|
Here you'll find answers to some of the most common questions
our users have.
About Quia
Subscriptions
Activities and Quizzes
Classes
Profile
Technical Problems
User Information
Languages and Math
Symbols
Privacy
Other Questions
What is Quia?
Quia is the only Web site that lets you do all of the
following (no other site or software product even comes close!):
- Create classes and track practice time and quiz results
- Create class Web pages for communicating with students
- Maintain an online schedule and calendar
- Upload images, audio clips, documents, and slideshows.
- Copy and modify any of Quia's more than three million
activities to suit your own needs
- Share your activities with students, friends, colleagues,
anyone in the world!
- Create a profile, and search for other instructors.
Quia gives you a personal URL (Web address) that you can use
to display your materials and share with anyone!
How is Quia pronounced?
Quia is pronounced KEY-ah. It rhymes with Maria.
Do you have any presentation materials?
Thank you for spreading the word about Quia! We have a
PowerPoint presentation that you can download, and we can also send you
brochures that you can hand out to your attendees. (Windows users: to
save the presentation to your hard drive, right-click and select Save
Target As.)
How long will my subscription be active?
A subscription to Quia lasts one year. When you subscribe to
Quia, your subscription expiration date will be included in your e-mail
confirmation. After subscribing, you can view your expiration date by
clicking Account at the top of your window.
How do I renew my subscription?
You may renew at any time to extend your subscription by
another full year. To renew, go to
https://secure.quia.com/subscription/purchase
and click Renew next to your subscription type.
How do I play activities?
Visit the Shared
Activities area for access to millions of activities created
by educators around the world. Or, visit the top activities
page to see what was most popular last month. You can even search
for activities by category, textbook, keyword, and more.
How do I edit my activities and quizzes?
Log in to
your instructor account. Quia organizes your activities and quizzes on
the Activities and Quizzes
pages, respectively, which you access using the left menu. Next to each
activity is a link labeled Edit. Click this link to
bring up an editing form that you can use to make changes to your
activity or quiz. When you are finished, make sure to click Done
to save changes.
How do I let other people use my activities?
Before others can use your activities or take your quizzes,
they need to be able to find them on the Quia Web site. After you
create a new activity or quiz, you will be given the URL (the Web site
address beginning with http://) where your material
resides. On Quia, URLs look something like this:
http://www.quia.com/jg/7.html
or this:
http://www.quia.com/quiz/100001.html
You can share your activity or quiz with someone simply by
telling that person the URL. Once someone knows the URL of your
activity or quiz, he or she can type that URL into a Web browser on any
computer with Internet access to use your activity.
You can share your activities with as many people as you want.
If you forget the URL of your Quia activity, don't worry. The Activities
page lists all of your activity URLs for easy reference. Quia can even
e-mail the URL directly from the Activities page -
just click the icon next to the title
of the activity and enter the e-mail addresses. Quia will send a
message with your activity URL to everyone you specified.
Another way to let people know about your activities is to add
the activity to your profile. Simply go to the Activities
page and click the profile icon for the
activity. The icon turns blue, which indicates that the activity is
displayed on your profile. To add multiple activities at once, select
the check boxes for each activity, then click the Other
Actions drop-down list and select Add to profile.
Note: Other people do not need to log in to
use your activities. Anyone can use your activities simply by typing in
the URL. For quizzes, you can choose whether to require users to be
logged in.
Do my students need to log in to my account before
they can use my activities?
No. Your students do not need to log in to Quia in order to
use your activities. All they need to do is type the URL of your
activity or quiz into their browsers. If you have forgotten the URL of
an activity, you can find it by going to the Activities page,
which you access from the left menu. Look under the URL beneath your
activity's title.
Students can also click activity links from any class
Web page or profile where you've added it, without logging in.
If you have
assigned an activity to a class, students will have their own accounts, and
they may log in to their own accounts to track the time spent on an assigned
activity. Without logging in, Quia does not track student activity. For more information, see How can I track activity results?
How do I add an image to my quizzes and activities?
As a Quia subscriber, you have the ability to upload images
and add them to your activities and quizzes. This is done in the File
Manager, which you access by clicking Files
in the left menu. Quia gives you the flexibility to
upload files in any format, but for compatibility with most browsers,
we recommend using GIF or JPG image format.
The matching, flashcards, concentration, and quiz templates
provide a Browse button that lets you select an
image from ones that you have previously uploaded.
To add images to all other activities, you must first identify
the path of the image and construct an HTML <IMG> tag
that refers to the image.
All images uploaded to the Quia Web site will begin with the
path "/files/quia/users/yourusername/" as listed in
your File Manager after the words Current
Folder. You must complete this path with your username and
the file name of your image. For example, the following
<IMG> tag refers to an image called "airplane.jpg"
uploaded by someone with the username "pegasus":
<IMG SRC="/files/quia/users/pegasus/airplane.jpg">
You can place this image tag in any field of your activity or
quiz editor that is marked with a blue plus sign (+). Blue plus signs (+) are displayed next to
fields in which you can enter HTML. HTML entered in these fields will
only be interpreted if the Activate HTML option is
checked in the settings section of your activity editor or the advanced
section of your quiz editor.
How do I add audio files to my quizzes and
activities?
As a Quia subscriber, you have the ability to upload audio
files and add them to your activities and quizzes. This is done in the File
Manager, which you access by clicking Files
in the left menu. Quia gives you the flexibility to upload files in any
format, but for compatibility with most browsers, we recommend using
MP3 or WAV audio format.
The matching, flashcards, concentration, and quiz templates
provide a Browse button that lets you select an
audio file from ones that you have previously uploaded.
To add audio files to all other activities, you must first
identify the path of the audio file and construct an HTML <A
HREF> tag that refers to it.
All audio files uploaded to the Quia Web site will begin with
the path "/files/quia/users/yourusername/" as listed
in your File Manager after the words Current
Folder. You must complete this path with your username and
the file name of your audio clip. For example, the following <A
HREF> tag refers to an audio file called "vocabulary.mp3"
uploaded by someone with the username "pegasus":
<A
HREF="/files/quia/users/pegasus/vocabulary.mp3">Listen</a>
The anchor text "Listen" will be provided as a link for your
students to click and listen to the audio file. You can enter any text
as an anchor for your audio files.
You can place an audio link in any field of your activity or
quiz editor that is marked with a blue plus sign (+). Blue plus signs (+) are displayed next to
fields in which you can enter HTML. HTML entered in these fields will
only be interpreted if the Activate HTML
option is checked in the settings section of your activity editor or
the advanced section of your quiz editor.
How do I link to a file from my quizzes and
activities?
As a Quia subscriber, you have the ability to upload files and
link to them from activities and quizzes. First, you must upload your
files in the File Manager, which
you access by clicking Files in
the left menu. Then, you must identify the path of
the file and construct an <A HREF> tag that refers to the
file.
All files uploaded to the Quia Web site will begin with the
path "/files/quia/users/yourusername/" as listed in
your File Manager after the words Current
Folder. You must complete this path with the name of your
file. For example, the following <A HREF> tag refers to a
file called "Assignments.doc" uploaded by someone with the username
"pegasus":
<A HREF="/files/quia/users/pegasus/Assignments.doc">View
Assignments</a>
In this example, the anchor text "View Assignments" will be
provided as a link for students to click and open the file. You can
enter any text as an anchor for your files.
You can place this file tag in any field of your activity or
quiz editor that is marked with a blue plus sign (+). Blue plus signs (+) are displayed next to
fields in which you can enter HTML. HTML entered in these fields will
only be interpreted if the Activate HTML
option is checked in the settings section of your activity editor or
the advanced section of your quiz editor.
How do I get my activity to appear on the Shared
Activities area?
Simply fill out our nomination
form.
Can other people use my activity if it is not on the
Shared Activities area or Top 50 list?
Yes. Anyone can use your activities or take your quizzes
regardless of whether they appear in the Top 50 list or Shared Activities area. To
share your activity with other people, you just need to let them know
the URL. If you have forgotten the URL of an activity, you can find it
by going to the Activities page and looking
directly under the title of your activity.
I forgot the address of my activity. How do I get to
it?
It's easy to get the address (URL) of any activity that you
have created. Just go to the Activities page and
look directly under the title of your activity.
How long will my activities and quizzes remain on
the Quia Web site?
If you are a Quia subscriber, any activities that you have
created while subscribed will remain on Quia indefinitely, unless you
delete them. One of the benefits of using Quia is that you can reuse
your activities and quizzes year after year.
Any activities created during a 30-day trial will be deleted
when the trial expires. However, if you subscribe within 30 days after
your trial account expires, your trial activities will be restored for
you.
Why is my activity or quiz hit counter stuck?
The count that appears on the Activities
page will not change every time you reload the page. It needs a little
while to "catch up" to the actual hit count. If you wait a minute or
two and then reload, you should be able to observe the change.
If your activity or quiz has been added to the to the
Shared Activities area,
the number of hits will include the number of times your activity was
viewed from that page. The number of hits is updated every few hours.
How do I edit my class?
Log in to your instructor account. Click the Classes
link in the left menu to open the Class Manager page. Click
the Edit link next to the class you want to make
changes to. The class editor will appear, allowing you to make changes.
When you are done, be sure to click Save changes at
the bottom of the screen.
How do I assign new activities and quizzes to my
class?
When you create new activities and quizzes, they do not
automatically get
assigned to your class. You get to decide on your own whether you want
to assign them and, if so, which classes you want to assign them to. To
assign activities and quizzes to your class, follow these steps:
- Go to the Quia
Web home page and log in to your instructor account.
- Click the Classes
link in the left menu to display the list of your classes, and then
click the Edit link next to the appropriate class.
- When the class editor appears, scroll down
to My quizzes, activities, and surveys.
- Click the Assign a quiz,
activity, or survey link.
- Select your activity or quiz from the
drop-down
list and click Add to class.
- When you are done adding activities and
quizzes, be
sure to click Save changes at the bottom of the
screen.
How can I track activity results?
Quia allows you to track the amount of time students practice
activities. You can use this
data to review which activities students love, who's been spending a
lot of time practicing, and the impact of your activities on student
performance.
First, you must assign the activities you want to track to a
class using the Assign link next to each activity
on the Activities page. Alternately, you can go to
the Activities page and select the check boxes for
all activities to be assigned, then click the Other Actions
drop-down list and select Assign to class. In the Assign
to class
module that appears, select the class who should see this
assignment.
Once you are done, Quia will log the practice time of students
in that
class who log in and practice the activity, in the gradebook. Note that
it may take several minutes for activity
statistics to display on this page after a student plays the activity.
Why is my class page blank?
If your class page is not showing up at all, then it's
possible that you forgot to close one of the HTML tags in your message
to students. Or, there could be something in your message that looks
like an HTML tag but isn't. For example, some <, >, or
& symbols can be interpreted as HTML tags. If any tags such as
<TABLE> or <A HREF> are left unclosed, then
the page behavior varies among browsers. Some browsers may display the
page correctly, while others may not.
To fix this problem, go back to the class editor and check to
make sure that all HTML tags are closed appropriately with a closing
tag. For example every <TABLE> needs to have a
</TABLE>.
If, after trying these suggestions, your page is still not
displaying, contact our support desk
and we'll look into the problem.
How do I remove an activity from my class?
Click the Classes link in the left menu to
display the list of your classes. Then, click the Edit
link next to the appropriate class. This will bring up the class
editor. Scroll down to the My quizzes, activities, and surveys
section and find the activity that you want to remove. Click the Remove
link for that activity. Then, save your page by clicking Save
changes at the bottom of the screen.
Don't worry, removing an activity from your class doesn't
delete the activity itself, and you can always reassign the activity to
your class later.
How do I add images, audio files, and other files to
my class page?
As a Quia subscriber, you have the ability to upload images,
audio files, and other files and add them to your class page. First,
upload your files in the File Manager, which you
access by clicking Files in the left menu. Then, to
insert a file into your class page, follow these steps:
- Place the cursor in the message text box
where you want to insert the file.
- Select the type of file you want to add
from the Insert list below the Message
text box.
- Once you have selected the type of file
you want to insert, click Browse.
- Navigate through the folder structure to
find the file. Your parent folder is shown in the dark bar after the
words Current folder. As you move through
subfolders, your current folder will always be shown here.
- Select the button next to the name of the
file you want to insert.
- Click OK.
Besides uploading images to Quia, you can also include links
on your class page to images that appear elsewhere on the Web. To do
this, you must first identify a URL that points to the image that you
want to display. There are different ways of finding the URL depending
on the browser you are using.
If using Microsoft Internet Explorer:
Right-click the image and select Properties. A
Properties screen should appear, and next to Address (URL)
is the URL required for the image. Copy that URL.
If using Firefox:
Right-click on the image (or Control-click on a Mac) and select Copy
image location.
If using Safari:
Control-click on the image and select Copy image.
Why is my class page hit counter stuck?
The count that appears on your screen will not change every
time you reload the page. It needs a little while to "catch up" to the
actual hit count. If you wait a minute or two and then reload, you
should be able to observe the change.
What is my profile? What's the difference between profiles
and class Web pages?
Your profile is a place where you can display
information about yourself, link to your classes, quizzes, activities,
surveys, and more. It provides one personalized link you can share with
students, parents, and colleagues for easy access to all the materials
you've created. Students and other teachers can even find the page by
searching for your name—so they'll never have to remember a
URL again.
Read more
on the benefits of using your profile.
You'll only ever have one profile for your Quia
account, and it includes everything you want to
display—current
activities, future assignments, surveys for other educators, material
from expired classes, and so on. It has links to your class Web pages,
which are specific to a certain subset (class) of students. A class Web
page is where students go to find activities and quizzes that are
assigned, or class-specific messages, deadlines, and so on.
Why don't I show up in the "Find a teacher" search results?
The "Find a teacher" feature is designed to help
educators develop and maintain collaborative connections with other
educators. Thus, only active educational subscribers show up here. All
trial accounts, all expired accounts, and all corporate users (active
or expired) will not appear in search results. Active educational
subscribers who have hidden their profiles will also not appear in
search results.
To enable your profile for use, click Account
in the banner at the top of the window and select the Enable
profile check box.
To start a subscription so you can use profiles and searching,
click here.
When I try to go to my profile URL, why does it say "Invalid
URL"?
You may have hidden your profile. To enable displaying your
profile,
click Account in the banner at the top of the
window and select the Enable profile check box.
My profile is empty right now; how can I fill it up with
everything I've created on Quia?
Take a look at the My Profile icon in the
left
menu right now. Whenever you see that icon, there's an activity, quiz,
class, or survey that can be added to your profile.
If
the icon appears gray, the corresponding item is not yet displayed on
your profile, so click the icon to turn it blue—this means
the item is
now displayed on your profile.
You will find these icons on your Activities,
Quizzes, Classes, and Surveys
pages.
If
you want to do a mass action, such as adding all of your activities at
once, select all of the check boxes at the very right of the list of
activities, then click the Other Actions drop-down
list and select Add to profile.
Why can't I log in?
If you have been trying to log in, but your browser keeps
looping back to the login page, it means that your browser is not
accepting cookies. You can fix this by changing a configuration setting
in your browser.
Click here for
step-by-step instructions. If you are using the AOL browser and are
having this problem, you will need to use another browser to access
Quia. We recommend that you download
Internet
Explorer, Firefox,
or Safari.
If you are still unable to log in after setting your browser
to accept cookies, contact us.
We'll try our best to help.
If, after logging in, you are shown a list of activities that
belong to someone else, that person's activity page may have been
incorrectly saved by either your browser or your proxy server. See this link for possible solutions.
I forgot my password. What can I
do?
I forgot my username. What can I
do?
I just made changes to an activity or class. Why
aren't they showing up?
When you load an activity, your browser stores the activity in
memory. Some browsers are unable to tell when an activity has changed,
so they redisplay the activity from memory instead of loading a new
version from the Quia Web site. The first thing you should try is
pressing your browser's Reload or Refresh
button. If this doesn't work, another solution is to quit and restart
your browser before revisiting the activity page. A third solution is
to clear out your browser's cache, thereby forcing it to reload the
activity.
Click here for step-by-step
directions on how to clear your browser's cache.
If, after trying these three steps, you still cannot see your
changes, it may be because your school's network proxy server is caching
(saving copies of) Quia's Web pages. In this particular case, it may
have cached an outdated version of your activity page. Instead of
fetching your latest activity page from Quia, it is just returning you
its saved copy.
There are a few ways to fix this problem. Most pages on the
Quia Web site tell proxy servers not to save them
in a cache. If your proxy server still saves such pages, that may
indicate a problem with the proxy server itself. Contact your technical
support staff or ISP and report the problem; they may be willing to
upgrade or fix the proxy server. If not, they may be willing to at
least turn off caching for all pages on www.quia.com.
As an intermediate solution or a last resort, you can use the
following trick. Suppose that the page you are trying to load has this
URL:
http://www.quia.com/jg/1000.html
Your proxy server recognizes that URL and returns a cached
page. However, if, instead, you enter the URL
http://www.quia.com/jg/1000.html?tiger
(where "tiger" is any word of your choosing) your proxy server
will
interpret it as a brand-new URL and will be forced to fetch the page
directly from www.quia.com. To Quia, however, either URL means the same
thing, so you should still get the page that you want. If you use this
trick, you must be sure to vary the word that you enter after the
question mark, otherwise, you may once again start receiving cached
pages. Also, do not try this trick if the URL you
are trying to access already contains a question mark.
For more information about this type of problem, please
contact our
support desk.
Why is an activity I just created not showing up on
the Activities page?
This is happening because your school's network proxy server
is caching (saving copies of) Quia's Web pages. In
this particular case, it has cached an outdated version of the page. To
fix this problem, you'll need to contact your school's technical
support staff and tell them to turn off caching for all pages from
www.quia.com.
For more information about this type of problem, please
contact our
support desk.
Why are the activities not appearing?
First, make sure that you are using a Java-enabled browser. If
you are using Internet Explorer, it should be version 6 or higher. All
versions of Firefox and Safari are Java-enabled. If your browser
version is correct, make sure that Java is enabled:
In Internet Explorer, select Tools -> Internet Options
from the menu.
Click the Advanced tab and select the "Use JRE"
check box.
In Firefox, select Tools -> Options from the menu.
Click the Content
tab and select the "Enable Java" and "Enable Java Script" check boxes.
In Safari, select Safari -> Preferences from the menu.
Click the Security
tab and select the "Enable Java" and "Enable Java Script" check boxes.
The activities don't work anymore. How can I get
them to work again?
First, try pressing your browser's Reload
or Refresh button. If this doesn't work, try
clearing out your browser's cache, which will force your browser to
reload the activities.
Click here for step-by-step
directions on how to clear your browser's cache. After you
clear your browser's cache, you should quit and restart your browser.
When I log in, another teacher's page appears. Why
is this happening?
This is happening because your school's network proxy server
is caching (saving copies of) Quia's Web pages. In
this particular case, it has cached the page belonging to another
teacher in your school or district. Instead of fetching your
personal page from Quia, it is just returning you its saved copy (which
happens to be another teacher's). To fix this problem, you'll need to
contact your school's technical support staff and tell them to turn off
caching for all pages from www.quia.com.
For more information about this type of problem, please
contact our
support desk.
What are the issues relating to network firewalls?
Some schools and companies use a type of firewall that is
incompatible with Quia's Java applets. For more information about this
problem,
click
here (external link).
When I type my username into the login page, my
password automatically appears. How can I stop this?
Some browsers automatically remember passwords for you when
you type in your username. This can obviously cause a security problem
when other people use your computer. In that case, we recommend that
you disable this feature.
To disable the Internet Explorer AutoComplete feature:
- From the menu, select Tools,
then Internet Options.
- Click on the Content
tab.
- Click on the AutoComplete
button.
- Uncheck all the check boxes.
- Click on Clear Forms
and press OK when the box appears.
- Click on Clear Passwords
and press OK when the box appears.
- Click OK.
- Click OK again.
To disable automatic completion in Firefox:
- From the menu, select Tools,
then Options.
- Click on the Privacy
tab.
- Click on the Saved Forms
sub-tab.
- Uncheck "Save information I enter in forms
and the Search Bar."
- Click on the Passwords
sub-tab.
- Uncheck "Remember passwords."
- Click View saved passwords
to see what passwords have been saved.
- Select any passwords you do not wish to be
automatically completed, and click "Remove."
- Click Close.
- Click OK to close the
options window.
To disable automatic completion in Safari:
- From the menu, select Safari,
then Preferences.
- Click on the AutoFill
tab.
- Uncheck all the check boxes.
- Click OK.
Some students are able to see the answers entered
previously by other students. How do I stop this?
When you type into a text field, some browsers'
auto-completion feature sometimes presents a drop-down list of values
that have been previously entered into that text field. This can cause
problems when, for example, two different classes use the same
computers for the same Quia activities. The second class gets to see
the answers entered by the first class!
To disable the Internet Explorer AutoComplete feature:
- From the menu, select Tools,
then Internet Options.
- Click on the Content
tab.
- Click on the AutoComplete
button.
- Uncheck all the check boxes.
- Click on Clear Forms
and press OK when the box appears.
- Click on Clear Passwords
and press OK when the box appears.
- Click OK.
- Click OK again.
To disable automatic completion in Firefox:
- From the menu, select Tools,
then Options. (On a Mac, select Firefox
-> Preferences.)
- Click on the Privacy
tab.
- Click on the Saved Forms
sub-tab.
- Uncheck "Save information I enter in forms
and the Search Bar."
- Click on the Passwords
sub-tab.
- Uncheck "Remember passwords."
- Click View saved passwords
to see what passwords have been saved.
- Select any passwords you do not wish to be
automatically completed, and click "Remove."
- Click Close.
- Click OK to close the
options window.
To disable automatic completion in Safari:
- From the menu, select Safari,
then Preferences.
- Click on the AutoFill
tab.
- Uncheck all the check boxes.
- Click OK.
Why did the font on my pages change?
In order to support Chinese pinyin characters, your browser
must display Quia Web pages in a
different font. If you enable Chinese pinyin language tools on the Account
information page,
the display font will change on all of your Quia pages. To revert to
your activities' previous appearance,
remove pinyin
as your selection on the Account information page.
Quia will no longer display the pinyin accent bar, and some browsers
will no longer display pinyin characters correctly.
How much bandwidth do I need in order to use Quia?
Quia strives to work well with as little bandwidth as
possible. However, for optimal performance, we recommend that you allow
30-80 Kbps (kilobits per second) of bandwidth for each simultaneous
Quia user at your site.
To determine how much unused bandwidth is currently available
to you, you can use the following bandwidth test tool:
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
Note that this tool determines how much bandwidth is available
at the current time, and does not account for how others at your site
may use the Internet at various times during the day. Therefore, you
should always check with your network administrator to determine the
amount of bandwidth you can expect to be available during a given time
period.
I forgot my password. What can I do?
Don't worry. Go to the password
request form. A new password will be automatically sent to
the e-mail address you specified during registration.
I forgot my username. What can I do?
Don't worry. Go to the username
request form. Your username will be automatically sent to the
e-mail address specified in your profile.
I want to change my password. What can I do?
Go to the change
password form. You will be prompted to log in if you have not
already done so.
How do I change my name and/or e-mail address?
Click on the Account link at the top of
your window and make your changes. After changing
your information, your activity pages will immediately display your
updated information. If they don't, you may need to press your
browser's Reload or Refresh
button.
How do I create accented characters?
Quia provides an easy way for you to create the diacritics
found in languages such as Spanish, French, Italian, Latin, German, and
other languages.
Click the Account link at the top of your
window, and select your language in the Enable Language Tools
drop-down list. Once you select a language, Quia displays a convenient
accent bar the next time you create or edit an activity. Note that you
can choose the Combined languages
option instead of just one language. This gives you a keypad that
includes accented characters for French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese,
and German, which is useful if you teach multiple languages.
If your language is not available, an alternate approach is to
use the Windows Character Map utility, which you
access by selecting Start Menu -> Programs ->
Accessories -> System Tools ->Character Map. In
the Font drop-down list, select System.
You will see a chart of available characters. Locate the accented
character you need and double-click it. When you see it in the Characters
to copy field, click Copy. Return
to Quia, place your cursor in the appropriate location in your text,
and press CTRL+v to paste the character into that
spot.
How do I create activities using Asian and
non-Western-European characters?
Most operating systems and browsers now have Asian language
support built in.
To verify that your browser supports Asian languages, go to the language test
page.
If the your browser does not display the characters properly
on the language test page, you must enable the appropriate language
support for your operating system to be able to view Asian
and non-Western-European characters in Quia activities. If you are
using Windows, follow the instructions found here
to enable "International Support." If you are using Mac OS, follow the
instructions found here
to enable the appropriate language support for your desired language.
When working with non-Western languages, you must set your
browser to use
Unicode or UTF-8 encoding, to ensure that Quia can accurately process
and store your
data. Once you've done this, it's a good idea to create a small test
activity, to verify that Quia can display your
character data correctly.
For more information, or to suggest a correction, please
contact our support desk.
Why can't I view Asian and non-Western-European
characters in some of my activities?
If Quia does not display Asian or non-Western-European
characters correctly
in your activities, you should first verify that you can correctly view
Quia's language
test page. If not, make sure your browser is using the
correct character encoding.
In Internet Explorer or Firefox, you can see the current Web
page's character encoding by selecting
View->Encoding or View->Character
encoding. The encoding should be Unicode
or UTF8. If your browser is using some other
encoding, such as Western European or ISO-8859-1,
change it to Unicode/UTF8 and refresh the language test page.
If you still cannot
view your desired language on the
language test page,
you may need further browser setup, as described below.
The following instructions apply to the Internet Explorer and
Firefox Web browsers.
- Select View->Encoding.
Note: Instead of Encoding,
your browser may use the term Character Set or Character
Encoding.
- Select your language
from the list. You may need to select
More... to locate your language.
Your browser prompts you to download a language pack.
- Download the language pack, then select View->Encoding->Unicode
(UTF-8).
Return to the language
test page and verify that you can view the characters on this
page. You may need to refresh the page first. If you still cannot view
the desired characters, please contact our support
desk.
To correctly view the
matching, flashcards, concentration,
mini quizzes, and columns
activities, you may need to download the Java plug-in
compatible with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. After you
install this plug-in, you must restart your computer.
Still not working? If you
can see your desired language on the
language test page
and you have installed the Java
plug-in,
but you still cannot view your language in the activity, do the
following:
- Locate some text of your desired language, either on the
language
test page or in some other document.
- Select this text, and press CTRL+c to
copy
it to your clipboard.
- Go to our font test page.
- Press CTRL+v to paste your text into
the form.
- Click
Submit your test.
You should now see a list of the fonts on your computer. Next to
each font is the text you entered, displayed in that font. In some
cases, the text displays as invalid characters because the font is not
capable of displaying the text.
- Scroll through this list to find a font that correctly
displays the text that you entered and note the name of it. You may
need to click Next Page several times.
- Write to our support desk,
and provide the following information:
- the language you are using,
- the name of the font that works
with your language, and
- the URL of an activity containing
text from your language.
For more information about this type of problem, or to suggest
a
correction, please contact our support
desk.
How does support for Chinese Pinyin work?
To support Chinese pinyin characters, your browser must
display Quia Web pages in a different font. When you enable Chinese
pinyin language tools on the Account information
page, your browser will change the display font on all of your Quia
pages. Your browser can display pinyin characters
correctly in all Quia activities except Word Search.
While you can remove pinyin as your selection on the Account
information page at any time by reverting to the original
font and appearance of your pages, some browsers will no longer display
pinyin correctly if you do, and Quia will no longer display the accent
bar allowing students to enter
pinyin characters. In addition, Quia will not display results
containing pinyin characters correctly if you do not select pinyin on
your Account information page.
Even when you do select pinyin on your Account
information page, your browser may not display pinyin
characters correctly in window titles and bookmark lists. This setting
is controlled by your operating system and
is not related to Quia's
pinyin support. For similar reasons, Internet Explorer 5 for Mac does
not display pinyin characters correctly.
If you have any other problems with the display of pinyin,
please contact the support desk.
What is Quia's privacy policy?
To view Quia's complete privacy policy, click here.
I use Quia from a shared computer. Is there any way
to prevent other people from accessing my account?
Yes. When you are done using Quia, you should log out. Most
Quia pages (including this one) have a blue bar at the top, on the
right side of which is either a Log In or Log
Out link. To log out, simply click on the Log Out
link. If there is no Log Out link, don't worry.
You're already logged out.
Can I link to Quia from my Web page?
Yes. Many people add links from their personal or school Web
pages to activities they have created at Quia. There is no need to ask
for permission before linking to Quia.
My question isn't in this list. How do I get help?
Contact our support desk.
We'll do our best to find a solution for you.
|