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How
to create special text using HTML
There are several
things you can do to spice up your message board postings.
By inserting HTML as you compose your message, you
can alter the text in several ways to make your posting
more readable. HTML (Hypertext Markup
Language) is the code that WWW browsers use to create
web pages. To see the HTML code used to create any given
web page, right click on a web page and choose "View
Source" if you are using Internet Explorer,
or "View Frame Source" if you are using
Netscape Navigator.
To create the HTML code you have a number of choices.
1) The easiest way is to use a WYSIWYG
(What You See Is What
You Get). These are software applications
that are like word processors in that you can change the
color, size, etc. of your text, only they create the HTML
code in the background for you automatically as you do this.
Examples of WYSIWYG include:
| Name: |
Description: |
Where
you can get it: |
Tutorials: |
| Macromedia's Dreamweaver |
Professional's choice |
|
Extensive help files
with program |
| Microsoft's Front Page |
Small and Med. business
choice |
No free trial or
version available |
|
| Microsoft's Front Page Express |
simple but works |
|
|
| Netscape's Composer |
simple but works |
|
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In one of these applications (or any other) you simply
create the desired text the way you want it and then copy
the HTML code the WYSIWYG creates and then paste it into
the "compose" form in the WebCT message
board of your course.
2) The second
way to do this is simply type the HTML code directly into
the "compose" section just as you would
normally type in your posting to the message board. Here
are some examples of the HTML code you might want:
| Desired effect: |
HTML code: |
| bold text |
<b>bold text</b> |
| red text |
<font color="#FF0000">red text</font> |
| green text |
<font color="#009900">green text</font> |
| blue text |
<font color="#000099">blue text</font> |
| purple text |
<font color="#9900CC">purple text</font> |
| larger text |
<font size="+1">larger text </font> |
| even larger text |
<font size="+2">even larger text</font> |
| really obnoxious |
<font size="+3">really obnoxious</font> |
| trebuchet, MS font |
<font face="Trebuchet MS, MS Sans Serif, Arial">trebuchet,
MS font</font> (*
See below) |
| comic sans font |
<font face="Comic Sans MS, MS Sans Serif,
Arial">comic sans font</font> |
| insert a link to Google |
insert a link to <a href="http://www.google.com/">Google</a> |
| make a link to Google
open in a new window |
make a link to <a href="http://www.google.com/"
target="_blank">Google</a>
open in a new window |
| red and bold text |
<font color="#FF0000"><b>red
and bold text</b></font> |
| red, bold
and larger text |
<font color="#FF0000"><b><font
size="+1">red, bold and larger text</font></b></font> |
| red, bold, larger
Comic Sans text |
<b><font color="#FF0000" size="+1"
face="Comic Sans MS, MS Sans Serif, Arial">red,
bold, larger Comic Sans text</font></b> |
Note:
There are some web design considerations you need
to keep in mind. For example, if you color your text then
it may make it more difficult to read, and different monitors,
monitor settings, computers and browsers render color
shades differently. Also, strictly speaking, blue text
should be reserved to indicate a link, and purple or red
text to indicate a visited link. Read more on the importance
of respecting standards in web design in this
article by Jakob Nielson.
* Something
else to keep in mind is that, although you may specify
a certain type of font (such as Comic Sans), you can't
be sure that everyone reading your post will have a browser
that supports this font. To avoid this, specify some of
the more common fonts as well such as Sans-serif. This
means that instead of:
How
to include a picture in your posting
The only way you can do this
in WebCT is to insert the code that links to an image. (You
cannot upload your own image into WebCT). For example, if
you want to link to the image that you see in the top left
of the WebCT course:  ,
then you have to find out where it originates from:
- To do this in Internet Explorer,
put your cursor over the image, right click and
choose "Properties". You should then
see this "address" or directory: "http://v3trials.webct.com/web-ct/img/logo.gif". Just
highlight this, copy it and paste it into your message.
- In Netscape Navigator, right
click over the image and choose "Copy Image Location"
and paste it into your message.
or: <img src="peter.jpg" width="200"
height="150">
Note:
If the image ever gets moved your link to it will be broken.
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