Frequently Asked Questions
This list will be updated as new questions are asked so check back periodically for new information. Click the questions below to jump to the answer section.
- What is Inheritance?
- What is the MARQUEE tag?
- What is CGI?
- What is Flash?
- What is JavaScript?
- What is a pixel?
- What is the SPAN tag?
- What is FTP?
- What is a URL?
- How do I use the ALT tag?
- What is SEO?
- What does SERPS mean?
Answers…
Q: What is Inheritance?
A: Unfortunately, in HTML, inheritance is not the money a rich uncle leaves you when he dies. Inheritance is the passing of properties from one element to the contents of other elements nested within the first. If you set the font family, size and color within a paragraph element and then have a span element containing a portion of the text within that paragraph, you do not need to specify the font family, size and color within the span element unless they are to be different. For example:
<p style=”font-family: comic sans ms; font-size: 16px; color: #ff0000″>This text is comic sans ms font, 16 pixels tall, and red <span style=”color: #009900″>while this text is the same font and size but is green</span>.</p>
The original font family and size are inherited by the text within the span element even though they are not specified.
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Q: What is the MARQUEE tag?
A: The marquee tag (or element) not an official HTML tag. It is a browser specific tag originally designed for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Other browsers did not originally support its use. The tag became so popular, however, that it is not supported by almost every browser. The marquee tag is used to make text scroll on the screen in various ways. Example:
<marque>This text scrolls across the screen from right to left.</marquee>
Note that the scrolling text is contained within the defining element, in this case a table cell, and is affected by that element’s attributes including margins and padding.
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Q: What is CGI?
A: CGI is an acronym for Common Gateway Interface and it applies to small scripts or program that are available on a server and called by code within a web document in order to handle various tasks and functions including the processing of form data from a web page. CGI scrips are mostly replaced these days by dynamic programming languages, such as PHP or ASP, which are embedded within the web document itself.
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Q: What is Flash?
A: According to Wikipedia, “Flash technology has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages; several software products, systems, and devices are able to create or display Flash. Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, various web page components, to integrate video into web pages, and more recently, to develop rich Internet applications.” In essence Flash, a commercial product originally developed by Macromedia and now owned by Adobe Systems, is a language and a set of programs or applications to both create and display active content in web pages and other visual communication devices.
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Q: What is JavaScript?
A: JavaScript (or javascript) is one of several programming (or scripting) languages that can be used in web documents to make them active. Javascript should not be confused with Java which is an entirely different language. An example of javascript in use is the question menu near the top of this page. When you pass your mouse pointer over the questions they change color. This is made possible with javascript.
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Q: What is a pixel?
A: A pixel (picture element) is the smallest piece that can be shown on the computer screen. Pixels are the dots, or tiny boxes (they are rectangular rather than round), that make up the images, text, etc. that you see on your computer screen. A pixel can only be one solid color, not multi-color or shaded.
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Q: What is the SPAN tag?
A: The span tag (or element) is a special tag developed for those instances when you need to change the properties of a section of code in a web document but there is no other suitable tag for the task. As its name suggest, the element spans a segment of content to impart additional properties to it not already include in the existing containing element. For example, I just used a span tag to italicize the word “spans” in the previous sentence. See another example of the use of the span element in the answer to the question, “What is Inheritence?”
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Q: What is FTP?
A: FTP is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol and is the method used to transfer (upload or download) files over the Internet. We typically use an FTP program for this purpose which allows, in Windows fashion, the visual representation of our computer and the computer to which we are uploading files, or from which we are downloading files.
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Q: What is a URL?
A: A URL (Universal Resource Locator) or URI (Universal Resource Indicator) is just another way of saying Internet address. A URL points to the location on the Internet of an object such as an HTML document, a graphic or photo image, a music or sound file, etc. A URL looks like this:
http://www.somedomain.com/somefolder/someobject.html
and consists of four parts:
1 – the protocol (http://)
2 – the domain (www.somedomain.com)
3 – the path (somefolder)
4 – the object name (someobject.html)
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Q: How do I use the ALT tag?
A: There actually is no ALT tag. There is an ALT attribute. The ALternate Text attribute belongs in the IMG (IMaGe) tag and specifies the text to display if the image file is not available. This text is also used by programs that aid the visually impaired, speaking it in place of the picture. You should always use the ALT attribute and you should always put text in there that relates to the image. Some versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser erroneously display the ALT text when you mouse over the image. It is the text contained in the TITLE attribute that should be displayed in this manner. Newer versions of MSIE have corrected this.
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Q: What is SEO?
A: SEO is an accronym for Search Engine Optimization and is the process of making a website meet the requirements in format, coding, keywords and content to get better placement in search engine returns. There is much discussion and controversy over what works and what is best because the search engine designers do not make their requirements public.
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Q: What does SERPS mean?
A: SERP is an accronym for Search Engine Results Page. SERPS (plural) would be multiple pages. A SERP is the list of results (links to web pages) returned by a search engine in response to a keyword query. Included in these results would typically be a list of the web page titles, usually the page title, a brief description often taken from the META description tag, and often showing which keywords are matched. There will also be a link to the web page. A single SERP could consist of one web page return or multiple web pages displayed on one or more return pages. All returns for a single query would be considered one SERP.
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