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CNB :: User's Guide

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User's Guide

CourseNotebook is an experimental program and web site that is used to facilitate traditional-learning as well as distance-learning courses. As you use this program remember to always keep backup copies of your work and other important information. In addition, do not count on the web site always being available as server and network problems will occasionally occur.

Quick Start Hints
The Main Menu Bar
The Message Area
Posting Messages
Allowable HTML Tags
The Settings Area

Quick Start Hints

When you finish using coursenotebook be sure to click the Logout link at the top left hand corner of the coursenotebook screen.
Adjust the settings on the menu bar as desired and then click the Update button to view the changes.
To read a long message click the read more of message hyperlink to the right of the message. This will launch a new browser window that contains the full text of the message. This also gives you an easy way to print a single message.
To post a message, fill out the form at the bottom of the coursenotebook screen and click the Post Message button. In general, post messages to your class area rather than the All Courses area.

The Main Menu Bar

The main menu bar consists of three drop-down menu boxes, three text boxes, and an Update button. The boxes from left to right are:

Course Selection Drop Down - this box lists the courses you are signed up for that use the coursenotebook program. Click the drop down arrow and then click on a course number. Press the Update button. Now all of the selections you make below will relate to this course. The All Courses option lets you take a look at messages posted in all of the courses on coursenotebook.com. This gives you a way to visit with students in classes other than your own.
Message Filter by Type Drop Down - this box lists the options All Messages, Public, Instructor, and Private. When you choose All Messages then no filtering occurs. The Public option will show all messages except for Private messages. The Instructor option will show special class messages posted by the course instructor.
Message Filter by Time Drop Down - this box lets you filter out old messages.
Number of Messages Text Box- enter the maximum number of messages you would like to view in this box and then press the Update button.
Name Text Box - You can enter the first few letters of a person's name and then click Update to view all the messages posted by a user whose last name begins with those same letters. For example, to see all of the messages you have posted, set the Message Filter by Time Drop Down to All, enter your last name in the Name Text Box, and then click the Update button.
Subject Text Box - You can enter the first few letters of a subject and then click Update to view all the messages posted that have a subject that begins with those same letters.

The Message Area

Each message consists of 3 parts: a message bar on top, a message preview pane on the lower left side, and a hyperlink pane on the lower right side.

The message bar displays who posted the message. You can click on the [info] hyperlink to find out more about the poster (you can set your own info by clicking the Settings hyperlink). Next is the course area the message was posted to. If the course name is underlined then it is a hyperlink to the course's home page. Clicking on either of these hyperlinks will launch a new browser window. Next, the date and time the message was posted is displayed. On the next line down the subject of the message is displayed.

The message preview pane shows the first paragraph of the message. The program determines the end of a paragraph by locating two <br> tags (when you press the enter key twice in a row) or the first <p> tag.

To see the entire text of a long message you click on the "read more of message #xx" hyperlink on the right side of the screen.

Posting Messages

At the bottom of the coursenotebook screen you will find a large textbox that you can type messages into. By clicking on the Post Message button, the new message will be posted to the list of current messages in this course area. Instead of typing your message directly into the box, you might want to copy (Ctrl C) and paste (Ctrl V) it from another program such as NotePad or WordPad. When submitting homework, it is a good idea to do it all first in Notepad or WordPad, run a spell check, and save it on your floppy disk. Now cut and paste it into coursenotebook. This way you will have a backup copy in case an error occurs during the posting process.

You have three radio button selections to choose from when you post a message. These are:

Text/HTML - use this for the regular messages that you type. You can embed HTML tags (see the list below), however, you do not need to specify paragraph tags or line breaks.
Pure HTML - use this when you are cutting and pasting from pure HTML code. Copy only the code after the body tag and before the /HTML tag. Make sure the tags are from the list below. If not, they will simply print out as plain text.
Code - use this option when you want your text spaced regular and when you want any HTML tags ignored (they will be printed as plain text). This is very useful for listing computer programs or HTML code. It could also be used for poetry or other situations where you want to maintain a certain spacing scheme (HTML usually removes all extra spaces).

The messages that you post here are Public, meaning that everyone can read them. You can embed HTML tags within your message as discussed below.

Allowable HTML Tags

Before you start using these tags, make sure you have a pretty good idea what you are doing. Visit HTML Quick Reference or A Beginners Guide to HTML for help on learning HTML. Most of these tags work in pairs. For example, <b> turns on bold and then </b> turns off bold. Be extra careful if you use tables. Make sure you have </table> tags for each <table> you create or you will mess up the formatting on all of the messages that follow. The accepted HTML tags that you can use in your messages include tags that start (or end) with:

a - anchor tag defines a hypertext link
address - specifies information such as an address or signature
b - the enclosed text will be bold
blockquote - used for quoting a paragraph or more of text
br - break moves you down to the beginning of the next line (single spaces)
center - the enclosed text will be centered on the page
cite - the enclosed text will appear in italics
code - the enclosed text will appear in a fixed width font
dd - definition of an item in a definition list
dfn - the defining instance of a term
div - defines a section on the page and can be used for text alignment
dl - a definition list
dt - a definition term within a definition list
em - the enclosed text will be emphasized
font - use this to set certain font properties such as color or size
h1 through h6 - the enclosed text will appear as a heading
hr - horizontal rule
i - the enclosed text will appear in italics
img - inserts an image
kbd - the enclosed text will appear as a fixed width font
li - an item within an ordered or unordered list
ol -defines an ordered or numbered list
p - paragraph moves you down to start a new paragraph (double spaces)
pre - the enclosed text will appear preformatted as a fixed width font
s - the enclosed text will appear as strikethrough type
samp - the enclosed text will appear as a code sample listing
small - the enclosed text will appear in a smaller font
strike - the enclosed text will appear as strikethrough type
strong - the enclosed text will appear as bold
sub - the enclosed text will appear as subscript
sup - the enclosed text will appear as superscript
table - organizes data into rows and columns
td - table data cell
th - table header
tr - table row
tt - the enclosed text will appear in fixed-width type (typewriter type)
u - the enclosed text will appear underlined
ul - defines an unordered or bulleted list

The Settings Area