Trouble Shooting

What Happens If...

The text size appears too large or too small:

The size of the text may appear differently on different computers depending on how the text size is set in the browser being used. You can change the text size of the pages by clicking on "View" in the menu at the top of the web page.

For Netscape, click on "Increase Font".

For Explorer, click on "Text Size", then select your preference.

The pages are too big to fit on the monitor:

You can create more space on the monitor by hiding some of the menu bars. To do this click on "View" in the menu at the top of the web page. A list of different menus will appear with check marks next to the ones that are currently being shown. Click on any of the options to hide it. Doing so will make the top bars take up less space.

Alternatively, you may try setting your monitor to higher resolution. Changing the resolution means changing the amount of space each pixel takes up on your screen, thus higher resolution means that everything on the monitor looks smaller (without sacrificing quality). The procedure for changing resolution is slightly different for PC's and Macs.

For Macs with System 7 and higher:

  1. Go to the Apple icon on the far left top of the screen and click on the open apple icon.
  2. This will open a pull-down menu with many choices. Choose the Control Panel
  3. The Control panel will open another pull-down menu with many choices, choose the one named "Monitors" or "Monitors and Sounds".
  4. This should open up a new window and one region of this window is called "Resolution". Check and see if your resolution is at the highest setting. If not, then choose a higher setting. Dry Creek works most efficiently at 800*600 resolution or above. Sometimes choosing a higher setting limits the number of colors you can display - the color depth region of the window is right next to the resolution region so that you can check both simultaneously. Try to find the highest resolution while still being able to display thousands of colors.

For PCs with Windows 95 and higher:

  1. Go to the start menu at the bottom left. Choose the setting tab.
  2. This will open a pull-down menu with three choices. Choose the control panel icon.
  3. Your control panel will open up and you will see many choices. Click on the Display icon.
  4. The display icon will open another window, with many tabs running along the top. Click on the tab named "Settings".
  5. You will see different regions in the window. The one you want is called "Desktop Area". Use the knob to change the settings to higher resolution. Most monitors on PC's are able to display at least a thousand colors and have at least 800*600 resolution. This is a minimum for Dry Creek.

A page "breaks" when loading:

Several things could cause pages to not load correctly. If this happens, click on "Reload" or "Refresh" on the top menu bar. If it still does not work go up to the address on the top menu bar, click on it and hit return.

NOTE: Remind students that such errors can occur if they click on the icons before the pages completely finish loading.

You get an error message when using the On-line Journal:

The on-line journal used in the tour requires that the computers used can receive what the computer world calls a "cookie". This allows the journal responses to be stored in a file to later be retrieved. Most computers are set up to accept "cookies". However, if you get an error message when you enter information into the journal, or if the information does not appear in the journal when you hit "View", then you may need to change some settings on your computer, as shown below.

If you are using Netscape:

  1. Click on "Edit" in the menu bar at the top of the screen.
  2. Go down to "Preferences" and click.
  3. Under "Category" select "Advanced".
  4. In the "Cookie" Box, select either the option: "accept all cookies" or select "accept only cookies that get sent back to the originating server".
  5. Hit "OK" and you should be able to use the journal.

If you are using Explorer:

  1. Click on "Tools" in the menu bar at the top of the screen.
  2. Select "Internet Options"
  3. Click on the "Security" tab.
  4. Click on the "Custom Level" button.
  5. Scroll down to "Cookies".
  6. Select "enable" for the options:"Allow per session cookies (not stored)" and "allow cookies that are stored on your computer".
  7. Click on "OK", then click "Yes" when it asks you if you want to make the changes.

If you can not set your computers to accept "cookies", students can respond to journal questions on paper. All of the questions can be downloaded from the the Assessment Section.