D. Nixon: CS 12 > Week 5

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Computer Science 12


Week 5




Sunday, March 7, 2009



Assignment 5 (due next week)

  1. Paper:

    2. (Revised, March 8, 2010) Only one person managed to complete the first draft by the beginning of class on March 7. For that and other reasons, the planned Microsoft Word lesson was postponed to next week.

    You absolutely must submit the first draft, via Blackboard, by no later than the beginning of class on Sunday, March 14. This time, you will lose a significant number points if you don't submit the first draft by then.

    As stated earlier, the first draft must contain quotes from each of your four sources and must be divided into at least three sections with headings. The first draft must be at least three pages long (whereas the final paper should be between five and eight pages long).

    The file must have a filename with the following format:

    where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last name and and first name, respectively.

  2. Excel Assignment:

    3. Continuing the grade roster from an earlier assignment, compute each student's total final score as follows: The quiz average with lowest score dropped counts 30% of the total score. If the student did better on the final exam than on both of the other two exams, then the final exam counts 40% of the total score and the other two exams count a total of 30%, with the better of the two non-final exams counted twice as much as the other one. On the other hand, if it is not true that the student did better on the final exam than on both of the other two exams, then the final exam is counted as 30% of the total score, and the other two exams count a total of 40%, with the better of the two non-final exams being counted as 24% of the total score, while the worse of the two non-final exams is counted only 16%. Put the final score in a column on the right. You may find it helpful to have a few additional columns containing intermediate calculated results.

    In the appropriate cells in the bottom right corner, compute the minimum, maximum, and average total scores for the entire class.

    Generate a column chart displaying the minimum, maxiumim, and average for the entire class, with clearly labeled axes.

    The grade roster itself should be displayed as a table.

    As before, your Excel file should have a filename with the following format:

    where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last name and and first name, respectively.

    Submit the above file in the appropriate area on Blackboard, and have access to the file in lab next week. We will use it again in future exercises both in lab and in homework.

  3. HTML Assignment:

    4. Continue work on your set of HTML pages, adding at least two graphics files. Add a "graphics credits" page clearly identifying all graphics as to their source. If the graphic has been copied from a website, follow the instructions in Copyright issues and policies of "free" graphics download sites. If the graphic was created by you (e.g. a photo taken by you), say so explicitly, and state your wishes as to whether other people may use your graphic and, if so, under what conditions. Your main page, index.html, should include a link to your graphics credits page, which, in turn, should link back to index.html, as do all your other pages.

    Submit both your HTML files and your graphics files, together, in a ZIP file uploaded to the appropriate place on BlackBoard. The ZIP file should have a filename with the following format:

    where "last" and "first" should be replaced by your own last name and first name, respectively. Also, please have access to this file in lab next week, because we will continue work on your HTML files in future lab sessions and homework assignments.


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Word tutorials (postponed to next week)

(Lesson postponed to next week, because hardly anyone finished the first draft of the paper. Please note that you absolutely must submit the first draft by the BEGINNING of NEXT class, or you will lose points.)


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Excel tutorials

On Excel tables:

On range names and labels:

See also the Excel tutorials listed for Week 4.


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This week's HTML topic: displaying graphics files

The main HTML topic this week is the use of graphics files.

To display a graphic with the filename  Jane.jpg  which is a photo of your best friend Jane, use the following on your HTML page, assuming that the file  Jane.jpg  is in the same folder/directory as your HTML page:

<img src="Jane.gif"
	alt="Photo of Jane, my best friend" />

The  src  (source) attribute's value is the path name of the graphics file to be displayed.

The purpose of the  alt  attribute is to convey imformation about your graphic to search engines and to devices used by blind people. (See Guidelines on alt texts in img elements by Jukka "Yucca" Korpela.)

Note that the  img  tag is a self-closing tag, which means that a separate closing  </img>  tag is not needed. But the  img  tag itself does need its opening "<" and (after the attributes) its closing ">", just like all other HTML tags. In addition, conformance to the XHTML standard (to be discussed very briefly in lab) requires a "/" before the closing ">".  (XHTML is a form of HTML which is also XML, about which here is a relatively simple XML tutorial. About XHTML itself, see Introduction to XHTML on the W3Schools site, and see also The New York Public Library's style guide for its web pages.)

Another example of a self-closing tag is the  br  tag, whose purpose is to force a line break (besides the usual line breaks between paragraphs). The  br  tag is properly written as:

<br />

and is commonly written as just:

<br>

(without the "/"), in older versions of HTML. Again the "/" before the closing ">" is for conformance to the XHTML standard for self-closing tags.

(The XHTML standard is not quite as important now as it once was, because the more popular cell phone web browsers can now read nonstandard HTML, but it is still something that at least some potential employers will expect you to know, if you decide to become a professional web designer.)

To change the position at which a graphic is displayed, experiment with the following, for now, substituting the filename of your own graphics file for  Jane.gif , and using suitable text with the  alt  attribute:

<p>Some text near the image.</p>

<img src="Jane.gif"
	style="float:right"
	alt="Photo of Jane, my best friend" />

<p>Some text near the image.</p>

<img src="Jane.gif"
	style="text-align:right"
	alt="Photo of Jane, my best friend" />

<p>Some text near the image.</p>

<img src="Jane.gif"
	style="text-align:center"
	alt="Photo of Jane, my best friend" />

<p>Some text near the image.</p>

<img src="Jane.gif"
	style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto"
	alt="Photo of Jane, my best friend" />

<p>Some text near the image.</p>

Alternatively, try enclosing the image in  p  tags, putting the  style  attribute in the opening  p  tag rather than in the  img  tag itself:

<p>Some text near the image.</p>

<p style="float:right">
<img src="Jane.gif"
	alt="Photo of Jane, my best friend" />
</p>

<p>Some text near the image.</p>

<p style="text-align:right">
<img src="Jane.gif"
	alt="Photo of Jane, my best friend" />
</p>

<p>Some text near the image.</p>

<p style="text-align:center">
<img src="Jane.gif"
	alt="Photo of Jane, my best friend" />
</p>

<p>Some text near the image.</p>

<p style="margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto">
<img src="Jane.gif"
	alt="Photo of Jane, my best friend" />
</p>

<p>Some text near the image.</p>

Try all of the above both in Microsoft Internet Explorer and in Mozilla Firefox.

Many online HTML tutorials still teach the following:

<center>
<img src="Jane.gif"
	alt="Photo of Jane, my best friend" />
</center>

<p align="center">
<img src="Jane.gif"
	alt="Photo of Jane, my best friend" />
</p>

<p align="right">
<img src="Jane.gif"
	alt="Photo of Jane, my best friend" />
</p>

However, the  center  tag and the  align  attribute are parts of HTML 3 that were deprecated in HTML 4, meaning that their use is discouraged and may eventually be phased out.

More, in later lab sessions, about positioning things on an HTML page.

See also the HTML tutorials listed for Week 3, and see also Copyright issues and policies of "free" graphics download sites.

P.S. (3/3/2009):  In class, someone asked about setting the size of a graphic. Try variants of the following:

<img src="Jane.gif"
	style="float:right; width:20em"
	alt="Photo of Jane, my best friend" />

<p>Some text near the image.</p>

<img src="Jane.gif"
	style="text-align:right; height:20em"
	alt="Photo of Jane, my best friend" />

<p>Some text near the image.</p>

<img src="Jane.gif"
	style="text-align:center; width:20px"
	alt="Photo of Jane, my best friend" />


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Copyright issues and policies of "free" graphics download sites

Complaints about copyright violations are one of the main reasons why websites get shut down by web hosts. So that this doesn't happen to you, please keep in mind the legal and ethical issues discussed below.

Before you download any clip art from anywhere, please read the following:

Some sample terms of use:

In particular, please note the following basics:

Some free graphics sites may have additional requirements, but the above are basic and should be followed always, even when not stated explicitly.

Read the "terms of use" (or similar) page on any site you download graphics from. If a downloadable graphics site does not have any "Terms of Use" page or anything similar, beware. It may well be a spam site containing plagiarized stuff.

For up-to-date info on Internet copyright issues, from the viewpoint of artists, see Plagiarism Today.


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Study guide for next week's quiz

On Sunday, March 14, we will have our usual brief (10 to 20 minute) quiz at the beginning of the lab session. (Please arrive on time or early.) The October 14 quiz will be an on-paper quiz having two parts:

  1. Excel: Similar to last week's Excel quiz problem, but probably more challenging.

    2. To prepare for the quiz, you will need practice using all the functions we've covered so far (listed in the previous study guide). To that end, it is recommended that you not only do the homework but also play with examples in the Excel tutorials for all four weeks up to now. Make sure, especially, that you get practice with IF, AND, and OR functions, including nested IF functions.

  2. HTML: There will be a few multiple choice questions on copyright issues and the proper use of free downloadable graphics. (See Copyright issues and policies of "free" graphics download sites.)


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D. Nixon: CS 12 > Week 5