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Moodle Tip – Remove Topic Outline from Courses

Problem: One of the Moodles set up is being used by our Communications Office. They have no need for “topic outline” which appears by default in all Moodle courses, nor the “available courses” that appear on the front page of the moodle. How to remove them?

Solution #1 – Removing “Topic Outline” from Moodle

Thanks to several google searches, I stumbled upon these directions in the Moodle.org forums. I’m amazed at the information that’s available in there on how to accomplish things. The solution was easier–and harder–than I thought.

Simply, go to your Moodle directory and open the COURSE folder, then the FORMAT folder, then the TOPICS folder, and edit the file “format.php” as shown below. The path is /course/format/topics/format.php

Find this line in format.php and comment it out by adding 3 slashes “///” in front of the line.

print_heading_block(get_string(‘topicoutline’), ‘outline’);

Do this in a moodle and it will remove it for ALL courses in your Moodle. No great loss, I thought. Here’s a screenshot of what that looks like:

After you do this, you won’t have to deal with the Topic Outline at the top of your “topics” anymore.

Solution #2: Removing “Available Courses” (Source)

This tip was especially nifty because the potential for making other changes is fantastic. Most of the suggested changes came via Twitter, especially MoodleFairy (in London!).

Here are what the directions look like:

Site Administration > Language > Language editing,

* select Edit Words or Phrases tab
* select the file moodle.php from the dropdown list
* find Available Courses entry (search probably)
* Change to whatever you like
* Hit Save

Now, I wanted to make the words “Available Courses” disappear altogether. But I couldn’t just put spaces in the text box that appeared when I attempted to edit. Instead, I had to put the following characters in:

This apparently translates into something that takes up room without appearing. It’s exactly what the Doctor ordered, so…thank goodness.

Many thanks to those of you who contributed to the conversation!!

Finally, check out the Moodle Tip Roundup, Moodle Habitudes, and Moodle Mambo!

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4 comments

  1. Since altering the Moodle core code will leave your hack behind, it is better to edit your theme CSS to remove the Topic Outline text. To do this, add the following code to the bottom of your theme’s stylesheet:h2.headingblock {display:none;}That’s it.

    Reply

  2. Since altering the Moodle core code will leave your hack behind, it is better to edit your theme CSS to remove the Topic Outline text. To do this, add the following code to the bottom of your theme’s stylesheet:h2.headingblock {display:none;}That’s it.

    Reply

  3. I tried your first solution as I need to change Topic outline to Topic Outlines. I know I couldn't add a space between the two words, but when I do try add the letter s at the end, it appears as [[topicoutlines]] on my Moodle course page. I had a similar problem at another part of Moodle, but managed it. Where do I change this word correctly without it appearing like this? Please help me. Thank you.

    Reply

  4. I tried your first solution as I need to change Topic outline to Topic Outlines. I know I couldn't add a space between the two words, but when I do try add the letter s at the end, it appears as [[topicoutlines]] on my Moodle course page. I had a similar problem at another part of Moodle, but managed it. Where do I change this word correctly without it appearing like this? Please help me. Thank you.

    Reply

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