dist" files in the PR. You definitely need them
to test, but they get in the way when several PRs are all messing about there.
We know what to do in your case, so don't try to fix it up right now.

Thaks for the contribution!

Rob

On 8/3/26 16:13, 'Kyle Monette' via PreTeXt support wrote:
> The back button is working in Chrome and Brightspace, which is excellent.
>
> I believe I found (with the help of Claude) a fix for the math not rendering.
> There were errors in the console that no longer appear with the fixes that are

> in the recent PR <https://github.com/PreTeXtBook/pretext/pull/3112> I made. (not

> ever having made a PR on GitHub before, i really hope I did this right! My
> sincere apologies if not)
>
> Kyle
>
> On Monday, August 3, 2026 at 5:38:36 PM UTC-4 oscar...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> I have the same workflow as Mitch, but also use Canvas, so maybe the back
> button works differently in Brightspace.  If that really is true, then I
> should add a "close" button to the preview that takes the reader back.
>
> As for the screen readers, I have exciting news.  In a day or two, PreTeXt
> will have a built in screen reader that can actually switch between text and
> math correctly.  But ssshhhh... we haven't announced it yet.
>
> The math not rendering thing is happening in more situations as well.
> That's something I need to look into (refreshing seems to help, but perhaps
> there is an underlying issue).
>
> On Monday, August 3, 2026 at 2:16:28 PM UTC-6 mi...@rellek.net wrote:
>
> Hi Kyle,
>

> 1. I generally consider the built-in screenreader in an LMS to be not

> fit for purpose. If a student using a proper screenreader can’t
> access the iframe content, then ping that for Oscar to investigate.
> (As further evidence of “not fit for purpose”: I pulled up a simple
> Canvas page that I have with homework solutions in it and fired up
> Canvas’s immersive reader. It replaces all of the math that is
> otherwise rendered with MathJax with “Invalid element”.)

> 2. In Canvas using Chrome, the browser’s back button takes me back from

> the print preview page on an embed to the original view, so I hadn’t
> run into that. I don’t think it would be big deal to tell students
> to do a reload if for some reason they want to go back from the
> print preview page to the initial version.
>
>
> Mitch
>
>> On Aug 3, 2026, at 14:53, 'Kyle Monette' via PreTeXt support
>> <pretext...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Mitch,
>>
>> Thank you for your feedback! I appreciate it.
>>
>> I considered embedding the html files into the LMS pages. However, I
>> found two drawbacks to this, perhaps limited to Brightspace (I'm not
>> sure):
>> 1. The built-in screen reader cannot read the iframe content.
>> 2. If you do 'print preview', you cannot go back to the original
>> handout/worksheet because there is no "back button" in the iframe.
>>
>> Is this something you've encountered as well? Point (1) may be less
>> critical, and point (2) might just mean a simple comment to the
>> students about having to refresh the LMS page.
>>
>> thanks again,
>> Kyle
>>
>> On Monday, August 3, 2026 at 3:37:32 PM UTC-4 mi...@rellek.net

>> <http://rellek.net/>wrote:

>>> ab1b-2493e1741e08n%40googlegroups.com <https://groups.google.com/
>>> d/msgid/pretext-support/77801cfc-5d3a-4637-
>>> ab1b-2493e1741e08n%40googlegroups.com?
>>> utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.
>>
>> --
>> Mitch Keller
>> mi...@rellek.net
>>
>> http://www.rellek.net/ <http://www.rellek.net/>

>>
>>
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>> pretext-support/

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>> eb503f57-2668-4f90-8865-629160d68a67n%40googlegroups.com?
>> utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.
>
> --
> Mitch Keller
> mi...@rellek.net
>
> http://www.rellek.net/ <http://www.rellek.net/>

>
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