FAQ - Fundamentals of the Internet and the World Wide Web

  1. What is the difference between inline elements and block-level elements?

    An HTML element consists of a begin and end tag together with everything contained within those tags. Generally, block-level elements can contain other block-level elements, inline elements or text. Visually, they are preceded by a new line when they are rendered in the browser. Inline elements can contain only other inline elements or text.

    Common block-level elements:

    Block-level elements that can contain other block-level elements or inline elements or text: td, li, dd, div, center.

    Block-level elements that can contain only inline elements or text: p, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6

    Common inline elements:
    font, b, i, em, img, a
  2. basefont doesn't work in Firefox (as of 2007-04-02). What can I do?

    You can use CSS instead. Use something like the following in the <head> of your document or use an external style sheet to set the font face, color and size:

    <style type="text/css">
    	  h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,p {font-family:"sans-serif";color:#ff0000}
    	  p {font-size:"150%"}
    <style>
  3. I forgot the password for my astro account. What should I do?

    Contact CIS and they are going to reset the password for you.

  4. Is there a lab I can use outside the class?

    You can use the open lab SC 129, or the computers in the Library.

  5. What programs do I need for this class?

    All these software products are installed in our labs. If you want to work from home, you will need to install them on your home computer.

    Required

    SSH Secure Shell
    You are going to use this program for uploading your files to the Unix server and for connecting to the Unix machine. On the download page, choose one of the download sites and then choose SSHSecureShellClient-3.2.9.exe

    Nice to have

    Mozilla Firefox
    A better browser than Internet Explorer
    Notepad++
    A better Notepad that displays HTML tags in a different color (syntax highlighting). To have spellchecking you need to install aspell and the precompiled English dictionary. To spell-check your document use Plugins > Spell-Checker > Spell-Checker. To count the words in your document select everything with Ctrl-A and then use TextFX > TextFX Tools > Word Count.
  6. Where can I find the practice quizzes?

    Go to the the textbook's website and then Student Center and then select one of the chapters. You will see a link called Multiple Choice Quiz in the left side of the page.

  7. What program should I use to upload files and execute commands on the Unix machine?

    On a Windows machine, you will use SSH Secure Shell package. You'll use Secure File Transfer Client to upload files on the Unix machine and Secure Shell Client to execute commands on the Unix machine.

  8. What Unix machine we are going to upload our files to?

    The machine is called astro.armstrong.edu or simply astro if you access it from campus.

  9. What is the DOCTYPE specification that has to be in every HTML page?

    This specifies what version of HTML you are using in your page. For our class we use HTML 4.01 Transitional, which has the following DOCTYPE specification:

    <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
       "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

    For a document that contains frames you should use

    <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN"
       "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd">

    Just copy that code at the beginning of every HTML page you write, before the <html> tag.

  10. How do I embed a YouTube movie into my page?

    To the right of the movie rectangle there is an edit box labeled Embed. You should copy the content of that edit box and paste it where you want the movie to be in your page. What follows is a movie that explains Net Neutrality.

    To create a link to a movie on YouTube you have to click on the link more to the right of the movie rectangle, copy the URL in the URL edit box and use it as href value for an anchor tag. Here is a link to the same movie explaining Net Neutrality

  11. How do I replace rounded double quotes “ or ” with the straight double quotes "?

    Usually you get the rounded double quotes if you edit your HTML file with Microsoft Word. Rounded double quotes are invalid characters in HTML and have to be replaced with straight double quotes.

    Open the file you want to change in Notepad. Select the character you want to replace and press Ctrl-C to copy this character into the Clipboard. Press Ctrl-H to bring up the replace dialog and then press Ctrl-V to paste that character into Find what: edit box. Press Tab to move to Replace with: edit box. Type the new character you want to use, the straight double quote. Use Find Next and Replace to find and replace all occurrences of the letter you want to replace.

  12. What social networking web sites do you recommend?

    MySpace and Facebook are popular. LinkedIn is a popular business oriented social networking site.

  13. How do you find out the word count for my HTML documents

    Use SSH Secure Shell to connect to astro and then type the following command:

    find . -name '*.html' -exec wc -w {} ';'

    You are going to get a list containing all your HTML documents and the word count in each of them

  14. What Google browser extensions do you use?

    I like: Google Toolbar, Google Browser Sync, Google Notebook and Google Desktop