The Web Designer’s Dictionary
I take requests! Either leave a comment here, or send me an email, with a term you would like to know more about. If you have a better definition than I do, by all means share it with us! I will incorporate good definitions into this list and give you credit for them (including a link to your site).
The Web Designer’s Dictionary
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 |
- A
- Adobe Acrobat Reader
- A program used to read PDF files and available for both Windows and Mac. This program is available for free at www.adobe.com/products/reader/. Top
- attribute
- An option that can be applied to an (X)HTML tag. For example:
<imgsrc="image.jpg"height="90"width="90"alt="This is a picture"/>The blue text in this image tag are the attributes, the green text are the values of those attributes. This is known as an attribute-value pair. Top- AVI (Video File Format)
- Stands for Audio Video Interleave. AVI is a video format defined by Microsoft. Top
- B
- browser
- A program that receives, interprets, and displays web pages for a user. My top four browsers (in order) are Firefox 2.0, Internet Explorer 7, Opera 9, and Netscape 8. Top
- blog
- A type of web site which allows the author(s) to write posts and allows visitors to leave comments on each post. Blogs are becoming very popular for business’s as well as individuals. They allow a two-way dialogue with customers and help foster a more personal connection between the author and the reader. As you can probably tell, I am an advocate of blogs. Top
- C
- CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
- A stylesheet language that provides presentational effects to a mark-up language. It is most commonly used to provide visual styling for HTML and XHTML documents. Top
- D
- DOCTYPE
- Short for “Document Type Declaration” or DTD. HTML and XHTML standards dictate that every (X)HTML document must declare a DOCTYPE. The DOCTYPE tells the browser what version of (X)HTML you are using so that it can render it properly. It must appear at the very top of every page. Here is an example of an XHTML DOCTYPE:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">Here is a complete list of DTD’s on the W3C’s website. Top- F
- Firefox
- A web browser developed by Mozilla and made freely available to the public. Currently the number two browser for the public and number one browser for web developers. Get more info at www.mozilla.com. Top
- FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
- A protocol used to connect to a server to transfer files. Popular programs include Filezilla and WS_FTP Pro. Top
- G
- GIF (Graphic File Format)
- A file format used for graphics to be displayed on Web pages. For example, images with transparent backgrounds (often referred to as “transparent GIF’s”), animations, and images containing flat color and sharp edges such as text, line art, etc.
[Definition submitted by Jinny Brown] Top - grid-based layout
- The practice of using a series of equal columns for determining a page’s layout. This technique can bring balance to a layout and keep your site correctly proportioned throughout. Top
- H
- HTML 4.01 (HyperText Markup Language version 4.01)
- The basic coding language for a webpage. HTML can provide both content structure and visual structure for a web page (although it is still better to use CSS for visual styles). HTML 4.01 is the most current version of HTML and is still a W3C recommendation. Top
- I
- Internet Explorer
- A web browser developed by Microsoft and included in the Windows operating system. Currently the most popular browser for the public. Currently the least popular browser for web designers. Get more info at www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/. Top
- J
- JPG, JPEG (Graphic File Format)
- A file format used for graphics to be displayed on Web pages, also sometimes used for printing. It’s best used for images containing smooth color transitions (i.e. photos and paintings). JPG is a “lossy” format which means that each time the file is saved it’s compressed and saving the same file again and again can cause considerable loss of color information and consequently, visual quality. Always save a JPG from the original art file to avoid this problem.
[Definition submitted by Jinny Brown] Top - M
- mark-up
- Mark-up is a general programmer term for the code that is used to construct a document. The term is not exclusive to HTML and can be used for any mark-up language, including HTML, XHTML, and XML. Mark-up refers to the various tags in the document that define each part of that document. Top
- MOV (Video File Format)
- A video file format used with the QuickTime media player by Apple. Top
- MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group)
- MPEG is a working group of the ISO/IEC that develops audio and video standards. They have created several audio/video file formats, including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and most recently, MPEG-4. Top
- MPG (Video File Format)
- MPG is a video file format created by the MPEG. There are several generations of the format, and it continues to evolve today. MPG is considered an industry wide standard. Top
- N
- Netscape Navigator
- Another web browser which remains popular for unknown reasons (at least to this designer). Developed by Netscape Communications and Weblogs, Inc., a subsidiary of AOL. Freely available to the public. Get more info at browser.netscape.com. Top
- normalization, CSS
- A web design technique that prevents a browser from using its default styles. This allows the designer to have more control over a page’s appearance across multiple browsers. Top
- O
- Opera
- A web browser developed by Opera Software and made freely available to the public. Opera is currently the preferred browser for devices other than PC’s, including mobile devices and the Nintendo Wii. Get more info at www.opera.com. Top
- P
- PDF (Document File Format)
- Stands for Portable Document Format. This file format was created by Adobe Systems. PDF files are used for distributing documents in a digital format. PDF documents have an extra layer of protection that prevents them from being altered among other benefits. For more information about PDF documents, visit http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/adobepdf.html. Top
- PNG (Graphic File Format)
- Stands for Portable Network Graphics. PNG is a graphic file format that uses lossless data compression. It was designed to improve and replace the GIF format. PNG files can be significantly larger than JPG files, but do a much better job at displaying sharp edges. Top
- Q
- QuickTime
- A media player program developed by Apple. Commonly used to play MOV files but can be used for many other media files as well. This media player is available for both Windows and Mac. Top
- R
- RealPlayer
- A media player program developed by Real Networks. Available for both Windows and Mac. The player is available for free at www.real.com. Top
- RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
- A technology that allows a web site to publish feeds. The public can subscribe to these feeds, which will notify them whenever a new article or post is published. Top
- S
- semantic mark-up
- Using the correct XHTML tag for the correct purpose. Top
- stylesheet
- A document that contains visual presentation code for a web page. Top
- T
- tag
- In web terms, a tag is the general term for any HTML element. For example,
<p>= paragraph tag;<title>= title tag; and so on. Top - tag soup
- This can have two meanings. The first meaning refers to HTML code that has been created without any regard to well-formedness or semantics. The most common causes are using HTML tags for presentational purpose and using deprecated tags. Basically just a bunch of tags thrown together.The second meaning is used by browser creators to refer to all HTML in general. This is because HTML parsers need to have a lot of leniency when going through bad HTML. It corrects errors and tries to display the “soup” no matter what. XML, on the other hand, requires the opposite. XML parsers need not have any error correction, and should simply fail to show the document when an error is encountered. Top
- TIFF (Graphic File Format)
- Stands for Tagged Image File Format. TIFF is a graphic file format generally used within graphic editors like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, and GIMP. TIFF files can be very large compared with JPG of GIF if they are not created correctly, and should generally not be used on the web. Top
- W
- W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
- A international group where members, staff, and the public work together to develop Web Standards.
Mission: “To lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web.”
- W3C Recommendation
- A W3C recommendation is where we get web standards from. These documents define a technology as “recommended” for widespread use across the Internet. Many major web technologies have an official recommendation, including HTML, XML, CSS, and XHTML. Here is the official definition of a recommendation from the W3C. Top
- web 2.0
- A new model for doing business on the internet. The theory behind the phrase is too big to go into here, but check out my post on Web 2.0 (or a more authoritative source, Tim O’Reilly). Top
- Windows Media Player
- A media player program developed by Microsoft. This media player comes free with the Windows Operating system. It is also available for free at www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/. Top
- WinZip
- A compression/decompression program for various files. This is the most common compression utility for Windows. Top
- web standards
- A general term that describes the technical specifications set by the W3C for creating web pages. Also a philosophy encouraging the use of a set of best practices for creating accessible, usable, and expandable web sites. Top
- WordPress
- An open-source software platform for blogging. WordPress is quickly becoming the most popular blogging platform for it’s easy installation, simple publishing system, and amazing flexibility with plug-ins. Top
- X
- XHTML (eXtensible HyperText Markup Language)
- The newest way to code a web page. XHTML 1.0 and XHTML 1.1 are both W3C recommendations. XHTML is designed to provide content structure only. It requires the following of a strict rule set of well-formedness and semantics. It is recommended to use CSS for visual presentation. Top
- XML (eXtensible Markup Language)
- XML is a general purpose mark-up language. It’s primary purpose is to share data across different systems and programs, particulary over the internet. XML is different than HTML in that it does not have a defined set of tags to use. The document creator makes up their own tags for the document to form a structure that makes sense. For example (example taken from XML on Wikipedia):
<book title="Mecanique" authors="Landau, Lifshitz">
<chapter title="equations du mouvement"> <section title="coordonnees generalisees"> Une des notion fondamentales de la Mecanique est celle de point materiel. .... </section> <section title="Le principe de moindre action"> La formule la plus generale de la loi du mouvement des systemes mecaniques est fournie par le principe dit de moindre action (ou principe de Hamilton). .... </section> .... </chapter> <chapter title = "lois de conservation"> ... </chapter> ... </book>
Hi Aaron,
(If this gets chopped off since it’s pretty long, let me know and I’ll e-mail you the whole thing.)
This is great, a Web Designer’s Dictionary! I’ll be sending my online friends to this page as many of them are stumbling along trying to create their own websites without nearly enough understanding to avoid problems.
Suggestions:
Include info on graphics file formats. For instance:
JPG - A file format used for graphics to be displayed on Web pages, also sometimes used for printing. It’s best used for images containing smooth color transitions (i.e. photos and paintings). JPG is a “lossy format which means that each time the file is saved it’s compressed and saving the same file again and again can cause considerable loss of color information and consequently, visual quality. Always save a JPG from the original art file to avoid this problem.
GIF - A file format used for graphics to be displayed on Web pages. For example, images with transparent backgrounds (often referred to as “transparent GIFs), animations, and images containing flat color and sharp edges such as text, line art, etc.
And other formats commonly used on the Web including (you’ll have to write the definitions, since I have “things to do”):
AVI
MOV
MPEG
PDF
PNG
TIFF
Also, software used with files uploaded or downloaded from the Web such as:
Adobe Reader
QuickTime
RealPlayer (is anyone still using it?)
Windows Media Player
WinZip (and Mac equivalents)
WS_FTP Pro (and other FTP software)
And Web editing software, such as:
Dreamweaver
NVU (free, and easy to use… similar to Netscape’s Composer but I think better)
Notepad (and Mac equivalents) for those who can do their own coding without WYSIWYG help.
That should keep you busy for a while!
Hi Jinny,
I will put your definitions on jpg and gif in there, and will write my own for your other suggestions.
Thanks!
Hi Aaron,
You’re welcome!
Feel free to improve my JPG and GIF definitions if you want to. I noticed, reading my post over again today that I missed adding the ending quotation marks for:
“lossy” in the JPG definition
“transparent GIFs” in the GIF definition
Jinny
Hi again,
Another suggestion:
Indicate on which platforms software can be used. For example, a few currently listed in The Web Designer’s Dictionary:
Acrobat Reader is used on both Windows and Mac.
PDF files (consequently) can be read using Acrobat Reader on both Mac and Windows platforms.
QuickTime can be used in Windows (I’m a Windows user and only suppose it’s also used on Mac’s since it was developed by Apple.)
Also:
Maybe I missed it, but is there an entry for a Mac equivalent to Windows’ WinZip, maybe StuffIt or whatever’s most popular among Mac users?
Possible additions to the PDF definition would be to say they’re created and edited using Adobe Acrobat available to purchase on the Adobe site at http://www.adobe.com. They can also be created using other software by saving to PDF format. Among the many other features available when creating PDF files with Adobe Acrobat the security options include password protection, and allowing or not allowing printing, changing the document, selecting text and graphics and adding or changing annotations and form fields.
(You might want to check what’s available in the current Adobe Acrobat version. My definition addition suggestions are based on the version I have, Adobe Acrobat 4.0 and that’s pretty old by now.)
Thanks for the credits and links to my website! That was not expected and a very nice thing for you do do.
Jinny
I made a few changes as you suggested, but I want to try to keep this dictionary simple. For the PDF definition, I put a link to Adobe’s PDF page, which has way more info than I could possible put here. I don’t want this to balloon out into Wikipedia
Also, WinZip is pushing it a little when it comes to web development terms. I would consider it more of a general computing thing. While web sites may serve up zip files for download, it is still outside the realm of actual web development. Since it is already in there, I will leave it. But I honestly have no idea what Mac users prefer.
Thanks for all the help and keep the ideas coming!
Hi Aaron,
Simple is a good thing!
I like your solution (adding a link to the Adobe site) for the PDF definition.
As always, I’d expect you to leave out any suggestions offered if they don’t fit your vision for the Web Designer’s Dictionary, or they’re just not pertinent.
Obviously, looking at my own website, I’m not a web designer so not the best person to know what fits.
Keep up the good work!
Jinny