FAQ: What's the difference between the Visual Mode and the HTML Editor in the editing toolbar?

There are two tabs at the far right hand side of the editing toolbar that are kinda handy to understand. 

Unless you are a whiz at HTML, the visual mode is probably where you will spend most of your time.  You can tell if it is "active" if it is darker and the HTML editor is greyed out.  The Visual Mode is also known as the WYSIWYG ("What you see is what you get") editor.  This is a nerdy way of saying that what gets typed here looks the way it will look when you finish writing and click Add Discussion.

The HTML editor is a horse of a different color.  If you click this tab, the Visual Mode will be greyed out and you will see in your discussion what the computer needs to read (kind of) in order to create things like links and embed videos etc.  For our purposes, the main reason you would use this editing view is if you want to embed a video into a discussion because to do that you need to paste the video's "embed code" into your otherwise easily-decipherable discussion.

So, if you want to embed a video into a discussion, put your cursor where you want it to go, then click the HTML Editor and paste the "embed code" for your video.  Click back on the Visual Mode tab and you will see a yellow box where your video will magically appear once you finish your discussion and click the Add Discussion button.

Questions?  Leave 'em in the comments and we will do our poor, non-nerdy best to answer them.