< >



You will notice that many of the sections are TO BE WRITTEN
or NOT FINISHED and the way things are going, I'm not going to get it all done in time for the deadline


If you want to write and/or edit a section, please start a conversation with an appropriate subject name, e.g. "The Section on Fonts"




< / >


six7s

<forTestingPurposesOnly>

Alabaster

  |  


Brunel

  |  


Classic Goo

  |  


Plain

</forTestingPurposesOnly>

<toBeDeleted>

How to


  |  




C743


  |  


C801


  |  


Thread


  |  


Clinic


  |  


Index

</toBeDeleted>

Intro goes here


TO BE WRITTEN



Links in

ITALICS

are to another section of this page

Acronyms

• 
  FAQ
  
  Frequently
  Asked
  Questions
    :
  
  
  Most good websites and communities write a page of the most commonly
  asked questions ( with the answers ) that relate to the acronyms and jargon that can so easily confuse the readers.
  
  



• 
  GIF
  
  Graphics
  Interchange
  Format
    :
  
  
  One of the most popular graphics (picture) formats on the Internet
  
  
  Due to copyright issues, the only pictures in use on h2g2 are those
  in the
  
  GuideML-PictureLibrary
  
  
  Some of the Smileys on h2g2 are animated gifs
  
  



• 
  HTML (XML and XHTML)
  
  Hyper
  Text
  Mark-up
  Language
  
  
  
    (
  
  eXtensible
  Markup
  Language
    and
  
  
  
   
  
  eXtensible
  Hyper
  Text
  Markup
  Language )
    :
  
  
  These mark-up languages are similar to GuideML
  
  
  
  Mark-up code specifies the layout and format of any words and tells the browser where to find any pictures and where links (or hyperlinks) are pointing to.
  
  
  
  A hyperlink is a piece of text or an image that can be clicked on to take the reader to a conversation, a new page or just somehere else on the same page
  
  
  
  You can view the coding of any website by going to
  View
  |
  Source in an Internet Explorer or Opera
  
  BROWSER
  
    (WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER BROWSERS????)
  
  



• 
  JPEG (aka JPG)
  
  Joint
  Photographers
  Expert
  Group
    :
  
  
  Another popular graphics format on the Internet, similar to
  
  GIFs
  
  



• 
  URL
  
  Uniform
  Resource
  Locator
    :
  
  
  The address of an internet site such as   :
  
  
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/
  
  

Jargon

• 
  A pages
  
  
  
  All h2g2 Researchers can write entries for the Guide using what are known as A Pages simply because of the way a
  
  URL
  
  is written.
  
  
  For example   :  
  
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A123456
  
  
  would also be known as
  
  A123456
  
  



• 
  Alabaster
  
  
  
  See
  
  SKINS
  
  



• 
  Attribute
  
  
  
  An extra piece of information that goes inside an
  
  OPENING TAG
  
  to further define how things will look on the finished page
  
  
  
  For example, ALIGN = "CENTER" is an attribute that can be added to a <P> (paragraph opening tag) like so:   <P ALIGN = "CENTER"> to create a centred paragraph
  
  
  
  Note that American spelling is used in all GuideML tags AND attributes, even though h2g2 is a BBC site
  
  



• 
  Blob
  
  
  
  A name for the images in the
  
  GuideML-PictureLibrary
  
  that can be used in h2g2 pages
  
  



• 
  Bold
  
  
  
  A technique for making text stand out, using the
  <B> and </B>
  
  pair of
  
  TAGS
  
  
  
  This text is in bold
  
  
  
  This text isn't in bold
  
  
  



• 
  Browsers
  
  
  NOT FINISHED
  WHAT ABOUT DIGIBOXs??? AND A (VERY) BRIEF DECRIP OF EACH???
  
  
  These are the different brands of software designed let people read and navigate around the Internet
  
  
  Examples:
  
  
  • 
    Internet Explorer
    
  • 
    Mozzilla
    
  • 
    Netscape
    
  • 
    Opera
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  See  
  
  Web Browsers - an Historical Overview
  
  



• 
  Brunel
  
  
  
  See
  
  SKINS
  
  



• 
  Bugs
  
  
  
  When mentioned in relation to computers, these aren't of the insect
  variety. Computer bugs are errors in coding that produce unexpected
  and/or weird results
  
  
  
  When creating or editing a GuideML page, common bugs in your code will be identified when you click on Preview or Update
  



• 
  Bulleted lists
  
  
  NOT FINISHED
  
  
  These are used to draw attention to individual points in a list using
  symbols like ù or ø instead of numbers
  
  
  
  FIND THE RIGHT ENTITY CODES
  
  
  A BIT ABOUT NESTING?? MAYBE NOT??
  
  



• 
  Comments
  
  
  
  Although everything you write in your code is seen by a
   
  
  PARSER
  
   
  comments are rendered completely invisible on the finished page.
  
  
  
  To write a comment, use
  
  <!--
  
  
  before the text you want to be invisible and
  
  -->
  
  afterwards
  
  
  
  They can be used to write short notes for yourself, which can be very helpful if you need to change something a few months later and it looks like a foreign language again
  
  



• 
  Classic Goo
  
  
  
  See
  
  SKINS
  
  



• 
  Closed tags
  
  
  
  See
  
  TAGS
  
  



• 
  DNA
  
  
  
  TO BE WRITTEN
  
  Named in honour of
  Douglas Noel Adams
  
  



• 
  Entries
  
  
  NOT FINISHED
  
  All registered H2G2 Researchers have their own Personal Space on a
   
  
  U Page
  
  
   
  and they can write articles on
   
  
  A Pages
  
   
  
  



• 
  Error Messages
  
  
  NOT FINISHED
  
  



• 
  Fonts
  
  
  
  TO BE WRITTEN
  
  
  



• 
  Fixed format
  
  
  NOT FINISHED
  
  
  
  Text written inside the <PRE> and </PRE>
  
  
  TAGS
  
  
  



• 
  Gadgets
  
  
  
  TO BE WRITTEN
  
  
  



• 
  Goo
  
  
  
  See
  
  SKINS
  
  



• 
  GuideML
  
  
  TO BE WRITTEN
  
  



• 
  Header
  
  
  
  TO BE WRITTEN
  
  
  



• 
  Hex numbers
  
  
  NOT FINISHED
  
  
  
  HEXadecimal numbers can
  ¹
  be used to specify the colours of  
  
  
  FONTS
  
    used in GuideML entries
  
  
  
  There are 16 hexadecimal values:
  
  
  

  decimal	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
  Hexadecimal	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F

  
  
  As the font colour scheme uses six hex numbers (eg 123ABC) there are over 16 million possible combinations but there are only 216
  
  
  Web Safe
  
  
  colours to choose from and as there are already four
  
  
  
   
  
  
  SKINS
  
    in use on h2g2, the choice of font colours that are suitable for
  
  EDITED ENTRIES
  
    is limited to ?????????
  
  
  WHO'S GOING TO WRITE AN ENTRY ON HOOTOO SKIN SAFE FONT COLOURS??
  
  
  
  



• 
  Horizontal rule
  
  
  
  TO BE WRITTEN
  
  
  



• 
  Hypertext
  
  
  
  Also known as Hyperlinks and Links
  
  
  
  See
  
  HTML
  
  



• 
  Italics
  
  
  
  The term has two common meanings on h2g2, and they are related
  
  
  
  1. 
     A technique for making text stand out,
     using the <I> and </I>
     
     pair of
      
     
     TAGS
     
      
     
     
     
     This text is in italics
     
     
     
     This text isn't in italics
     
     
  
  
  2. 
     The Editors are also known as the Italics simply because of
     the way their names appear in conversations
     
  
  INTRODUCTION
  
  



• 
  Illegal Use
  
  
  
  TO BE WRITTEN
  
  
  



• 
  Markup
  
  
  
  TO BE WRITTEN
  
  
  



• 
  Marquee
  
  
  
  The < MARQUEE > tag is used to make text or images scroll - sideways and/or up and down.
  
  
  
  Because it only works properly in versions 3 and later of the Microsoft Internet Explorer
  
   
  
  BROWSER
  
  
  , marquee is not suitable for
   
  
  EDITED
  
  
   
  guide entries but can be used in GuideML
   
  
  PERSONAL SPACES
  
   
  
  
  
  See
   
  
  A study of the < MARQUEE > tag in GuideML
  
  



• 
  Named Entries
  
  
  
  Some pages on h2g2 have names (rather than just A numbers, like A123456) and there are two ways to link to them
  
  
  
  In conversations and plain text (i.e. not GuideML) Guide Entries, you surround the name with
  
  < ./ >
  
  and
  
  < /. >
  
  tags and in GuideML entries, you use the
   
  
  GuideML-LINK
  
   
  tags
  
  
  
  See
   
  
  Named Entries
  
   
  for more information
  
  
  



• 
  Nesting
  
  
  
  Nesting is a term used with
   
  
  TAGS
  
  
   
  that means having one or more types of tag wrapped up within another
  
  
  
  For example
  
  
  
  <P> The quick brown fox <B> jumps <I> over </I> the </B> lazy dog
  
  
  
  has a pair of italic tags nested inside a pair of bold tags, which are also nested inside a
  pair of paragraph tags and looks like this when seen in a GuideML entry
  
  
  
  The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
  
  
  



• 
  Opening Tags
  
  
  
  See
   
  
  TAGS
  
  



• 
  Ordered Lists
  
  
  TO BE WRITTEN
  
  
  <OL> and </OL>
  
  
  
  



• 
  Parser
  
  
  TO BE WRITTEN
  
  



• 
  Pixel
  
  
  
  PICture ELement   :   a tiny square of screen space
  
  
  
  Everything seen on a screen (text, pictures, animations etc) is made up of hundreds of rows that are one pixel high and hundreds of pixels wide
  
  
  
  The higher the screen
   
  
  RESOLUTION
  
   
  , the more pixels there are on the screen so the higher the visual quality of the image
  
  



• 
  Refresh
  
  
  
  pressing the F5 key will update (refresh) the page so that you see the latest version of a page, handy if your My Conversation
   
  
  GADGET
  
   
  tells you there has been a new post to a conversation you are following
  
  



• 
  Resolution
  
  
  
  Screen resolution determines the number of pixels your monitor (screen) displays
  
  
  
  Common settings include:
  
  • 
    640 by 480
    
  • 
    800 by 600
    
  • 
    1024 by 768
    
  • 
    1280 by 1024
    
  
  and
  
  • 
    1600 by 1200
    
  
  



• 
  Self Closing Tags
  
  
  
  There aren't many of them, but they are used quite often.
  
  
  
  They are the exception to the rule that all
   
  
  
  TAGS
  
   
  must be used in pairs .
  
  
  
  One common self closing tag is the line break ( <BR/> ), which makes the next piece of text appear on a new line.
  
  
  
  For example, writing
  
  
  The quick
  <BR/>
  brown fox jumps
  <BR/>
  over the lazy
  <BR/>
  dog
  
  
  
  
  will produce this   :
  
  
  
  The quick
  
  
  brown fox jumps
  
  
  over the lazy
  
  
  dog
  
  
  



• 
  Skins
  
  
  
  
  The skins in use on h2g2 all do (essentially) the same job of displaying pages but with their own colour schemes and layouts.
  
  
  To change your skin for all pages on h2g2, use the Preferences button.
  
  
  
  
  Use these links to see this page in the relevant skin
  
  
  
  Alabaster
  
  :   teal green??? links and black text on a white background with teal green???? and orange borders.
  
  Alabaster looks quite business-like, ideal if you want people looking over your shoulder to think you are working.
  
  
  
  Brunel
  
  :   blue links and black text on a white background with
  
  lime green and grey borders on U pages and
  
  Burgundy??Red?? and grey borders on all???? other pages
  
  Brunel users have the option of customising these colours by ???????????????
  
  
  
  Classic Goo
  
  (or just Goo):   the original h2g2 skin has brownish???? links and white text on a dark blue background.
  
  Goo is the only skin that has the option of using frames, which can slow down load times but lets you navigate between conversation threads with ease.
  
  
  
  Plain
  
  
  :   is currently (April 2003) only a prototype skin, rushed through to help Digibox users.
  
  It is similar to Brunel with blue links and black text on a white background but is purposely light on graphics to speed up download times.
  
  
  
  



• 
  Smileys
  
  
  
  TO BE WRITTEN
  
  



• 
  Subheader
  
  
  
  TO BE WRITTEN
  
  



• 
  Syntax
  
  
  
  TO BE WRITTEN
  
  



• 
  Table
  
  
  TO BE WRITTEN
  
  
  A way of arranging text and/or images in rows and columns
  
  
  
  



• 
  Tags
  
  
  
  Tags are bits of code surrounded by
   
  
  <
  
   
  and
   
  
  >
  
   
  brackets that control how text and/or pictures entries appear
  
  
  
  Understanding how tags work is such an important step in learning how to make GuideML (and HTML etc) work properly that
   
  
  Tags ????? A986114
  
   
  is dedicated to them
  
  
  
  But, in a nutshell, apart from a few
   
  
  SELF-CLOSING TAGS
  
   
  , they must always be used pairs (one opening and one closing)
  
  
  
  For example   :
  
  
  
  In a GuideML entry, the <B> and </B> pair is used to make the text within them bold and the <I> and </I> pair is used to make the text within them italicised, so writing
  
  
  
  The quick
  <B>
  brown
  </B>
  fox jumps over the
  <I>
  lazy
  </I>
  dog
  
  
  
  will produce this:
  
  
       
  The quick
  
  brown
  
  fox jumps over the
  
  lazy
  
  dog
  
  



• 
  Unordered list
  
  
  
  TO BE WRITTEN
  
  



• 
  U pages
  
  
  
  The Personal Space of a registered h2g2 Researchers is often referred to as a U Page because of the way a
   
  
  URL
  
   
  is written.
  
  
  For example   :  
  
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/U123456
  
  
  would also be known as
  
  U123456
  
  



• 
  Web Safe Colours
  
  
  
  TO BE WRITTEN
  
  Web Safe Colours
  
  



• 
  XXXXXXXXXXX
  
  
  
    MORE
  
  
  

Symbols

• 
  &amp;
  
  
  
  To the computers that control how things look on pages written in
  GuideML, the & (ampersand) symbol is reserved for use in a special way.
  
  
  
  To use it in an ordinary (human) way, it must be written as &amp;
  
  
  
  
  Test &
  
  Note that the semi-colon at the end MUST be included
  
  
  



• 
  &nbsp;
  
  
  
  Non
  Breaking
  SPace:
  
  
  
  The computers that control how things look on a DNA page will ignore all but the first space between any letters and/or numbers.
  
  
  To get around this, &nbsp;
  
  
  (with the semi-colon at the end) can be used in GuideML and the
  
  
  
  
  
  The <space>
  
  smiley can be used in conversations
  
  
  

Further Reading

• 
  Spicing Up Your User Page
  
  
  
   
  Written and Researched by:
   
  U135628
    and  
  U135642
  



• 
  Title
  
  
  
  Top / Everything / All About h2g2 /
  
  GuideML, the Markup Language of the Guide
  
  



• 
  Title
  
  
  
  Maybe some text goes here
  
  Name of Link
  
  and maybe more text here