R. Craig Collins > Web Page Design > FAQ

FAQ © R. Craig Collins, 2005/6

This document will explain how Temple College's Web Based IMED, Web Page Design I, works.

This may delivered on-line, but it is not a self paced course.

You should be an independent learner to be successful in this class, or at least have the discipline to take responsibility for getting tasks done on time, as you do not receive the same kind of attention as a traditional classroom provides. You may wish to click here to see some tips on how to be a good online student (opens in a separate window). Other questions that often come up, are answered below.

How do I get feedback on my work?

I am trying to take a quiz in D2L, but it won't let me save answers; what should I do?

How should I organize my disk storage?

What is the difference between a web browser, and web servers?

Why can't I open my web page?

Why can't I edit my web page with my Mac?

I don't see file extensions. What now?

How can I edit a web page I have already started? I double click the file, and it opens in the browser.
Or, I am using Notepad, but having problems with curly quotes (”) instead of the required straight quotes (")

Why don't I see changes on my web page?

Why isn't my web page working?

Where can I find files required for the exercises in the book?

How can I submit folders or multiple files?

What is all of this hexadecimal good for?

Where do I get my grades?

My colors aren't working correctly

More information will be posted here, as the course progresses. Check back often as more will be coming soon



















How should I organize my disk storage?
Create a folder called 1316, and within that folder create several folders, named lab1, lab2, and so on. If you need files from a previous lab, copy them from folder to folder... DO NOT replace old labs to create new labs.
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I am trying to take a quiz in D2L, but it won't let me save answers; what should I do?
*If you can't save answers, immediately close the test window... DO NOT SUBMIT. Restart the quiz, and it should work properly.


What is the difference between a web browser, and web servers?
The best comparison is TV... the web browser is like the TV... capable of receiving information, but not really able to distribute any TV content.

Now, the TV station is like the web server... that is, it is responsible for delivering content to the TVs, or in our case, the web browser that the individual person uses when online.

Most people use Microsoft's Internet Explorer for their browser, while some use Opera or Firefox.

Most schools and businesses use Internet Information Server or Apache as their server software, to deliver content.
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Why can't I open my web page?
If you can't get your browser to open a file you have created in Notepad, there is probably a problem with the file type, or the file name.
1) Make sure you didn't create the web page with Microsoft Wordpad or Word... it doesn't always save as a plain text document
2) You zipped the files. Zipped files are great for uploading, but the zipped pieces can't 'see' other pieces, making the page appear 'broken'.
If the file is the correct type,
3 ) Check for typos. See Checking for errors.
4 ) Make sure the file you created in Notepad has the correct extension, such as test1.htm. Some computers hide extensions, and your file may wind up displaying 'test1.htm' but actually may be named 'test1.htm.txt'

Many Windows computers are set up to hide known file extensions; this can be very confusing for computer students. To set your computer to display the entire file name:
 • Open My Computer or Windows Explorer
 • Choose Tools\Folder Options... (for Vista users, press the [Alt] key to reveal the Tools menu), then select Folder Options)

 • Choose the View tab
 • Click off the check mark next to 'Hide extensions for know file types'
       • Click OK


Back in 'My Computer' browse to where you saved your file...
1) Verify the filename again, making sure there is no .txt at the end, but instead .htm or .html, such as test1.htm (the icon should be the browser icon now)
2) Double click the file and it should open in your browser.

To edit an existing web page, open it in your browser, and either choose View\Source (or right click in the middle of some text in the web page, and then choose View Source) to open Notepad.
Never edit your page with a word processor.

Please note; Notepad should use the font Lucinda Console to avoid the curly quotes (”)
To change, use Format\Font and choose Lucinda Console

If you are using Firefox, right click the file and choose Open With ... Notepad
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Why can't I edit my web page with my Mac?
From Apple http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106212
You expect TextEdit to open your HTML file in plain text form for editing, but it renders the file instead.

Mac OS X 10.0 or later
TextEdit
Solution

1. Open TextEdit.
2. Choose Preferences from the TextEdit application menu.
3. Click the Plain Text radio button for New Document Format.
4. Under Saving, click the checkbox to turn off "Append '.txt' extension to plain text files."
5. Under Rich text processing, click the checkbox to turn on "Ignore rich text commands in HTML files."
6. Be sure the checkbox for "Wrap to Page" is deselected

Notes
1. Any data in TextEdit prior to taking these steps may contain rich text commands that become visible after the preference changes are made.
2. TextEdit may continue to render files saved from Web browsers as HTML Source, ignoring the preferences you have set. As a workaround (after following the steps above) view the source code in the Web browser and copy/paste the text into a new TextEdit document.

Why don't I see changes on my web page?
If you have made changes to a file in Notepad, but the changes don't show up in Internet Explorer, there could be several reasons.

• You did not save the changes in Notepad
  
• You did not refresh [F5] in your Browser
• There is a error in your tag structure. This could be a typo, <BODY TEST="red"> won't work because the attribute TEXT was misspelled. Or, perhaps you added a second <BODY>... you are only allowed to have one <BODY> and the additional entries are confusing the browser.
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Why isn't my web page working?

• First off, make sure you are not trying to look in a zip. Zipped files don't work until unzipped.
  

• <BODY TEST="red">...</body>
       won't work because the attribute TEXT was misspelled.
       It should have been
       <BODY TEXT="red">...</body>

• <BR
       won't work because the tag has no ending >.
       It should have been
       <BR>
• <BODY TEXT="red">...
       won't work because the ending tag is missing.
       It should have been
       <BODY TEXT="red">...</body>
• <BODY TEXT="red">...<body>
       won't work because the ending tag is missing the slash.
       It should have been
       <BODY TEXT="red">...</body>
• <BODY TEXT="red>...<body>
       won't work because the ending quotation mark is missing.
       It should have been
       <BODY TEXT="red">...</body>
• See also Checking for errors
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  Where can I find files required for the exercises in the book?
  While I would hope that you continue to work through the examples in the book, only Mr. Dubé's chem.htm is to be turned in. Thus only dube.jpg is available directly from the class web site. However, all the the files that you might need, if you choose to do more book examples, are available.
  
  If you were to go to the class web site, there is a link, Student Downloads.
  http://www.course.com/studentcenter/downloads.cfm?isbn=0-619-26801-8
  
  Save the downloaded files on your computer, and double click the icon to unzip all of the files required for examples in the book.
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  How can I submit folders or multiple files?
  Since lab 4 will require many files to be submitted, and lab 5 will require folders to be submitted, I suggest you simply zip up your lab 4 folder, or later, your lab 5 folder, then submit the single zip file.
  
  How to Zip files
  1. Assuming you have created a 1316 folder, and within that have created a separate folder for each lab,
     use My Computer to open the 1316 folder.
  2. Right click the folder that contains all the lab 4 files
  3. Choose the Send To option
  4. Choose Compressed (zipped) folder
  A new file, perhaps named lab4.zip, will be created in the 1316 folder. Submit this single file, which I can disassemble into the component pieces later for grading.
  Please note: you may not be able to properly view all files in the zip...
     don't be alarmed, when extracted, the files and folders will be fine.
• See also Windows Crash Course, and click Zipping, to see a video of the process.
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  What is all of this hexadecimal good for?
  Computers really only understand 1s and 0s, called binary or base 2, while people normally use decimal, or base 10 numbers.
  
  But binary numbers get very large very quickly (ie 32 in decimal = 100,000 in binary). So many people, especially in web pages, use a shorthand of binary called hexadecimal, or base 16. You count in hex like this:
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 10 11…
  (See my numbers web page.)
  
  In order to be able to really control the colors on a web page, HTML uses 24 1s and 0s to describe colors, by mixing 256 shades of red with 256 shades of green and 256 shades of blue to generate about 16.7 million colors.. So white would be
  111111111111111111111111.
  But by using hexadecimal, we can instead represent this as #FFFFFF, or FF for red, FF for green, and FF for blue. (See my colors web page)
  
  While there are many charts available to see the hex code for about 216 colors, in order to really dictate the colors you wish to use, many times you will open a graphics program such as Microsoft Paint, and use the Colors/Edit Colors menu to Define Custom Colors. But the results are given in decimal, or base 10 numbers. So you have to be able to convert from binary to hex.
  
  For example, Paint says the shade of Red you wish to use is
  Red 253 Green 87, and blue 104.
  
  
  
  This conversion to a hex value you can insert into body bgcolor= or body text= can be done with the scientific view of Windows Calculator.
  
  Make sure the DEC for decimal button is selected. Type in the decimal value of red, 253.
  
  Then click the HEX button.
  
  
  Copy down the hex equivalent, FD, and repeat for green and blue. You should wind up with 253 87 104 in base 10 = FD 57 68 in hex, or #FD5768 to add as a color for your web page.
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• My colors don't work correctly
  You cannot put extra space within quotation marks...
  text="white " is not the same as
  text="white"
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