Homework 1 (Recipe) FAQ

Q: Why does the HTML validator give me the error, "character data is not allowed here"?
A: You may have bare text content that isn't properly wrapped in a block element. Put it in a <p> or other block element.
Q: Why does the HTML validator give me the error, "cannot generate system identifier for general entity"?
A: You may have an & character in an HTML attribute that isn't properly encoded using a character entity reference. See Chapter 2 about entity references.
Q: Why does the HTML validator give me the error, "document type does not allow element 'xxx' here; missing one of 'yyy', 'zzz' start-tag"?
A: Not every element is allowed to be nested inside of every other element. For example, you cannot nest an <h1> inside of a <p>. You probably have invalid nesting in that part of your page.
Q: I think I made my page correctly, but it does not line up perfectly in the web page comparison tool. Will I lose points? How different can they be before I will lose points?
A: Keep in mind that fonts and other things look different on every operating system and browser. The only way you would be likely to exactly match our expected output pixel for pixel would be to test it on the newest version of Firefox on Windows 7 with the same screensize. But even if you test on the same OS and browser, it may not match perfectly. As long as you properly follow the guidelines given in the spec, even if your image does not match pixel for pixel, you could still receive full credit.
Q: The assignment writeup says your sample solution has a certain number of lines. I don't have exactly that many. What have I done wrong? Will I be marked off?
A: You don't have to exactly match our counts. They are just there as a sanity check. If your numbers are WAY off from ours, you may be solving the problem in the wrong way.
Q: Is my index page creative enough? Will it get full credit?
A: Grading is pretty lenient on the creative parts. If it meets the criteria in the assignment spec, it should get full credit, even if it is not particularly creative or exciting.
Q: How do I right-align a set of lines so that their last character lines up?
A: If you use a pre-formatted text block, you can control the spacing of the text to line up these characters.
Q: How do I make an abbreviation with a tooltip? How do I indicate deleted text with a strike-out line through it?
A: There are HTML tags that are well suited to these purposes. See an HTML tag reference to look at the list of tags and search for keywords that are useful.