FAQs

• Which Platforms Support VBScript?

  VBScript is supported by Windows 95, Windows NT (including a native version for Alpha), 16-bit Windows, and Unix Solaris. Microsoft is currently working with others to bring VBScript to UNIX versions for HP, Digital, and IBM platforms.

• What is VBScript?

  Microsoft's fancy name for VBScript is "Microsoft® Visual Basic® Scripting Edition," it is a subset of the Microsoft Visual Basic programming language. Visual Basic and VBScript generally require the exact same syntax for basic and essentia...

• Where can I get JavaScript documentation?

  Online JavaScript documentation is available at these sites: * http://www.mozilla.org/js/language/ - Mozilla.org JavaScript Resources page * http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting - Microsoft's JScript, DHTML info, etc.

• What JavaScript versions are there?

  JavaScript is one of the youngest programming languages. It was first implemented by Netscape Communications in 1995. The first browser to support JavaScript was Netscape Navigator 2.0 beta version. By 1999 the two major browsers, Netscape...

• What browsers support JavaScript?

  JavaScript is supported by the following browsers: * Netscape Navigator (beginning with version 2.0) * Microsoft Internet Explorer (beginning with version 3.0) * Any other browser/product whose vendor licensed or implemente...

• What can't JavaScript programs do?

  * use printers or other devices on the user's system or the client-side LAN (For a workaround, see Printing JavaScript output.) * directly access files on the user's system or the client-side LAN ; the only exception is the acce...

• What can JavaScript programs do?

  * Giving the user more control over the browser * Detecting the user's browser, OS, screen size, etc. * Performing simple computations on the client side * Validating the user's input * Handling dates and time * Gen...

• What is JavaScript?

  JavaScript is a scripting language designed for adding interactivity to HTML pages. The language was first implemented by Netscape Communications in Netscape Navigator 2 beta (1995). JavaScript is different from the Java language (developed...

• Where can I get an XML browser?

  Remember the XML specification is still relatively new, so a lot of what you see now is experimental, and because the potential number of different XML applications is unlimited, no single browser can be expected to handle 100% of everythin...

• Why should I use XML instead of HTML?

  Authors and providers can design their own document types using XML, instead of being stuck with HTML. Document types can be explicitly tailored to an audience, so the cumbersome fudging that has to take place with HTML can become a thing o...

• What do I have to do to use XML?

  For the average user of the Web, nothing except use a browser which works with XML. Remember some XML components are still being implemented, so some features are still either undefined or have yet to be written. Don't expect everything to...

• Where can I discuss implementation and development of XML?

  The two principal online media are the Usenet newsgroups and the mailing lists. The newsgroups are comp.text.xml and to a certain extent comp.text.sgml. Ask your Internet Provider how to access these, or use a Web interface like Google.

• Where do I find more information about XML?

  Online, there's the XML Specification and ancillary documentation available from the W3C; Robin Cover's SGML/XML Web pages with an extensive list of online reference material and links to software; and a summary and condensed FAQ from Tim B...

• Why is XML such an important development?

  It removes two constraints which were holding back Web developments: 1. dependence on a single, inflexible document type (HTML); 2. the complexity of full SGML, whose syntax allows many powerful but hard-to-program options.

• Who is responsible for XML?

  XML is a project of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and the development of the specification is being supervised by their XML Working Group. A Special Interest Group of co-opted contributors and experts from various fields contributed...

• What is SGML?

  SGML is the Standard Generalized Markup Language. SGML is very large, powerful, and complex. It has been in heavy industrial and commercial use for over a decade, and there is a significant body of expertise and software to go with it. XML...

• What is XML for?

  XML is intended `to make it easy and straightforward to use SGML on the Web: easy to define document types, easy to author and manage SGML-defined documents, and easy to transmit and share them across the Web.'

• What is XML?

  XML is the Extensible Markup Language. It is designed to improve the functionality of the Web by providing more flexible and adaptable information identification.

• What is CSS rule 'at-rule'?

  There are two types of CSS rules: ruleset and at-rule. At-rule is a rule that applies to the whole style sheet and not to a specific selector only (like in ruleset). They all begin with the @ symbol followed by a keyword made up of letters...

• What is CSS rule 'ruleset'?

  There are two types of CSS rules: ruleset and at-rule. Ruleset identifies selector or selectors and declares style which is to be attached to that selector or selectors. For example P {text-indent: 10pt} is a CSS rule. CSS rulesets consist...

• How do I combine multiple sheets into one?

  To combine multiple/partial style sheets into one set the TITLE attribute taking one and the same value to the LINK element. The combined style will apply as a preferred style.

• What is alternate Style Sheet?

  Alternate Style Sheet is a sheet defining an alternate style to be used in place of style(s) declared as persistent and/or preferred . Persistent style is a default style that applies when style sheets are enabled but can disabled in fav...

• What is imported Style Sheet?

  Imported Style Sheet is a sheet that can be imported to (combined with) another sheet. This allows creating one main sheet containing declarations that apply to the whole site and partial sheets containing declarations that apply to specifi...

• What is inline style?

  Inline style is the style attached to one specific element. The style is specified directly in the start tag as a value of the STYLE attribute and will apply exclusively to this specific element occurance.

• What is embedded style?

  Embedded style is the style attached to one specific document. The style information is specified as a content of the STYLE element inside the HEAD element and will apply to the entire document.

• What is external Style Sheet? How to link?

  External Style Sheet is a template/document/file containing style information which can be linked with any number of HTML documents. This is a very convenient way of formatting the entire site as well as restyling it by editing just one fil...

• What are Style Sheets?

  Style Sheets are templates, very similar to templates in desktop publishing applications, containing a collection of rules declared to various selectors (elements).

• What is CSS?

  CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets and is a simple styling language which allows attaching style to HTML elements. Every element type as well as every occurance of a specific element within that type can be declared an unique style, e.g....

• Which browsers accept the media type application/xhtml+xml?

  Browsers known to us include all Mozilla-based browsers, such as Mozilla, Netscape 5 and higher, Galeon and Firefox, as well as Opera, Amaya, Camino, Chimera, DocZilla, iCab, Safari, and all browsers on mobile phones that accept WAP2. In fa...

• Why is it allowed to send XHTML 1.0 documents as text/html?

  XHTML is an XML format; this means that strictly speaking it should be sent with an XML-related media type (application/xhtml+xml, application/xml, or text/xml). However XHTML 1.0 was carefully designed so that with care it would also work...

• Why do I have to use these namespace things in XHTML?

  In the early days of HTML different groups and companies added new elements and attributes to HTML at will. This threatened to cause a chaos of different non-interoperable versions of HTML. XML (the X stands for Extensible) allows anyone to...

• Why do you say "user agent" everywhere, instead of "browser"?

  Although browsers are indeed important users of HTML and XHTML, there are other programs and systems that read those documents. Search engines for instance read documents, but are not browsers. By using the term "user agent" we are trying t...

• Why should I care if my document is in correct HTML? It displays all right on my browser.

  All browsers know how to deal with correct HTML. However, if it is incorrect, the browser has to repair the document, and since not all browsers repair documents in the same way, this introduces differences, so that your document may look a...

• Why are browsers so fussy about XML? They were more accepting with HTML.

  This is deliberate. HTML browsers accept any input, correct or incorrect, and try to make something sensible of it. This error-correction makes browsers very hard to write, especially if all browsers are expected to do the same thing. It ha...

• What is the easiest way to convert my HTML documents to XHTML?

  HTML Tidy gives you the option to transform any HTML document into an XHTML one. Amaya is a browser/editor that will save HTML documents as XHTML.

• Can I just put the XML declaration on top of existing HTML documents? Can I intermix HTML 4.01 and XHTML documents?

  No. HTML is not in XML format. You have to make the changes necessary to make the document proper XML before you can get it accepted as XML.

• What are the advantages of using XHTML rather than HTML?

  If your document is just pure XHTML 1.0 (not including other markup languages) then you will not yet notice much difference. However as more and more XML tools become available, such as XSLT for tranforming documents, you will start noticin...

• Why is XHTML needed? Isn't HTML good enough?

  HTML is probably the most successful document markup language in the world. But when XML was introduced, a two-day workshop was organised to discuss whether a new version of HTML in XML was needed. The opinion at the workshop was a clear 'Y...

• How do I know if my HTML is correct?

  It's good to validate your HTML. Just because you can see the Web page ok on your browser doesn't mean every browser will show it that way, or even be able to access the Web page. Browsers attempt to "work around" HTML errors, and the diffe...

• How do I make text show as bold?

  Placing the tag before the text will make everything bold, until you close the tag with (Or using tags will do the same.)

• Where can I find graphics to use on my page?

  There are many sites offering free use of graphics, although most will require a link to them, showing credit. You can do a search at any of the search engines and get thousands of places to look. You can also buy CDs with graphics on them....

• How do I make a new paragraph?

  Inserting the tag at the beginning of your paragraph will drop the text down two lines. (If you insert the tag, it will drop your text down one line.)

• How do I make a graphic a link?

  Including the "img" tag between the "a href" tag and the "a" closing tag:

• How do I align text next to a graphic?

  By including the "align" element in the "img" tag. Photo of wildflowers in Texas (The align="top" would align the text "Photo of wildflowers in Texas" next to the graphic at the top. - Other options are "middle" or "bottom.")

• How do I add music to my page?

  Some people use the Netscape specific &/or Explorer specific code, however I recommend you make it a link and let the reader choose whether or not they want to hear music. Like this... Heaven on Earth would allow the reader to choose the...

• How do I use a picture as the background?

  Include the element "background" with the name of the graphics file:

• How do I change the color of my background or text?

  Include the element "bgcolor" with a color code in your body tag:

• What is HTML?

  HyperText Markup Language: HTML is a plain text file with commands to tell the Web browsers how to display the file. Tim Berners-Lee created HTML while at CERN, (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics) in Geneva.

• So AppleScript isn't free?

  Nope. But you can get it for free if you look around on the Internet.

• Where can I get AppleScript?

  Probably the easiest and cheapest way to get AppleScript now is to buy System 7.5. System 7.5 does not include any of the AppleScript manuals, and it doesn't include the Scriptable Text Editor.