Instructional Design &
Web Development
Services
Web Words
A - B -
C - D - E - F -
G - H - I -
J - K - L - M
N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W -
X - Y - Z
Acrobat Reader: A
popular program made by Adobe for the purpose of viewing
PDF documents. The reader can be an application on your computer
or a plug-in for your browser. The plug-in will allow you
to view documents from within your browser.
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Browser: A program
that is used to view or "browse" pages on the Web. Common
browsers are Netscape Communicator and Internet Explorer.
Browsers allow you to view HTML documents over the Web and
play audio, video, and java-based games.
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Download: Download
refers to bringing information from the Internet to your
computer. You downloaded this web page from our server. If
you are looking for software on the web, you will have to
download it from wherever you find it. The opposite of download
is upload. You upload something by sending it to a computer
on the web. When you send an e-mail message, you are really
uploading it to a mail server, which then sends it to the
recipient.
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E-Mail (Electronic
mail): A method of sending messages through the web with
the help of an e-mail client. There are several e-mail clients
available today. Some of the more popular ones are Netscape
Messenger, Outlook Express, and Eudora. Through e-mail, you
can send text, pictures, movies, or sound. E-mail is becoming
a standard method for communicating with people around the
world and will continue to improve with technology. A sample
e-mail address would be web@missouriwestern.edu
E-Mail Address: An address that is used
to identify someone on the internet. You would need one of
these to receive e-mail or send a message to someone else.
A sample e-mail address is web@missouriwestern.edu. When
breaking the address apart, web identifies an individual
or specific group, @ stands for "at," and missouriwestern.edu
is the domain name, indicating that ‘web’ can
be found in the missouriwestern.edu domain.
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Flash: Animation
software for Windows and the Mac from Macromedia. It is used
to develop interactive graphics for Web sites as well as
desktop presentations and games. Flash sequences on the Web
are displayed by a Web browser plug-in and offline presentations
are run by a Flash player that can be included on a floppy
or CD-ROM. Flash is used to draw vector-based graphics in
one or more timelines that provide a sequential path for
describing actions and interactions.
Freeware: Software that you do not need
to purchase. It is free for you to download, use, or share
with others. Most software is either licensed, shareware,
or freeware.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol): A protocol
used to transfer files over a TCP/IP network (Internet, UNIX,
etc.). For example, after developing the HTML pages for a
Web site on a local machine, they are typically uploaded
to a Web server using FTP.
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HTML (Hypertext Markup
Language): The authoring language used to create documents
for the World Wide Web. HTML code tells your browser how
to display the information contained in a Web document by
giving it formatting instructions about alignment, font sizes,
and so on. You can see the HTML of a Web page by selecting
View/Source (or View/Page Source) from the menu bar of your
browser.
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Internet: A global
network connecting millions of computers. Although you will
hear the terms Internet and World Wide Web used interchangeably,
the World Wide Web is actually a subset of the Internet.
There are a variety of ways to access the Internet. Most
online services, such as America Online, offer access to
some Internet services. It is also possible to gain access
through a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Internet Explorer (IE): A popular browser
made by Microsoft Corporation.
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MAC (Macintosh):
A popular computer made by Apple Computer.
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Netscape: Netscape
is a well known company in the internet community. Its company
has been the leader in browser software for the past several
years.
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PC (Personal Computer):
A generic term for all computers. However, PC usually refers
to a Windows-based computer. Macintosh enthusiasts like to
call their computers a “Mac”.
PDF (Portable Document Format): A PDF file
can describe documents containing any combination of text,
graphics, and images in a device-independent and resolution
independent format. These documents can be one page or thousands
of pages, very simple or extremely complex with a rich use
of fonts, graphics, colors and images. Adobe makes a freeware
Adobe Acrobat Reader that is available for a variety of platforms.
Thus, using a variety of operating systems, you can download
and read a PDF document with very little hassle. In addition,
the PDF format strives for easy printing, viewing and compact
storage.
Plug-In: A plug-in is a program that enhances
your browser. Various manufacturers create plug-ins to improve
the functionality of your browser. Some plug-ins are standard
to your browser. To find out what plug-ins are installed
in your browser or for more information about plug-ins, see
the Help section of your browser.
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QuickTime: Multimedia
extensions to the Macintosh starting with System 7 that add
sound and video capabilities. A QuickTime file can contain
up to 32 tracks of audio, video, MIDI or other time-based
control information. Most major Macintosh DBMSs (database
management systems) support QuickTime. Apple also provides
a version of QuickTime for Windows PCs.
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RealAudio: The most
popular streaming audio technology for the Internet and intranets.
A browser equipped with a RealPlayer or RealAudio plug-in
enables news, sports and other programs transmitted from
RealAudio servers (RealServers) to be heard on the user's
computer. Encoders and plug-ins can be downloaded from RealNetworks'
Web site. Server software is available for a variety of platforms.
Right Click: The term right click simply
refers to clicking the right (as opposed to the left) button
of your mouse. If your mouse has two or more buttons you
can right click an object on your computer and it will display
a menu. For example, if you are running a Windows operating
system, right clicking the My Computer icon will display
a menu of options to explore.
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Server: A server
is a computer that manages resources. There are several types
of servers: file servers, application servers, and web servers
are examples. A web server is “serving” this
page to you right now. If you go to a chat room, a chat server
would serve that environment to you. Most of today's computers
function in a client/server relationship environment, meaning
that the client (your computer) is served information from
other computers (servers).
Shareware: Shareware is software that you
can evaluate for free, but if you decide to keep and use
it, you must send money to the creator of this software.
Most software is either shareware, freeware, or licensed.
Shockwave: Shockwave is a popular browser
plug-in used for viewing animated sequences.
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TCP/IP (Transmission
Control Protocol/Internet Protocol): TCP/IP is a routable
protocol, and the IP part of TCP/IP provides the routing
capability. In a routable protocol, all messages contain
not only the address of the destination station, but the
address of a destination network. This allows TCP/IP messages
to be sent to multiple networks within an organization or
around the world, hence its use in the worldwide Internet.
Telnet: Telnet is a terminal emulation
program that runs on your computer and connects your PC to
a distant server, allowing you to log in and execute commands
as if you were actually sitting at the remote computer.
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URL (Uniform Resource
Locator): A URL is the address of a web page on the Internet.
For example, the URL http://www.missouriwestern.edu/catalog/contents.html
is the web address of a Missouri Western information page.
The first part of the address (http) indicates the protocol
being used, the second part (missouriwestern.edu) indicates
the domain name where the site is located. The next part
of the address (catalog) indicates the directory the page
is stored in on the host computer. The last part (contents.html)
is the name of the specific html document the address is
pointing to.
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Version: When referring
to software, a version would be an update to the original
release of that software product. Updated versions are released
to increase performance or fix known problems of a given
software product. Versions are usually written numerically
with a “v.” at the beginning. (Example: Netscape
v.4.72).
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Web: Short for World
Wide Web, WWW, or Internet. The word web is commonly used
to refer to the environment that you are in right now. The
way information on the Internet is linked, referenced, and
stored creates a spider web effect. That's where the word
web comes from.
World Wide Web (WWW): A global network
of Internet servers that serve up HTML documents making it
possible to jump to other documents, as well as graphics,
audio, and video files simply by clicking on links. Not all
Internet servers are part of the World Wide Web.
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Yahoo: Yahoo, an
acronym for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle, is
an example of a search engine, where Web pages are compiled
and categorized to help you find the information you are
looking for. Other search engines are HotBot, InfoSeek, Excite,
Alta Vista, Northern Light, and others.
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Zip: ZIP is a popular
data compression format. Files that have been compressed
with the ZIP format are called ZIP files, and will end with
a .ZIP extension. You will need a zip utility to unzip zipped
files. A special kind of zipped file is a self-extracting
file, which ends with the .EXE extension, and can be opened
simply by clicking on it.
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