Course Announcement
Calling all students!
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Welcome back to class! Hopefully, the last assignment didn’t scare you off. Speaking of the last assignment, I’ll have grades posted sometime within the next day or so. Once I’m done grading, I’ll tag you all here again so we can go through the grading scheme together as well as how you all did. As always, let me know if you have questions or concerns and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Unit 2: Learning to Use Anchors
So, in the grander scheme of things, this feature may not be as important as others to learn but I’m teaching it to you with one main goal in mind. You need to learn the importance of paying attention to close details. Missing one semi-colon or using the wrong quotation mark can be the difference between your code working and it not working. After staring at strings of letters all day long, it’s just easy to make mistakes like that. If a piece of code isn’t working and you can’t figure out why, it’s either time to take a break or find another set of eyes to help you find the problem. Anchors are a good chance to learn this.
But what are anchors? Well, anchors create links within your post that allow you to link to a later portion of the same post. It comes in handy when constructing text-heavy threads that begin with a table of content. For a live demonstration of what it may look like, please click here and take a look.
Now, let’s try deconstructing the code involved so that we can use anchors for our own posts. With anchors, you need a starting place and a final destination. You start at the start, and through the use of the anchor (think of it like a map!), you end up at your destination. Did I lose any of you yet?
Typically, multiple starting places are arranged in a way to form a table of contents with each anchor or map taking you to a different heading or destination. The following code is an example of what a starting place may look like:<a href="#heading--example">Section 1</a>
The word “example” can be changed to whatever you want to name the anchor. It’s best to keep the names simple but descriptive enough that you can remember where it leads. It pairs up with the following code for the final destination:<h2 id="heading--example"><a href="#example">The Wonders of Magic</a></h2>
Again, notice how the word “example” is used here. If you change the word used in the starting place’s code, you have to make sure to also change it in the final destination so that the two match up and the code actually works. If you use multiple anchors, make sure each word is different. If you don’t quite understand what this means, that’s okay. It’ll become more clear as you practice more with anchors.
Now, it’s time for you all to give it a go! Here’s what I expect your submission to include:
- at least 3 anchors (each leading to a different section)
- table of contents (optional but a plus if you include it)
Direct reply to this message with your submission by August 24th 6pm PDT. Grades will be given shortly. If, at any point during this assignment you wish to ask a question, feel free to tag me and ask!