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Glossary - Alphabetical

These terms are not in alphabetical order. They are in an order designed to facilitate understanding of later terms. This is a basic set of terms that will assist you in learning and understanding more about computers in general. It will help you learn more about your computer, and assist you in troubleshooting. (Alternate Logical listing)

Alias (Mac) or Shortcut (Windows) – "A stand-in or agent for an actual program, document, folder, or disk. The alias does not duplicate the item it represents; instead, the alias points to the item it represents." (MacWorld MacOS X Bible: p825; Poole and Cohen; 2002, Hungry Minds, New York, NY.) Aliases are often used to allow a person to launch an application without having to open the hard drive, then open the Applications folder, and locate the folder for the application, open it, and then double-click the application icon to launch it. Big time saver. In MacOS X, aliases can be placed in the Dock for easy access.

Back-up – making regular copies of your files separate from your computer. Back-ups can be made to removable media, such as CD, DVD, or external drive. You would use back-ups to restore files that may have been deleted, or corrupted, or in case of theft, to continue work on a different computer.

Directory – also known as a Folder. These are the organizational items that allow you to sort files, just as you would sort papers into physical folders.

Filename Extensions – a dot (.) followed by a three to four letter acronym appended to the end of a file name to represent the file type. This is important, especially in cross-platform environments, to allow the computer to understand what type of file it is, and how to open it. This also helps in organization, where a .psd extension would be understood to be a working Photoshop document, while a .jpg or .tif would be denote a final version without the layer information intact. This is critical in web development, as web browsers depend on the extension in order to know what type of file it needs to display.

Some common extensions and their meanings or parent applications:

• .doc – Microsoft Word Document. MS Word is not the only application that can read .doc files, but it is most likely to be able to open and display the file correctly.
• .txt – plain text file. Sort of a generic text file that can be opened by just about anything.
• .rtf – rich text format. A text file that retains some formatting, while also being more compatible than a .doc file.
• .html/.htm – HTML files. Standard format in WWW sites to display information. All web development applications can usually open an HTML file, and many word processing apps can export HTML files.
• .psd – Photoshop native format.
• .tif – graphics format that can be opened by most graphics editors
• .jpg – compressed image file that is pretty much a universally accepted format for displaying images, especially in web sites, due to its portable, and compressed nature.
• .dwg – AutoCAD format.
• .eps – vector illustration file commonly used in print when it needs to be placed into a different application (such as and Illustrator file that needs to be placed in Photoshop, InDesign or QuarkXPress).
• .ai – Adobe Illustrator native format
• .pdf – Portable Document Format – highly compatible format that can be opened with Adobe’s free Reader program, or Preview in MacOS X. This has quickly become the standard in government and educational publications and forms due to its cross-platform nature. A PDF document can usually be guaranteed to look the same regardless of what computer opens it. PDF forms can also be setup to allow user input and saving (i.e. federal tax forms).
• .indd – Adobe InDesign file format

Files – documents you create with applications, or documents necessary to the operating system or applications. You can sort files into folders to keep related items together. The rules for files – if you did not create it yourself, or download it, or receive it from a friend/ co-worker, etc., do not delete it or move it unless you are absolutely certain you know what it is and what it does. You may accidentally delete necessary system files, which could render your machine unbootable.

Hard Drive – the physical storage device that is installed in your machine, or in a separate enclosure (such as a firewire drive, a USB drive, or a flash drive). The key word is "storage". This holds your operating system, and any other applications you install to it, or files that you save to it.

Link – some applications offer the option to link to resources used in creating a document, rather than embedding an image or block of text into the file. One benefit of this is that you can modify linked images in outside programs, and simply update the linked file in the original application without having to completely replace the image or text. If you link to files rather than embed, if you move or delete a file that is used in another file, you will either have to update the link information (which uses paths as defined above), or completely replace the image. This is why it is important to keep your files organized, so that when you go to print your portfolio, you will still be able to open your files that you created a few years ago, and have the links work correctly. This also helps when you backup, as you know that everything that was used in a particular project is in the same folder, and can be restored easily if needed.

Memory - see RAM.

Naming Convention – a set of rules or guidelines for naming files. A naming convention is used to organize related files by adding a project number, date, figure number, descriptive name, section number or page number to a file name. For example, when working on a project involving text and graphics, you may want to name your files in such a way that you can keep track of which sections,
pages, or illustrations belong together.

Your place of business may have a strict naming convention that you will have to follow, especially if you work with a lot of other people on the same project.

Partition – v. to create one or more volumes on a hard drive. n. another word for a volume that is part of a partitioned drive.

Path – address to a file or folder, represented in several different ways. In instructional materials, it is usually represented with angle brackets or arrows representing the order of the address. For example: HardDrive > Applications > Adobe Photoshop > Samples > Ducky.tif. In books and tutorials meant for more experienced users, the path is represented with forward slashes separating directories (in Windows, use backslashes). For example, the path to the file listed in the earlier example is:

/Applications/Adobe Photoshop/Sample/Ducky.tif

RAM – Random Access Memory – this is memory, not to be confused with storage. This is what you are dealing with if you get an error message on you computer that states that an operation cannot be completed because there is not enough free memory.

Root Directory/Root Level – This is the main level of any volume, but the term usually refers to main level of the boot volume.

Storage – not to be confused with memory. This is what the hard drive is. Measured in terms of kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), and gigabytes (GB). KB is small = ~1000 bytes. MB = ~1000KB. GB = ~1000MB. Megabyte is bigger than Kilobyte, and Gigabyte is bigger than Megabyte. Remember that when purchasing a hard drive. Modern computers do not ship with drives that measure in terms of megabyte or kilobyte. You want Gigabytes!

System Directory – Holds all of the operating system core files. Do not delete anything from this folder unless you know exactly what you are doing, or do not mind reloading your machine when it will no longer boot.

Volume – "A disk or part of a disk that the computer treats as a separate storage device. Each volume can have an icon on the Desktop." (MacWorld MacOS X Bible: p847; Poole and Cohen; 2002, Hungry Minds, New York, NY.) You may have more than one volume on a single disk. For example, our laptop lease students have a volume named COD Laptop, which holds the operating system and applications, and a Personal Files volume, which holds all personal data. There is only one hard drive in the laptop, but it is divided into two volumes.

Window – a container for information. When you double-click a hard drive, or folder icon, a window will open to display the contents. When files are opened, they are shown within the context of a window inside the application. (MacWorld, Mac Secrets, 4th Edition; Pogue & Schorr: IDG Books; 1997. p 1157, Foster City, California)