Lesson 1 - Page 4

TROUBLESHOOTING

If you have a problem then you really should try to solve it and try again. This can be time consuming but challenging. If after two or three attempts or after a reasonable amount of time trying to solve the problem, you have failed to solve it, then leave the problem. Keep going with the rest of your page if possible, (this depends on how a big a problem you encounter). If you have a lot more content of your website to write, then write it. Come back to the problem later on.
Hopefully this page may solve some or all of any problems you are encountering in Lesson 1. Most of these problems have been explained throughout the lesson but I will group them together in this page. If you still can't solve a problem then you can ring me and I will attempt to solve the problem.

PROBLEM: When I display my web-page using Internet Explorer the HTML words as well as the content appear on the screen.
This happens if you do not end your file name with .html when you saved your original page created using Notepad. Save the page again putting on .html at the end of the filename. To do this find and Open your Notepad file, Click File, Click Save As, Click at the end of the filename (second row from bottom), add on .html to the file name. Finally click Save (bottom right). Look at your page again using Internet Explorer.

PROBLEM: I can't find or bring back up on the screen my original page that I created using Notepad.
When you create a file, save it and are finished with it for the time being, you then need to get rid of it from the screen (I prefer to call this hiding the file) i.e. you want to hide the file. There are two ways for hiding the file and how you get back your file or page depends on which way you hid the file.
(1) If you hid the page using the minimise button the page will dissappear and jump down to the bottom of the screen along the row where the Start button is. Look along the bottom of the screen and if the name of your file or page is there ( It will look like website1-Notepad or whatever name you called it with -Notepad added on), put the mouse over the name, Click and the page will appear on the screen again.
(2) If the file name is not along the bottom of the screen, then you probably closed the file when hiding it. You clicked the X button on the top right of the page instead of the minmise button. To get back the page do the following:
Open Notepad (if you have forgotten, see Page 2 on how to do this). A blank page should appear.
Click File, Click Open. The Open Window appears. In the main part i.e the middle of the Window you may well see Yellow Folders with names after them. If you scroll to the right you will see file names i.e. names without the Yellow Folders beside them. Your file name will (probably) not be there. Even if it is, it is probably the wrong type of file (explained below). If you look down at the bottom of the window panel you will see two lines.

The first line shows:     File name: *.txt
The last line shows:     Files of type: Text Documents.

The problem is that the main part (the middle part) of the Open Window is only showing text documents (that is what *.txt means). It is not showing web-pages. At the right hand end of the last line is a little arrow pointing down. Click this arrow. Underneath the words Text Documents you will see:      All Files (*.*).     Click this. The main part of the window will now show all types of files. If you scroll through the window you should find your file name (note: the .html at the end of the file name will not appear), Click the file name, Click Open (bottom right) and you have your original page back on the screen.

PROBLEM: I have written into my web-page an instruction that I want a Red Background for my page, BUT the red background does not appear on my web-page when I look at it using Internet Explorer.
You have written the HTML words incorrectly. This will be an ongoing problem and will be the source of many problems. Fortunately, these problems once spotted are quickly and easily solved. You must spell the HTML words correctly and learn the proper way for writing an instruction. This is called learning the trade. <body bgcolor="red"> is an instruction to tell the computer to display a web-page with a red background. See page 3 for possible incorrect ways for writing this.

PROBLEM:One or more of the < and > symbols are appearing on my web-page when I look at it using Internet Explorer.
This can easily happen and can be difficult to spot. This happens when you are writing a HTML word and you put two of these symbols around the word. Example, you want to write <body> but you write <body>>. The second > will appear as part of your content. Delete the second > in your original Notepad page. Save and look at the page again.

PROBLEM:When I add (i.e. type) more content to my original web-page that I created using Notepad, the extra content does NOT appear on my web-page when I look at it using Internet Explorer.
Click the REFRESH button on Internet Explorer. If the new content still does'nt appear then you probably did not save the original Notepad page after adding the extra content. Find and Open your original page (created by Notepad), Click File, Click Save. Look at your page again using Internet Explorer.

NOTE:When you are looking at your web-page using Internet Explorer, then really look at it, especially if there is a lot of content on the page. Concentrate, don't just look at it casually. Check to see that all the content of your website appears.

NOTE: I will refer to the < and > symbols that surround the HTML words as brackets. When writing the HTML words you might by accident put a space or spaces between the bracket and the start or end of the HTML word. You might write
< head> instead of <head>. Note the space between < and h. in the first word. Generally the space does not cause any problem but in some HTML words later on it does cause problems and should not be there.

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