Glossary of Common Internet Terms

alt text
 Text that is displayed when a user runs their mouse over a photo, video, or button. Also displays if photo fails to load or when page is viewed in a text browser.
background image
 The wallpaper that the viewer sees behind your page, table, or division.
bitmap
 A graphic image composed of tiny individual pixels. (i.e. JPEG, GIF, BMP, ICO)
browser
 A program that allows access to pages on the world wide web (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Netscape Navigator).
Corel Draw
 A program for the design and manipulation of vector graphics.
Corel Photopaint
 A program for the design and manipulation of bitmap graphics.
CSS
 (Cascading Style Sheets) Method of defining attributes over an entire site to control appearance of text, layout, titles, background, etc.
description
 A meta-tag found in the <head> section of a site's code. Many search engines display this after the title of your site.
display resolution
 The number of pixels displayed on a computer's monitor or desktop. In most PCs it can be reset in the control panel.
dither
 Group pixels of different colors to create an illusion of another color. (i.e. group red and blue pixels to give an appearance of purple)
domain
 Your website's place on the internet (i.e. www.davidhamiltondesign.com) Not to be confused with URL which is the exact address of a page.
Dreamweaver
 A web design program from Adobe. Allows both hands-on code editing and a WYSIWYG interface.
favicon.ico
 An image file, usually 16 x 16, 32 x 32, or 64 x 64 pixels. It appears on most browsers when your page is added to a favorite list. It may also appear in the address bar. Store in the root folder of your site.
Fireworks
 A graphic design program from Macromedia Inc.
Flash
 Widely accepted interactive video and animation format created by Macromedia Inc. Also the name of Adobe's animation editing and design program.
form
 An information field which allows viewers to transmit data over the internet.
frames
 An optional web layout capable of displaying multiple pages at one time in different scrollable regions. Causes difficulty with printing, bookmarking, and search engine indexing.
FrontPage
 A now obsolete web design program from Microsoft. Built to provide code-free web design.
FTP
 (File Transfer Protocol) A method of retrieving files from a remote server or computer.
GIF
 (Graphic Interchange Format) Widely accepted format for storing images. Uses less colors that JPEG but allows use of transparency
head tag
 <head> A section of code at the beginning of a page's html. Stores keywords, description, page title, and other meta tags
host
 A company that provides space on a server for storing websites.
hot spot
 A place in a page or image file capable of causing an effect when a user runs their mouse over it or clicks on it.
HTML
 (Hyper Text Markup Language) A code for transmitting information between computers. Tells the browser what is on your website and how to display it.
Java
 An object oriented programming language created by Sun Microsystems, not related to javascript.
javascript
 Coding language often embedded within html or xhtml in order to provide various functions.
JPEG
 (Joint Photographic Experts Group) A format for storing images electronically. Allows wide range of colors and is compatible with most browsers
keyword
 A word that defines what users can expect to see at your site. (Example: www.nfl.com would have keywords, football, fans, scores, etc). A list of keywords can often be found in a site's <head> tag
Layers
 A tool for building page layout. Popular in web design and graphics programs from Adobe.
meta tag
 A piece of code that defines an attribute of your page (description, keyword, author, etc).
navigation bar
 A set of buttons common to all pages in your site. Provides links for moving between pages.
robot
 (See spider)
robots.txt
 Text file in the root folder of a site. Tells robots which pages to index. If not present, some search engines will ignore your files.
rollover
 An image or set of images which change when the view passes a mouse over a designated "hot spot"
search engine
 A site that indexes pages on the world wide web. (i.e. Google or Yahoo)
server
 A computer which stores webpages for access from a network or the world wide web.
spider
 Robotic web crawler that explores pages for indexing in a search engine. Also called a robot.
table
 The basic structural unit of most older web pages. Allows arrangement of images, text, and video into rows and columns.
upload
 The process of transferring your files to a remote server so they can be accessed via the internet.
URL
 (Universal Resource Locator) The address where a file may be found on the world wide web. (i.e. http://www.blueoxmill.com/links.htm)
vector graphics
 A graphic image created by the use of mathematical formulas. Defines points, lines and areas of the image. No use of pixels.
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