Quia - Frequently Asked Questions

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.)

Presentation:	view	download now

Brochure:	view	request

How long will my subscription be active?

A subscription to Quia lasts one year. When you subscribe to Quia, you will receive an e-mail confirmation which indicates your subscription expiration date. After subscribing, you can view your expiration date by logging in to your account and clicking Account at the top of the window.

How do I renew my subscription?

You can renew at any time, and extend your subscription by another full year. To renew, go to https://secure.quia.com/subscription/purchase and click Renew for 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 from the left menu. Click the Edit link for an item to open an editor where you can make changes. When you are finished, click Done to save your work.

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 website. There are two ways to do this.

The easiest way to make your activities available to others is to post them on your Profile page.

To add activities to your profile, log in and click Activities in the left menu to view your list of activities. Each activity has a profile icon () beside it. If the icon is gray, the activity is not on your profile. Conversely, a blue icon indicates that the activity is on your profile. Click any gray icon to add that activity to your profile. If you need to add several activities at one time, select the check box for each one, then click the Other Actions list and select Add to profile.

Once you've added an activity to your profile, you only need to give users the URL of your profile to access it.

The other way to make your activities available to others is to provide them with the direct URL to the activity, which Quia assigns to it after you create it. Quia's URLs look something like this:

http://www.quia.com/jg/7.html

or this:

http://www.quia.com/quiz/100001.html

Anyone can type your activity's 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, simply return to the Activities page where Quia lists all of your activity URLs, for easy reference. Quia can even e-mail the URL directly from the Activities page. To do so, 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.

Note: For quizzes, you can choose whether you want to require users to log 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 retrieve 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 can log in to complete the activity so that Quia can track the time spent on it. Without logging in, Quia does not track student activity. For more information, see How can I track activity results?

Can my students save a quiz they want to complete later?

Yes, you can set up your quiz to allow students to save their work and return to complete it later, by selecting the Save for later option in the Global Settings section on the Quiz Assignments and Settings page. Quia displays this page when you click Done after creating or editing a quiz. Alternately, you can access this page by clicking Quizzes in the left menu, then click the Assign link for the quiz you want to modify.

Please note that you can only select this option for quizzes that require students to log in, which you specify in the Access section located near the top of the Quiz Assignments and Settings page.

How do I add an image to my quizzes and activities?

As a Quia subscriber, you can upload images stored on your computer to Quia and add them to your activities and quizzes. You must upload the image you want to use first, before you can use it in your activities.

Note: Quia allows you to upload files in any format, but for compatibility with most browsers, we recommend using GIF, JPG, or PNG image format.

To upload an image, follow these steps:

Log in to your account and click Files in the left menu.
Click Upload.
Click the Browse button for a File field to locate the file on your computer.
Repeat as necessary to add all the files you want to upload, then click Ok.

You can add an image to a flashcards, matching, concentration, and word search activity type when you create it or by editing it. To do so, follow these steps:

In the activity editor, click the Add image and audio files button.
Enter the text of your term in the Text field.
Click Get image and navigate to the location of the file you want.
Select the file and click Ok.

Quia displays the file path in the Image file field.

You can add an image to a quiz when you create it or by editing it. To do so, follow these steps:

In the quiz editor, click the arrow in the Other options field for the question to expand it.
Click Get image and navigate to the location of the file you want.
Select the file and click Ok.

Quia displays the file path in the Image URL field.

To add images to all other activity types, you must first retrieve the path of the image and construct an HTML <IMG> tag that refers to it, then place it in the appropriate field. To do so, follow these steps:

Click Files in the left menu and locate the file, then note its path. For example, an image called "airplane.jpg" uploaded by someone with the username "pegasus" would have a path of "/files/quia/users/pegasus/airplane.jpg".
Construct the <IMG> tag using the following format:

<IMG SRC="/files/quia/users/pegasus/airplane.jpg">
Place the tag in any field of your activity or quiz editor that is marked with a blue plus symbol (+).
Please note that HTML you enter in these fields will only be interpreted if you select the Activate HTML option in the appropriate section of your activity editor or the Settings section of your quiz editor.

How do I add audio files to my quizzes and activities?

As a Quia subscriber, you can upload audio files stored on your computer to Quia and add them to your activities and quizzes. You must upload the audio file you want to use first, before you can use it in your activities.

Note: Quia allows you to upload audio files in any format, but you should make sure your students have the appropriate browser plug-in to play the files. The MP3 format is a good choice because of its broad compatibility and small file sizes.

To upload an audio file, follow these steps:

Click Files in the left menu.
Click Upload.
Click the Browse button for a File field to locate the file on your computer.
Repeat as necessary to add all the files you want to upload, then click Ok.

You can add an audio file to a flashcards, matching, concentration, and word search activity type when you create or edit it. To do so, follow these steps:

In the activity editor, click the Add image and audio files button.
Enter the text of your term in the Text field.
Click Get audio and navigate to the location of the file you want.
Select the file and click Ok.

Quia displays the file path in the Audio file field.

You can add an audio file to a quiz when you create or edit it. To do so, follow these steps:

In the quiz editor, click the arrow in the Other options field for the question to expand it.
Click Get audio and navigate to the location of the file you want.
Select the file and click Ok.

Quia displays the file path in the Audio URL field.

To add audio files to all other activity types, you must first retrieve the path of the file and construct an HTML <A HREF> tag that refers to it, then place it in the appropriate field. To do so, follow these steps:

Click Files in the left menu and locate the file, then note its path. For example, a file called "vocabulary.mp3" uploaded by someone with the username "pegasus" would have a path of "/files/quia/users/pegasus/vocabulary.mp3".
Construct the <A HREF> tag using the following format:

<A HREF="/files/quia/users/pegasus/vocabulary.mp3">Listen</a>

Quia will display the anchor text "Listen" as a link students can click to hear the audio file. You can enter any text as an anchor for your audio file.
Place the tag in any field of your activity or quiz editor that is marked with a blue plus symbol (+).
Please note that HTML you enter in these fields will only be interpreted if you select the Activate HTML option in the appropriate section of your activity editor or the Settings section of your quiz editor.

How do I link to a file from my quizzes and activities?

As a Quia subscriber, you can upload files stored on your computer to Quia and add them to your activities and quizzes. You must upload the file you want to use first, before you can use it in your activities.

To upload a file, follow these steps:

Click Files in the left menu.
Click Upload.
Click the Browse button for a File field to locate the file on your computer.
Repeat as necessary to add all the files you want to upload, then click Ok.

You can add a file to a quiz when you create or edit it. To do so, you must use the Advanced quiz editor and follow these steps:

In the quiz editor, go to the Insert list and select File.
Navigate to the location of the file you want.
Select the file and click Ok.

To add files to all other activity types, you must first retrieve the path of the file and construct an HTML <A HREF> tag that refers to it, then place it in the appropriate field. To do so, follow these steps:

Click Files in the left menu and locate the file, then note its path. For example, a file called "Assignments.doc" uploaded by someone with the username "pegasus" would have a path of "/files/quia/users/pegasus/Assignments.doc".
Construct the <A HREF> tag using the following format:

<A HREF="/files/quia/users/pegasus/Assignments.doc">Assignments</a>

Quia will display the anchor text "Assignments" as a link students can click to open the file. You can enter any text as an anchor for your file.
Place the tag in any field of your activity or quiz editor that is marked with a blue plus symbol (+).
Please note that HTML you enter in these fields will only be interpreted if you select the Activate HTML option in the appropriate section of your activity editor or the Settings section of your quiz editor.

How do I get my activity to appear on the Shared Activities area?

It's easy! Just complete our nomination form.

Can other people use my activity if it is not on the Shared Activities area or Top 50 list?

Yes. If you add your activities or quizzes to your profile, anyone can use them, regardless of whether they appear in the Top 50 list or Shared Activities area. To add activities and quizzes to your profile, click either Activities or Quizzes in the left menu, then locate the item you want to add and click the icon for it. Quia changes the color of the icon from gray to blue to indicate it is now on your profile. Be sure to give users the URL to your profile.

Alternately, you can share your activity with other people by giving them the activity's URL. If you have forgotten the URL, you can retrieve 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 website?

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 great benefits of using Quia is that you can reuse your activities and quizzes year after year.

Any activities you create 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 on the Activities page does not change every time you reload the page. It can take a short time for the display to "catch up" to the actual hit count. If you wait a minute or two and then reload, you should see the change.

If your activity or quiz has been added to the Shared Activities area, the number of hits will include the number of times someone viewed your activity from that page. Quia updates the number of hits from this page every few hours.

How do I edit my class?

Log in to your instructor account. If the class you want to edit is displayed on your profile, you can click the icon for it. Otherwise, click the Classes link in the left menu to open the Class Manager page, then click the Edit link for the appropriate class. Make your changes in the Class editor and click Save changes at the bottom of the page.

How do I assign new activities and quizzes to my class?

When you create new activities and quizzes, Quia does not automatically assign them to your class. You can decide on your own whether or not 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, then click the Edit link for the appropriate class.
In the Class editor, 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.
Click Save changes at the bottom of the page.

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.

To track an activity, you must first assign it to a class using the Assign link for it on the Activities page. Alternately, you can go to the Activities page and select the check boxes for multiple activities you want to assign, then click the Other Actions drop-down list and select Assign to class. In the Assign to class window, select the appropriate class.

Once you have assigned the activity, Quia will record 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 displaying at all, you may have forgotten 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 to the class editor and 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 research the problem.

How do I remove an activity from my class?

Click the Classes link in the left menu to see the list of your classes, then click the Edit link for the appropriate class to open the class editor. Scroll down to the My quizzes, activities, and surveys section and find the activity that you want to remove and click the Remove link for it. Click Save changes at the bottom of the page to save the change.

Please note that 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 can upload images, audio files, and other files stored on your computer to Quia and add them to your class page. You must upload the file you want to use first, before you can add it to your page.

To upload a file, follow these steps:

Click Files in the left menu.
Click Upload.
Click the Browse button for a File field to locate the file on your computer.
Repeat as necessary to add all the files you want to upload, then click Ok.

To add a file to your class page, follow these steps:

On the class page, place your 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.
Click Browse and navigate through the folder structure to the file.
Select the button next to the name of the file you want to insert.
Click OK.

In addition to images, you can also include links on your class page to images located 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 Internet Explorer:
Right-click the image and select Properties. Note the URL of the image and copy it.

If using Firefox:
Right-click on the image (or Control-click on a Mac) and select Copy image location.

If using Safari:
Press [CTRL] while clicking the image and select Copy image.

If using Chrome:
Right-click on the image (or Control-click on a Mac) and select Copy image URL.

Why is my class page hit counter stuck?

The count Quia displays will not change every time you reload the page. It can take a short time for the display to "catch up" to the actual hit count. If you wait a minute or two and then reload the page, you should see 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 more. 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. Any trial accounts, expired accounts, and 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 page and select the Enable profile check box.

To start a subscription so you can use profiles and appear in searches, 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 display of your profile, click Account in the banner at the top of the page 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 is 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, 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 an unsupported browser and are having this problem, you will need to use a supported browser to access Quia. We recommend that you download Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or Chrome.

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 see 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 in your browser, it 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 website.

The first thing you should try is clicking your browser's Reload or Refresh button. If this doesn't work, another way you can clear the browser memory 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 website 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 happens when 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, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or Chrome.

To enable Java in your browser do one of the following:

In Internet Explorer, select Tools -> Internet Options. Click the Advanced tab and select the appropriate check boxes.

In Firefox, select Tools -> Options. Click the Content tab and select the Enable JavaScript check box.

In Safari, select Safari -> Preferences. Click the Security tab and select the Enable Java and Enable JavaScript check boxes.

In Chrome, navigate to chrome://plugins and locate the plug-in for Java. If Java is disabled, enable it.

The activities don't work anymore. How can I get them to work again?

First, try clicking 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 happens when 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 the Content tab.
Click the AutoComplete button.
Clear all the check boxes.
Click Clear Forms, then click OK at the prompt.
Click Clear Passwords, then click OK at the prompt.
Click OK.
Click OK again.

To disable automatic completion in Firefox:

From the menu, select Tools, then Options.
Click the Privacy tab.
Click the Saved Forms sub-tab.
Clear the Save information I enter in forms and the Search Bar check box.
Click the Passwords sub-tab.
Clear the Remember passwords check box.
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 the AutoFill tab.
Clear all the check boxes.
Click OK.

To disable automatic completion in Chrome:

From the Tool menu, select Options.
Click the Personal Stuff tab.
Click the Autofill options button.
Clear the check box for the Enable Autofill to fill out web forms in a single click option, then click Close twice to exit out of the Options window.

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 can see the answers entered by the first class!

To disable the Internet Explorer AutoComplete feature:

From the menu, select Tools, then Internet Options.
Click the Content tab.
Click the AutoComplete button.
Clear all the check boxes.
Click Clear Forms then click OK at the prompt.
Click Clear Passwords then click OK at the prompt.
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 the Privacy tab.
Click the Saved Forms sub-tab.
Clear the Save information I enter in forms and the Search Bar check box.
Click the Passwords sub-tab.
Clear the Remember passwords check box.
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 the AutoFill tab.
Clear all the check boxes.
Click OK.

To disable automatic completion in Chrome:

From the Tool menu, select Options.
Click the Personal Stuff tab.
Click the Autofill options button.
Clear the check box for the Enable Autofill to fill out web forms in a single click option, then click Close twice to exit out of the Options window.

Why did the font on my pages change?

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 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 click 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, you can 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 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.

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.