1. Course Administration

Course Material

• Where do I go to see the checkpoint exercises?

  The checkpoint exercises can be found on the bottom of the navigation bar on the first four weeks of labs, or there are links to them on the schedule on the home page.

• Where do I go to see the course assignments?

  All of the course assignments and their descriptions can be found on URCourses. If you can't find an assignment on URCourses, the instructor may not have made it available yet.

• A summary of assignment 1 Winter 2022
• A summary of assignment 2 Winter 2022
• What is the difference between the course material and the lab material?

  Besides being found in different places, there are a couple notable differences between lab and course assignments:

  • There are four lab checkpoints used to teach you the skills to complete the first assignment. They are not worth very much and should not impact your grade significantly if you can't do them.
  • As well, there is one lab test. They are not required to pass the class, but they are still worth marks.
  • There are three class assignments, worth significantly more. Each class assignment must be attempted to receive a passing grade.

• Where can I work on the labs and assignments?

  There are a few other locations on campus for you to work on your assignment:

  CL136	Our main lab. It is available to you outside of booked times.
  Main Library	There are about 75 PC's there for all University students. There are also electrical outlets and study desks if you have a laptop.
  Luther Library	There is a library on the bottom floor of Luther that you can also use.
  Campion Library	There is a library on the second floor of Campion that you can also use.
  CL109	If CL136 is busy, go to CL109. This lab is there for all University students.
  ED440 & ED440.1	If CL136 is busy, go to ED440 or ED440.1. These labs are there for all University students.
  Riddell Centre	If CL136 is busy, there are computers available on the second floor next to the U.R.S.U.

Contact

• What is the best way to contact the instructors?

  Each course instructor has different methods of communication they prefer, which they will let you know. However, they can usually be contacted through their email posted on their syllabus. Many instructors turn off the course email on URCourses, so unless told otherwise, don't rely on this
  
  The best way to contact the lab coordinator is through their email at help100@uregina.ca
  
  Remember when you are contacting the instructors that you:

  1. Use an informative title. They may mistake your email for spam if you do not include the class name in the title
  2. Attempt to explain your problem in the email. The instructor can't help you if they don't know what you need help with
  3. Include your information. The instructors can't help you if they don't know who you are

• Where should I go for help?

  1. Oftentimes, a quick google search is more than enough for what you need
  2. Otherwise, you should always try our lab notes as your first resource, as they answer most common problems. If the lab instructors can tell you didn't try to find the answer yourself, they are not obligated to give it to you
  3. If that fails, you should contact the lab coordinator, either by attending their help hours or by email
  4. If the problem involves the class material, you should contact the class instructor instead
  5. If you can't make the help hours, other lab instructors have help hours in CL119. See the schedule on our lab home page.

• Who do I talk to if I have a question about my grades?

  1. You should talk to the lab coordinator first, as they are in charge of marking and marking disputes, either in their help hours or by email.
  2. If you still have further problems with your marking, contact the class instructor. Make sure to address that you asked the coordinator, as the instructor will often point you to them first

• Who do I contact if I will be absent for an extended time?

  You may want to contact both the class instructor and lab coordinator if you are going to be absent just to be sure they both know. Specifically, you should:

  1. If you will be missing the midterm, you need to contact the instructor
  2. If you are missing a lab test but can make another section, you should contact the lab coordinator. Otherwise, if you can't, you should contact the class instructor as well
  3. If you are missing assignment deadlines, you should contact the class instructor
• Who do I contact if I have have accessibility concerns?

  1. First, you need to contact the accessibility office. If you don't register through them, you are not eligible for accessibility options. They can be found at https://www.uregina.ca/student/accessibility/
  2. You should then contact both your lab instructor and the class instructor to make sure both are aware of your accessibility needs

Assignments

• Where do I submit my assignments?

  1. All of the checkpoints for the lab are submitted in Replit Teams, under the "team project" for that weeks lab
  2. The lab tests are performed on URCourses and are automatically submitted
  3. The class assignments have different submission methods depending on what assignment it is. You should check the assignment description to be sure

• Who do I contact if I have an emergency and can't make the assignment deadline?

  You should contact the class instructor before the assignment deadline. If you wait until after the deadline, instructors may not be able to help you

Lab Tests

• What is the format of the lab test?

  • The lab tests are multiple choice questions
  • The questions will be based off a spreadsheet or database that you are provided, but is not handed in
  • The tests are open book. You may use notes or the internet
  • The tests have a time limit. Once the timer expires, the test will automatically close and save your answers
  • The tests automatically grade. Your mark will be automatically uploaded to URCourses
  • You may not use a calculator or electronic devices other than the computer you are using for the test

• Where do I go to perform the lab test?

  Lab tests are performed in-lab during the scheduled lab time. They can be found on URCourses. The password will be given out when it is time to do the test.

• What if I can't make my designated lab time for the test?

  If you can't make your designated lab time, contact help100@uregina.ca for a reschedule before the day of your test. Do not just try to sneak into another lab without permission or you may be disqualified from writing the test

• How can I prepare for the lab test?

  Each lab test has a set of practice tests you can attempt to prepare for the real one. They can be found on the lab pages, in their respective seminar notes.

• What can I bring to the lab tests?

  You may bring any notes you may have written and a pencil if you want to write during the test. You may also use the internet, but bear in mind you have limited time to complete the test. You may not use your cell phones or other communication devices

2. URCourses

Accessing URCourses

• How do I find my URCourses login information?

  If you have not already done so, you need to use the find username and password feature to activate your URCourses account.
  This page contains the information on how to set up your account or recover your lost password

• How do I change my URCourses password?

  Go to https://novapp.cc.uregina.ca/perl/chpass.pl to change your password

• How do I check my grades and feedback?

  All grades are posted on URCourses. To see them:

  1. Go into the module for the class you want to check
  2. Click the grades link on the left navigation menu
  

  Please note that it takes time to mark assignments considering the average class size of CS100 is over 200. If you don't see a mark, it may just be that they haven't been posted yet.

Submissions on URCourses

• Where do I go to submit my assignments on URCourses?

  When the assignment is due, the instructor will place a file submission box. Simply drag the file into the submission box to submit your assignment.

• How can I be sure my submission was successful?

  After you have dragged the file into the box and clicked submit, you can go back and click the link to your submission. This will open a copy of the file you submitted, which you can then check to make sure everything is in order

• Can I edit my submission?

  As long as it is before the assignment deadline, you can edit and resubmit your assignment as many times as you like

• What do I do if I missed the deadline?

  If you missed the deadline, you should contact the class instructor
  
  While you may not get full credit for the late submission, every assignment must be attempted in order to receive a passing grade, so you need to at least provide something

3. HTML

Writing HTML

• How do I get started?

  Writing HTML is a simply a matter of following the process. To get started:

  1. Open the file you want to put your HTML code on in a text editor, such as Replit if you are online or Notepad++ if you are offline
     • If the file already exists, find it in your files section. If you are offline, right click on it, and click edit with Notepad++ (if you have Notepad++, otherwise just click edit). Alternatively, you can start in your text editor, click open, and find the file from there
     • If the file does not already exist, you will need to create it. Create a new file and give it a name in the form "name.html". If offline, open Notepad, click "New", and then click "Save As". Remember to keep your file names as simple as possible, which means don't use capitals, spaces, or symbols in the name, as this will create problems later. Your file must be saved in the form name.html in order to function as a webpage. There can't be anything after the .html file type, or it won't work properly.
  2. From here, you simply need to decide what you want to add, and look up the HTML tag you will need to use to add it. For example, if you wanted to add a heading on the page, you would use the <h1> tag. A list of suggested tags can be found here. A quick Google search will probably help you find anything else you need
  3. Replit autosaves, but if you are working offline, hen you are finished adding something to your page, make sure you click save. Changes won't appear until the file is saved, and most editors don't autosave
  4. If the page is the index.html, you can view it by clicking the run button. To view other pages that aren't the index page on Replit, follow these instructions from the lab notes. If you are offline, you can then open the page to view your progress by double clicking it in your file explorer, or right clicking and selecting open
  5. From here, simply follow the the assignment instructions and add each point individually until you are done, then upload your file to the Replit if you were working offline.

• How do I put a title on my page?

  Despite the name, the <title> tag does not add a title to the body of the page itself, it changes the tab name.
  To actually add a visible title to your website, you need to use the header tags h. The h tag comes in 6 sizes, where 1 is the largest and 6 is the smallest. So to add a large title to your page, you would use <h1>, while adding a subheading you might use <h3>. Please note that the number determines the size, not the order of the headings.

• How do I use attributes?
  Attributes are used to provide additional information to an HTML tag to help it function. Some attributes are required, such as href when creating links, and some are optional, such as target. How you use the attribute depends on the tag it is affecting, but they all follow the same rules:

  • The attribute must be added within the html tag, such as <img src="" >
  • Attributes can be written in any order. It doesn't matter where they are placed, as long as they are in the HTML tag
  • Attributes follow the form name="value", where name is the name of the attribute you are using and value is what you want it to do, such as width="100". The quotation marks are required to ensure it works properly

Reviewing HTML

• How do I check my progress?

  It's important to routinely check you work as you go, as it will be a lot harder to find an error you made an hour ago than one you just made.
  
  If you are using Replit, you can check your index page by clicking "run." To view other pages that aren't the index page on Replit, follow these instructions from the lab notes.
  
  If you are offline, simply make sure you've pressed the save button, then go into your file explorer and double click the file you wish to view, which will open the file as a website.
  
  Remember that if you are changing your stylesheet, you still need to be opening the HTML page the stylesheet is linked to in order to see the changes, not the stylesheet

• How do I change the order of what is on my page?

  The order of elements on your HTML page is simply determined by the order you entered them in. For example, if you want a table at the top of your page, you simply write the HTML code for the table above all of the other elements.
  
  The only time this doesn't work is if you miss closing your tags. For example, if you miss the closing tag on your table, it may appear at the top or bottom of the page, depending on the browser, regardless of where you put the code.

• My page isn't updating

  If you are trying to check your work and your page isn't updating, either:

  • Make sure you are editing and checking the correct page. If you have multiple pages with similar names, you may not be working in the right place
  • You forgot to hit save. Go back to Notepad++ and make sure the save disk for that page is blue
  • You missed a closing bracket >. If you forget a bracket, it will take everything you write to be an attribute and won't show it
  • You forgot to close a quotation mark. If you miss a quotation mark, it will take everything you write to be an attribute value and won't show it
  • You forgot to close your title tag. If this happens, your entire website will become the tab name

  Many text editors, such as Notepad++, have useful tools for helping you troubleshoot HTML errors. You can click on a tag to see where you have placed its corresponding closing tag, if HTML tags are registering properly they change colour, attributes turn a different colour such as red, and the attribute values often another colour such as purple (so if your entire page turns purple, you missed a closing quotation mark)

• Why are all my quotation marks breaking?

  Browsers have a hard time recognizing most symbols, such as quotation marks, because of how characters are encoded. Long story short, you need to tell the browser that you are trying to use symbols
  
  The annoying way would be to write the encoding each time you want to use them, such as &quot. However, its far easy to just add the line
  
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  
  to your head tag. This will change how the characters are encoded and allow you to just use quotation marks directly

Lists

• Why is there extra indentation in my lists?

  This occurs when you mismatched your html tags. Typically, you have opened two sets of lists at once, which makes a list within a list, and adds indentation. Make sure you only have one tag that opens the list at the top, and one tag that closes the list at the bottom.

• Why is my ordered list not counting up?

  This occurs when you are mismatching your HTML tags. Most commonly, this happens when you try to use the <ol> tag to start each line of your list, instead of <li>. Remember that there is one ol tag at the top and closed at the bottom when making an ordered list

• How do I change the colours and symbols of my lists?

  Changing style elements must be done on the stylesheet, not the HTML page.

  1. If you have a stylesheet linked to the page, open the file in your editor
  2. If you don't already have a section for your lists, create a new rule, and then change elements as you desire. An example is

ol
{
list-style-type: lower-roman; // changes the symbol of the list
color: red; // changes the colour of the list items
}

Tables

• My table isn't showing up where I expect it to be

  There are a few reasons a table might not show up where you expect:

  1. The closing table tag is not in the right place, or not present at all. Make sure it as at the bottom of all of the table code
  2. The code is simply not in the right place. Copy and paste it to where you want it to be relative to the rest of the items on the page

• How do I add borders to my table?

  There are two ways to add borders to a table:

  1. The first way is to simply add the border attribute to your table, such as <table border="2" >
     This way will work, but it's not the proper way to do it and won't be worth marks for the stylesheet requirements
  2. The second way is to add border properties onto your stylesheet. If you don't already have a rule for tables on your stylesheet, then add something along the lines of:
table, th, td
{
border: 2px solid black;
}


     Where 2px can be any number and determines the thickness of the borders, solid can be several options that determine the type of line, and black can be any colour and determines the border colours

• How do I change the background colour of my table?

  To change the background colour of the entire table, simply add a table rule with a colour property on your stylesheet, such as
  
  table
{
background-color: red;
}

If you want to change individual cells or rows, you will need to use selectors.

• I have an extra space in my table and I don't know why

  This occurs when you have either an extra <td> tag or you missed the closing / on a td tag somewhere. To fix this, make sure that you have matched up all of your opening and closing td tags properly, that all of your td closing tags are properly formatted, and that you don't have any extra td tags floating around.

• Why is all the text in my table bold?

  There are two tags for cells:

  1. <th> is used for making table headings. You should only use these tags when you are making titles within the table
  2. <td> is used for regular table cells. You should primarily use this tag

  If your tags are all showing up bold, it is likely you used th tags for the entire table. Simply replace the cells you don't want to be bold with td tags

• I used rowspan and now everything is broken

  Remember that when you use rowspan, the spanning row will move down into the rows below it. This is a problem if there is already something there, as the spanning row will simply shove everything out of place to make room.
  
  In order to fix this, you need to make a new row below the spanning row for it to have space to move into without messing up the existing rows beneath it.

Images

• Does it matter what file type I save the image as?

  Generally, it doesn't matter what the image is saved as, as long as you match the type exactly when you address it on your page. Please note that PDFs are not images and will not work.
  The only time the image type matters is when you are trying to make an animation. Animated GIFs, and the frames being used to make them, must be saved as GIF types or else they will not work

• The image I saved isn't working

  There are a number of reasons this could happen:

  1. Make sure that the image has been saved into the same folder as the rest of your website files, or else they will not be able to find it. Also remember when you are uploading your HTML files you also need to upload your images
  2. Make sure that the src attribute names the image exactly, including both the name and file type, such as src="horse.png"
  3. Some image types don't work. Make sure the image is saved as a PNG, JPG, GIF, or other common image type.
  4. The image might not have saved properly. Make sure you can open it normally by double clicking on it to view it
  5. Make sure you used your quotation marks properly. A common mistake is forgetting to close the quotation marks after the image name

• Where can I get images from?

  Realistically, you can get images from anywhere on the internet. However, many images are copywritten, and just taking these images without permission is extremely problematic. Moreover, the marker seeing the same image on every assignment because it is the first result on on Google is not going to sit well.
  The best places to get images are:
  

  1. Flickr. Many of the pictures stored here are free use. https://www.flickr.com/
  2. AAAClipArt. Features free use, small cartoony arts. https://www.aaaclipart.com/
  3. Simply create your own. We don't judge work for artistic merit in this class, and if you just take your own pictures or draw them in paint, you won't have to worry about copyright

• How do I get rid of all the whitespace around my image/Why is my image tiny?
  1. If it is not already, open the picture you want to fix in MS paint or another drawing program
  2. Use the select tool to drag a box around the picture
  3. Move the picture into the top left corner of the canvas
  4. Click on the bottom right corner of the canvas and drag it up around the picture until there's minimal background space
• How do I make and add an animated GIF?

  Detailed instructions on how to create an animated GIF is found on the lab pages here You would add an animated gif the same way you would add any other picture, such as <img src="gifname.gif">

• How do I reduce the file size or change the size of my of my image?

  To reduce the file size of your pictures, simply:

  1. Edit the picture in paint
  2. Click the resize option
  
  
  3. Keep sizing down the picture until the file size is reasonable

Links

• How do I link to an external website?

  You link to an external website the same way you would link to a local one, except instead of a local name you use the web address of the page you want. Simply go to that website, copy the address, and paste it in the href attribute of your anchor tag.

• My links aren't taking me to the right page

  This happens when you did not set the href attribute properly.

  1. Go to the page that has the link on it
  2. Find the link and check the href attribute. Make sure it that the attribute matches the name of your page you are linking to exactly, including capitalization
  3. Refresh the starting page and then click to link to check if it has been fixed
  4. If this does not fix it, make sure that the page your are linking to is up to date and the right version, and then hit refresh

• My links aren't showing up

  If your links aren't showing up, chances are you forgot to leave some text to click on before closing the anchor tag.
  Make sure your anchor tag follows this format:
  
<a href="destination.html"> text to click on for link </a>
  
  Don't forget to save and refresh the page

• The page my links take me to is blank

  When this is happening, there is usually a problem with the destination page, not the link itself. To fix this:

  1. Make sure the file you are trying to link to isn't itself blank offline. If your destination is blank, then of course your link will take you to a blank page.
  See "troubleshooting errors" for help troubleshooting a blank page
  2. Make sure the href attribute of your anchor tag matches the name of the destination file exactly, including capitalization.

• How do I make a picture my link?

  When creating a link, anything that comes after the opening a tag becomes part of the link, including images. Making a link with a picture would look something like this:
  
  <a href="destination.html"> <img src="imagename.png"> </a>

Troubleshooting

• My entire page has gone blank

  There are a number of common culprits for this problem

  1. If you forget to close the <title> tag, the entire webpage will become part of the tab name. Double check that this tag is closed properly if it was used
  2. Check that all your quotation marks are closed properly. Leaving an attribute open will remove large parts, if not all of your page. Editors tend to change the colour of text in quotation marks, so if all the text on the page is this colour, this indicates a quotation mark problem.
  3. Double check that your background colour and font colour are not the same
  4. Check that you didn't forget the closing bracket > on any of your HTML tags. In Notepad++ some things may turn red that shouldn't be indicates this problem
  5. Check that you saved the page before you tried to view it

4. Stylesheets

Stylesheet basics

• What is a stylesheet and why should I use it?

  Cascading style sheets (CSS) are where you place the code to handle anything to do with the presentation of your page, such as colours and fonts. They allow you to keep the style of your page separate from your content, which will make updating one or the other easier. For example, if you did all the font colouring in your HTML tags, you would need to do it on every page, compared to just once on a stylesheet page. It is important to remember that a CSS page is NOT a website: you can't open it to look at it like you would an HTML page. Rather, you need to link it to your HTML pages, and then open them to see how the stylesheet has affected it.
  
  There are a number of reasons you should use an external stylesheet

  1. It's a requirement on the assignments
  2. You can create one and link it to all your pages to easily create a uniform appearance
  3. They are easier to add to and maintain than putting your style code on each page
  4. They are the industry standard for doing styling, and it's better to learn the proper way to do things

• How do I attach my stylesheet?

  To add your stylesheet to one of your HTML pages, you need to add the link tag at the top of the page. The link tag looks like this:
  
  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheetname.css">
  
  The only thing you will need to change is the href attribute to actually match the name of the stylesheet you are trying to add, such as default.css
  This attribute needs to match the name of the stylesheet exactly or it will not work. The stylesheet also needs to be in the same folder as the HTML pages.

• How do I edit my stylesheet?

  You edit your stylesheet the same way you edit an HTML page: Open the file and edit the parts you want on the page.
  
  See These lab notes for instructions on how to make changes to the stylesheet code itself

• Do I need to make a new stylesheet for every page?

  The whole point of using stylesheets is that they save on repetition: therefore you do not need to make a new one for every HTML page, you can simply link the same one to all of them.
  
  However, you may want to make multiple stylesheets if you want to have stylistic differences across your pages

• Will I lose marks for not using an external stylesheet?

  The assignment instructions clearly state that you are required to use an external stylesheet. Therefore, you will likely lose marks if you use a different method that we didn't teach you

• What does a "stylesheet property" mean?

  A stylesheet property is a single line on your stylesheet that alters something. Some examples would be background-color, list-style-type, or borders.
  For example:
  
  p <----rule
{ <----- start of declaration block
color: red; <------stylesheet property #1
font-family: script; <------- stylesheet property #2
} <----------- end of declaration block

  color would be the property name, and red would be the property value for property #1
  Variable use of properties would mean having more than 1 property for your rules.

Adding colours

• What colours are available to use?

  There are 147 named colours you can use, a list of which can be found here
  
  However, you can use almost any colour you like by using hexadecimal codes. To do this:

  1. Open google and search "hex colour picker". Google should have one built in that you can use.
  2. Put the slider on the colour you want and pick the shade from the box
  3. Once you have the colour you like, copy the value under HEX, including the #
  4. In place of the name of the colour, paste this value
  example:
  
  body {
background-color: #FEEDED
}


• How do I change the colour of my links?

  To change the colour of your links, you use a rule for the anchor tag a. If there is not already one on the stylesheet, you can add one. It would look something like this:
  
  a {
color: blue;
}

• How do I change the colour of specific words?

  If you want to change the colour of some words, but not the entire paragraph, you will need to use the <span> tag or class and id selectors.
  
  An example would be:
  On the HTML page:
  
  <p> the start of the paragraph <span class="classname"> the text that is changed </span> the rest of the paragraph </p>
  
  On the stylesheet:
  
  span.classname {
color: red;
}

Positioning

• How do I center a table?

  The easiest way to center your table is from the stylesheet. While there are multiple ways you can do it, the easiest is
  
  table{
margin:auto;
}

• How do I center text?

  There are a few ways to center text. The easiest way is to use the <center>tag to surround what you want centered.
  If you don't like the center justification, you can try using margins on the stylesheet instead. They would look something like:
  
  p{
margin-left:25%;
margin-right:25%;
}

• How do I indent?

  Adding this to your stylesheet will indent the first line of every paragraph:
  
  p{
text-indent:50px;
}

Selectors

• What are class and ID selectors and how do I use them?

  Classes are a way of creating groups of a tag that behave differently, such as being different colours. Ids change a single individual element. Overall, both are used to add variety to the elements of a page or to multiple pages without having to create multiple stylesheets.
  
  Both classes and Ids work in a similar manner. There are two parts to using them: naming them on the stylesheet and telling the HTML page what parts of the page should use them.
  
  

  Classes:

  On the stylesheet:
  
  body.classname{
background-color:pink;
}

Where .classname can be any name you like
  On the HTML page:
  
  <body class="classname">
  The class must be called in the same type of tag that the class was made for. The classname must match exactly with the one given on the stylesheet.

  Ids

  On the stylesheet:
  
  #idname{
color:blue;
}

Where the idname can be any name you like
  On the HTML page:
  
  <p id="idname">
  The Id can be called by any type of tag, but should only be called once on a page. The idname must match exactly with the one given on the stylesheet.

5. Creating References

Citing websites and books

• If I use my own words, do I still need a citation?

  Just rewording an idea doesn't make the idea yours. If you did any research or got the idea for your answer elsewhere, you are still expected to cite the original source.

• What citation format should I use?

  You can use whatever formal citation method you prefer, just make sure you use the same one consistently.

• Do I have to use RefWorks to do my citations?

  You are not required to use refworks, but there are few citation makers that provide you the formatted HTML code asides from it.

• What if I can't find an author or other details needed?

  If you can't find certain details such as the other, fill in as much as you can find, and put the author as "author unknown"

• What if I got my information from an informal source, such as Wikipedia?

  If you use an informal source in university, you should cite it using a footnote. However, since this is very difficult to do in HTML, it would be easier to look at the bottom of the page for any references listed and use them instead.

• Is it good enough to just include a link to the page?

  Absolutely not. This does not give any credit to the author at all and is not accepted as a formal citation in any academic setting.

• Do I need to cite code from the lab examples?

  You do not need to cite our example code, as it is intended to be used as a template for your work.

• Do I need to cite class powerpoints?

  If you are getting your answers from information from the class powerpoints, you should cite the class textbook they are derived from, not the powerpoints themselves. You can see the class textbook in the class syllabus.

Citing Images

• How do I cite an image?

  Make sure when you cite an image your are citing from the website the image actually belongs to, not the search result itself

  You cite an image like you would cite a website: look for the author, date posted, and the other usual information. Often you won't find all the information, so make do with what you can. For example, an MLA image citation would look like:

  Article or Web page Author's Last Name, First Name. "Image Title." Website Name, Day Month Year Published, URL.

  See this lab page for examples with APA

• If I draw or take my own pictures, do I still need to cite them?

  You do not need to formally cite your own work, but please make sure you include that you provided your own images on the references page or else the marker will have no choice but to assume they weren't cited.

JavaScript

• JavaScript Tutorial Page
• Where does JavaScript code go?
• How do I name my functions and IDs?
• What is a function call and where do I put them?
• What is a variable and how do I use it?
• How do I change text on the page?
• How do I change styles on the page, such as colours or sizes?

Excel

Getting Started

• Where do I go to get Excel?

  A free online version of Excel can be found at office.com
  You may need to create an account to access it.
  
  You can save your files for Excel onto a Microsoft Onedrive account to work with later.

• Can I use Excel alternatives?

  While there are Excel alternatives, such as OpenOffice Calc, since there is a free online version you can use instead we would not recommend using any alternatives for consistency.

Using Excel

• How do I copy/fill cells down a row/column?

  To make use of the fill function, click on the cell you want to start from, click on the green square in the corner of the cell, and drag it to the cells you want to fill to.

  
• How do I undo an error I made?

  You can either hit ctrl + z to undo your last change or hit undo in the top menu. If you make a mistake and change the original numbers on the test spreadsheet, you may need to load the spreadsheet again and copy the values back onto it.

• How do I do calculations in Excel?

  In order to do math or use a function on Excel, you must place an equal sign at the start. From there, you can use the operators + - * / or other functions to perform the calculation.

Excel Functions

• Where can I see a list of functions and how they work?

  Excel has a built in feature called the function builder, which has a list of all the functions in Excel, what they do, and what information you need to make them work. On the web version, it can be found in the top left corner of the insert tab. On the app it can be found on the top left corner of the functions tab.
  
  You could also search functions individually on the internet.

Absolute Addressing in Excel

• What does absolute addressing mean in Excel, and how does it work?

  An absolute address in Excel is performed by placing a $ in front of the row letter, column number, or both when you enter a formula. If you put it in front of the row, it will make it so any fill you do will not leave that row. If you put it in front of the column number it will do the same for the column. If you do both, whenever that formula or function is filled it will never change from referencing that cell.
  
  You could also search functions individually on the internet.

• When should I use absolute addresses?

  You should use absolute addresses when you don't want the column, row, or cell to change. For example, you may have a tax percentage that you want to use for many formulas but don't want to write more than once.