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HOME - Bloglines Tips - Composer Tips - Writing Tips - Technology Tips |
Poll Daddy is a free service that allows you to add an interactive, dynamic web poll to your webpages. If you are comfortable with editing HTML, you can insert the poll into your webpage. Otherwise, you can simply create a link to the online poll. Either way, you can gather responses from your users and let them view the results in real time - all for free!
For this assignment, you will create a Poll Daddy poll and send it to me in the email. Hopefully, you will also want to add the poll to your webpage or include it in your blog - although I will leave that up to you!
Step 1. Create an account at PollDaddy.com by going to the PollDaddy Registration page. After you are registered, under the My Polls area of the website, you can click the Create Poll button to get started. (The My Polls area is also where you can come back and edit any existing polls you have created.)
Step 2. To add content to your poll, type the Question that people will be responding to, and then type the possible Answers. By default, PollDaddy creates spaces for five answers. If you want more than five possible answers, use the Create button. If you want fewer than five answers, you should delete the blanks when you are done by clicking on the Red X button next to the answer. You can rearrange the answers if you change your mind about what order you want to list them. When you are done, click the Next Step button at the bottom of the page.
Step 3. Choose a style from the various designs available. When you are done, click the Next Step button at the bottom of the page.
Step 4. Poll Daddy gives you several different options for adding the poll to a webpage or sending it in an email. The easiest method is the Direct Link Method, which shows you a simple address for your page (example: http://www.polldaddy.com/p.asp?p=25589 ). To complete this assignment, you need to send me this address in an email. If you are in the Myth-Folklore class, use the Subject Line Myth-Folklore Poll; if you are in Indian Epics, Indian Epics Poll; or for World Literature, World Lit Poll.
After you have sent me the email, you are done with the assignment! When you have sent in the email, you can do the Gradebook Declaration for Extra Credit.
Want more? If you want to use the poll on one of your webpages or in a blog post, here are two ways to do that - one easy, and one that is not so easy.
Easy way. If you want to add the poll to a webpage or to a blog post, you can use the http address just like you would in creating a link. All you have to do is type the link text ("Go to Online Poll"), and use the http address to create the link. Here's an example: Take the Technology Poll!
Not-so-easy way. If you want to actually display the poll on the webpage, you will need to be able to edit the HTML of the page. This is possible to do with Composer (but not with Bloglines). To add the poll, you will be inserting "Javascript" into the page.
To do this, open your Composer webpage, and type something like XXX where you want to insert the poll.
then click on the <HTML> Source button at the bottom of the page. It's a little bit scary-looking, but all you need to do is find the XXX that you used to mark the spot for your poll.
Carefully cut-and-paste the Javascript Method content from the Poll Daddy Page and put it where you had typed the XXX, deleting the XXX and replacing it with the mumbo-jumbo from the PollDaddy page.
Then click the Normal button at the bottom of the page to go back to your regular page view. When you preview the page or publish the page, you should see the poll displayed right there, without people having to click to go to the poll on a separate page.
Please don't get frustrated trying to edit the HTML. It's really not that hard, but if you have never done it before, it can be intimidating. If you'd like some help in learning how to edit HTML directly, you can read these 10 Steps to HTML Bliss.