# Can I edit or otherwise fix this login page? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 28, 2021, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-edit-or-otherwise-fix-this-login-page/951545 "2021-09-28T22:54:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-edit-or-otherwise-fix-this-login-page/951545/1 "2021-09-28T22:54:58Z")
In order to use the online textbook (at [my.hrw.com](http://my.hrw.com)), my students must, of course, log in. Makes sense. But in addition to asking for their username and password, the login page also asks them for what school they’re at. There’s a drop-down list they can select it from. The problem is, that drop-down list is literally (and I don’t know what word to use here, but I literally mean “literally”) over 8000 elements long. Even typing the first letter of the name doesn’t help much, because there are nearly a thousand entries starting with C. This is unwieldy, to say the least, so I’ve been trying to find ways to make things easier for my students. My first thought was to download a copy of the HTML file, edit out all but one element of each drop-down, save it, and then open that in a web browser. Unsurprisingly, though, the page contains relative URLs that prevent that from working. I could try to hunt down all of those and change them to absolute, but I’m not actually sure that would work, either (even if I found all of them, which I probably wouldnt’): A login process might well check to make sure that the referring page is from the same domain. But there’s got to be some way to make this usable. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-edit-or-otherwise-fix-this-login-page/951545/2 "2021-09-28T23:05:41Z")
You can narrow it to state it look likes, I broke the link to make it easier to read Like this: https:// [Holt McDougal Online](http://my.hrw.com/index.jsp?conflictUser=true&country=US&state=CO) But sadly the school doesn’t seem to be a passable parameter. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-edit-or-otherwise-fix-this-login-page/951545/3 "2021-09-28T23:18:40Z")
Ooh, actually it is! You need to dig out the code number for the district, but I’ve found that, and it seems to work. I thank you, and my students thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2021, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-edit-or-otherwise-fix-this-login-page/951545/4 "2021-09-29T05:25:19Z")
Those lists work ok if you type relatively quickly. Like if you type “north” you get to the “north” part of the list. If you type slowly you get the n schools, then the o schools, then the r schools etc. ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2021, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-edit-or-otherwise-fix-this-login-page/951545/5 "2021-09-29T19:10:13Z")
IF it’s using normal tools. More and more lately, I’m seeing web “designers” who insist on reinventing those wheels, don’t understand the paradigm, and so you cannot select all, or cannot select past the first letter. Give me strength. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2021, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-edit-or-otherwise-fix-this-login-page/951545/6 "2021-09-29T21:28:12Z")
Some of my students reported that typing multiple letters worked, while others said it didn’t. Odd, given that they’re all using lot-bought Chromebooks. But anyway, I have a method that works. And which might even be irrelevant, because I’m discovering that the content behind the login page sucks even worse than I’d thought. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-edit-or-otherwise-fix-this-login-page/951545/7 "2021-09-30T02:03:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Some of my students reported that typing multiple letters worked, while others said it didn’t. Probably relates to typing speed. You have to punch in each subsequent character in less than around a second. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-edit-or-otherwise-fix-this-login-page/951545/8 "2021-09-30T02:05:40Z")
Yeah, I just meant that this specific website works fine if you type quickly. ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-edit-or-otherwise-fix-this-login-page/951545/9 "2021-09-30T02:39:09Z")
Ah. I’d missed that the specific site was mentioned. And I’m so tired of these idiot sites that it triggered me! Apologies.