You are welcome to use any of the exercises and instructional material that you find on this site. The following tips may be of help.

Reading on Screen -- Enlarging the Font

     In case you are not aware of it, most browsers have the ability to increase or decrease the size of the font on the screen.  (In Netscape, this option is under "View" on the pull-down menu.) 

Saving Pages as Text Documents

     You are welcome to save these pages as text (.txt) documents and then open them in your word processor. You will probably have to delete numerous blank spaces, but, if you do it right, you will have stripped all the html codes and graphics out of the text. You can then format, revise, and use the exercises in any way that you want (except commerically).
     To save a page as a text document:

1) from the File Menu, choose "Save As"
2.) change the "Save as Type" section to Plain Text (.txt)
3.) change the filename extension from html to txt
4) save the file.

     Because I do not want to give up the borders based on art, and because I prefer reading the narrower text screen, the text on most pages uses only 80% of the screen. This causes a wide left border when you print a page. If you want to use less paper and get more on a page, in Netscape:

1. From the "File" menu, choose "Edit page." [You will see dotted lines around the text area. These lines represent the "Table" in which the text is contained.]

2. Right click in the main table area. Choose "Table Properties." [A box will pop up. At the top it will say "Table Properties.]

3. On the three tabs underneath "Table Properties," make sure that "Table" is on top. If it is not, click on the "Table Tab." [You should now see "Table Width" near the middle of the box. It will probably be set at 80%.]

4. Change the "Table Width" to 100%.

5. Click on "OK" at the bottom of the "Table Properties" box. [The text should now cover the art on the left border.]

6. If you want to make the font smaller, so that more text will print on a page, choose "Select All" from the "Edit" menu.

7. If the Font Size box is showing on the top menu bar, click on it and choose the font size that you desire. [If it is not showing,  you can choose "Font Size" from the "Format Menu."

8. Click on "Print" in the top menu bar. [Or choose "Print" from the "File" menu.

     As far as I know, none of the current browsers support double or triple spacing. In creating double-spaced exercises, I have tried to make them such that you can simply print them out and use them. To do this, I have had to hit the "Enter" key at the end of each line. You may occasionally find that words run over, messing up the double spacing. Once you are in the "Edit" mode of Netscape, you are basically working with a word processor. You can thus use the "Enter," "Delete," and "Backspace" keys to fix any overlaps. (And, of course, you can also change the font size. I have used a 14 point font for most of the exercises because it produces transparencies that can be seen from the back of the room.)

Making Transparencies

    For most printers, you can now buy transparency sheets that you can print on. If you want to make color transparencies, they are a good idea, but they are still expensive. For black-and-white transparencies, I have found it best to simply print on paper and then use a xerox machine to make the transparency.

If You Can Project Web Pages on a Screen in Your Classroom

     Some of us are fortunate enough to have web access in our classrooms and to be able to project the image onto a large screen so that everyone in the room can see it. If your classroom has this capability, you may find that you do not need transparencies and an overhead projector. To analyze a passage in class, simply go to it on the web, and (in Netscape) select the "Edit Page" option from the "File" Menu. You can then simply use the keyboard to insert parentheses. You can identify subjects and verbs, etc., by selecting the text and changing either its font size or its color. You can also save the page to a disk, and open it during the next class so that you can begin right where you left off.

ALT TAB

      One of the "Tips" in using Windows that not everyone seems to know about is that you can use "ALT TAB" [Hold down the ALT key and hit "TAB."] to switch between open documents. I use this tip regularly.  For example, one can have the directions for finding prepositional phrases in one window, and an exercise in another. Or, I may have a model paper in one window, and one of the rubrics for grading that assignment in another.

     For some strange reason, the spaces between words randomly disappear when I edit pages with numerous size and color font changes. In some cases I have inserted a "spacer" graphic between words to keep them separate, but this causes other problems. At other times, I simply have to check and reinsert spaces in the text of the documents any time I edit them, and that happens frequently. The problem costs me a lot of time, and I do not always catch the mistakes. If missing spaces bother you, please compain to Netscape.

Click here for the directory of my backgrounds based on art.
[For educational use only]