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Glossary

Accent

Distinguishing mark usually placed above letters to alter their meaning or sound.

Action icon

A 'button' in a dialogue box that causes some action to take place.

Active window

The front window on the Desktop with a highlighted title bar; where the next action will take place.

Adjust size icon

An icon at the bottom right corner of a window that can be dragged to resize the window.

Alt key

A key used like the Shift key to give an alternative interpretation to the key pressed.

Arrow keys

Used for moving the caret in the document.

Back icon

An icon at the top left corner of a window that, when clicked sends the window to the back of the desktop.

Backspace key

A key that moves the caret back over the previously typed character, or selection, erasing it.

Back up

To make a security copy of your disc or document.

Baseline

An imaginary line running along the base of uppercase and most lowercase letters.

Button icon

Clicked in dialogue boxes to confirm or cancel an action.

Caps Lock key

A key on the keyboard that when locked down causes all typed letters to appear in upper case. Unlike the Shift key of a typewriter it does not affect numbers.

Caret

The point represented by a vertical bar at which text will be inserted into a document.

Character key

Letter, number, symbol, space bar, Tab and Return keys are character keys and will all repeat if held down.

Choose

To pick a menu item.

Click

To position the mouse pointer and then press and quickly release the mouse button.

Clipboard

An area of memory that holds what you last cut or copied.

Close

To turn a document into an icon that represents it, saving its contents in a file.

Close icon

Small 'X' shaped icon at the left side of the title bar of window which if clicked closes that window.

Command

A word or phrase in a menu that describes an action for EasiWriter to perform. Also the combination of function key or control key and letter that performs the same thing.

Copy

To place a copy of the current selection on the clipboard.

Delete

To remove the text and graphics in the current selection.

Desktop

The surface of the screen, where the action takes place.

Diacritical

Distinguishing mark usually placed above letters, especially vowels, to modify their meaning or sound.

Dialogue box

A window where you provide additional information to complete a command.

Dimmed command

A menu item that has been dimmed to indicate that it cannot be chosen.

Disc

The magnetic medium that stores information.

Disc drive

The electro-mechanical device that stores and retrieves information on a disc.

Document

A collection of information that is stored on disc and appears in a window or as an icon on the Desktop.

Double-click

Two rapid presses of the mouse button. Used as a short-cut to open documents and select words.

Drag

To press and hold the mouse button while moving the mouse.

Esc key

A key that cancels an operation.

Field motion keys

Also known as Arrow keys. Used for moving the caret in the document.

Font

A collection of letters, numbers, punctuation marks and symbols that have a consistent look.

GIF

Graphic Interchange Format - file type commonly used for pictures on the Internet.

HTML

HyperText Markup Language. Used for creating Web pages and HyperText (linked) documents.

Icon

A graphical representation of a class of objects, concept or message. Often an object on the Desktop such as a closed document.

Icon Technology

A group of objects dedicated to producing 'state of the art' software.

Italic

Typefaces which slope to the right, emulating the movement of cursive writing. A true italic is a design change from its Roman counterpart.

JPEG

Joint Photographic Experts Group. File format used for transmitting photographs.

Lower case

The small (non-capital) letters of a font. So called because compositors kept type in two cases - the upper case for capital letters and symbols and the lower case for small letters and punctuation. See Upper case.

Memory

The area in that stores information while you work on it.

Menu

A list of commands that appears when Menu is pressed.

Mouse

A small device you roll around on a flat surface next to the computer. Moving the mouse causes a corresponding movement of a pointer on the screen.

Mouse buttons

The three buttons on the top of the mouse - Select, Menu & Adjust.

Oblique

Typefaces which slope to the right, that retain the form of their Roman counter parts. Common in sans serif fonts.

Option icon

Small box used in a dialogue box to indicate that an option has been chosen. The option box can be turned on or off by clicking it.

Point

To position the pointer over a specific location on the screen.

Pointer

A small shape on the screen that follows the motion of the mouse.

Press

To position the pointer on something and then hold down the mouse button without releasing it or moving the mouse.

PNG

Portable Network Graphics. Pronounced 'ping' this is starting to become a popular format and is likely to take over from GIF. It is used extensively in Word 8. PNGs can have variable transparency.

Radio icon

One of a group of small round icons in a dialogue box, only one of which may be selected at a time.

Recursion

See recursion.

Return

Key used to indicate the end of a paragraph or row of a table.

Roman

Typefaces that stand upright.

RTF

Rich Text Format. Document format used to exchange formatted information between applications.

Sans serif

Term used to denote plain fonts without serifs such as Homerton.

Save

To store information on a disc.

Scroll

To move a document so that a different part of it is visible in the window.

Scroll arrow

Small arrow at the end of a scroll bar that if clicked on moves the window in the direction of the arrow. Pressing on a scroll arrow causes continuous scrolling.

Slider

An icon in the scroll bar. The position of the Slider in the scroll bar indicates the relative position of the window in the document. Dragging the Slider moves the document under the window.

Select

The left hand mouse button. To make a selection.

Selection

The highlighted portion of the document or icons to be affected by the next command.

Shift key

A key that, when pressed, causes typed letters to be in upper case and the upper symbol to appear when the number keys are typed.

Size icon

A box at the bottom right hand corner of a window which allows you to alter the size of the window.

Title bar

The horizontal bar at the top of a window that contains its name, the Go to back icon, Close icon and the Zoom icon. Used to move the window.

Triple-click

Three rapid presses of the mouse button. Used to select a paragraph.

Type style

The look of a typeface.

Typographical error

Spelling mistake.

Upper case

Capital letters typed by pressing Shift or by engaging the caps lock key. See lower case.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator. The primary naming scheme used to identify web resources e.g. http://www.IconTechnology.net.

Window

A presenter of information on the screen. Documents are viewed through windows.

Zoom icon

An icon to the right of the Title bar that, when clicked, zooms a document out to full size or restores a document to its former size and position.


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