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Overview | Create HTML | Create CSSl | Write Story | Prep for Entry Form | Entry Form

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Storyteller Project, Part A

Prepare to customize your entry form


Next, you'll find at least 10 important words or phrases in your story and highlight by them using your "highlight" class (instructions below). The result will look something like this:

Last Saturday, I rode my bike to Mercer Island with my friend Mike. It was fun. On the way, we went through a park and stopped to watch some girls playing lacrosse. Lacrosse is a fascinating game. Then we saw a man walking his cat! The weather wasn't bad: a few clouds, but not much wind. When we rode over the bridge, some seagulls flew overhead crying at us. The ride took 2 hours and we were exhausted by the time we got home.

[The highlighted terms need to include the words that fit those two special criteria described on the previous page:

1. One term needs to appear in at least two places, once with the first letter capitalized, and once all lower case

2. One term needs to refer to a person, animal, or people who are male/female/other depending upon the user's choice, and another term needs to change based on that being's gender (i.e. his/her/its/their, him/her/them/it or she/he/they/it]

To create the highlights, you'll use the <span> tag and a CSS  class. This little bit of CSS and HTML will give you the opportunity to experience the power of CSS in a small way. Note: The highlight class is already defined in your CSS file. If you want to make changes to how the highlighted words look, open the CSS file and add or change styles in the highlight class.

<span> tags do nothing by themselves (they don't change the appearance at all). But they're used frequently just as a way of identifying the text that you want to apply a CSS class to.

3. Put all of your chosen words inside <span> tags and give them the attribute class="highlight", like this:

<span class="highlight">word to highlight</span>

4. View your file in a browser to be sure it's looking the way you expect it to look (with all of your keywords highlighted).

5. In preparation for making a form for the user to enter words, list each of your chosen 10 (or more) words and describe each one in a word or a few words (example below).

bike: something you can ride

Mercer Island: City

Mike: friend's name

girls: category of people

Lacrosse: sport or game

a man: pick from a list (a man, a woman, a person, some people)

cat: animal

A few clouds, but not much wind: description of the weather today

seagulls: type of bird

2: number

exhausted: how you're feeling today

6. Go to the Catalyst WebQ and answer Questions 9-10.

Now that your story has been created and you've identified words to replace, you're ready to create your entry form. If you've never worked with HTML before, we'll provide the form for you.

 

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