- WebPage Design by WildIrisDigital.com -

Glossary

Accessibility - Accessibility has to do with the degree in which the elderly and people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web.
Attachments - The best way to send a document when you want the layout of that document to be unchanged. When sending an e-mail you will normally see an attachment button (often looks like a paper clip) near the top of your screen. Clicking that button will take you to a browse window where you will locate the document you wish to attach. Attaching a document to an e-mail message does not remove the original from your computer.
Bandwidth - Bandwidth is the given capacity of data that may flow thru your website; usually measured in seconds. It is not the measurement of the size of your site.
Best Practices - Best Practices - generally refers to "practices" that are recommended by the W3C in a broad range of areas. For our purposes here, it most often refers to categories such as Accessibility (for those with visual and physical challenges) and Usability which refers to such subjects as navigation, site layout and the overall intuitive quality of a website. We can also extend "Best Practices" to refer to applying high standards in every aspect of web development and design.
CSS - Cascading Style Sheets are what bring "style" to a webpage. In most cases, a style sheet is an additional (external) document that is linked to by the xhtml document (the web page). If you disabled the style sheet your browser would go to its default interpretation: black and white text, default margins & padding; all content positioned / aligned to the left.
DNS - Domain Name Server DNS is a distributed internet directory service. DNS is used mostly to translate between domain names and IP addresses, and to control email delivery. An IP (usually two IPs) are numerical addresses assigned to your Domain Name; a numerical address.
Domain Name - Instead of making it complicated - you can just call it your website address. To be honest, you may get a number of contradictory definitions of what a Domain Name is (not to mention top level, 2nd level, 3rd level and sub-domain). Although it may be technically and semantically incorrect - most of us will refer to ABC.com, PBS.org and USA.gov as "web addresses" (as apposed to URLs). We have no qualms in referring to WildIrisDigital.com as our web address. The definition of Domain Name can be a bit lengthy so we refer you to online definitions such as those found here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name networksolutions.com/learning-center/...
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions - a repository of.
FTP - File Transport Protocol - is the most common process by which files are uploaded to a website. (We recommend the FTP client FileZilla.)
Good web design practices - Usually referred to as "best practices"
Host - A host is a computer that hosts or houses your website and e-mail on a server; available to host / "serve" your website to other computers on the internet.
Hosting Service - A service that rents you space on a server (computer) with applications that host (serve up) your site and e-mail services on the www.
HTML - Hyper Text Mark-up Language - a sort of universal code/foundation by which web pages are composed within. "HTML is the family name for the group of languages that form the lingua franca of the World Wide Web. The XHTML2 Working Group is chartered to continue to evolve HTML into an XML-based markup, modularize it to make it easier to combine with other markup languages, and correct the problems known still to exist in areas such as internationalization, accessibility, device independence and forms processing." - www.w3.org/MarkUp/Activity.html
ICANN - "ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers." (for example: IP addresses) It is also responsible for accrediting domain name registrars. - www.icann.org
IP Address - Internet Protocol Address - Some times referred to as "the IP", an assigned numerical "address"; part of a global, standardized scheme for identifying machines that are connected to the Internet; the addresses by which your website and e-mail are located (normally a primary and secondary are assigned).
Key words - The types of words that people enter in internet search engines. (You will want to create and submit to us a short list of key words (less than 15) that you feel searchers may be likely to use - descriptive words that apply to your site.)
Liquid Design - Text and other content in your pages will flow, automatically changing location, in accordance with the browser settings preferred by your site visitor. Images and text may appear in different parts of the web page depending on your visitor's browser window size, text size, screen setting resolution, brand and version of browser and operating system (in keeping with W3C recommendations and proponents of usability and accessibility).
mark-up - Refers to the elements or building blocks that go into constructing your webpage such as paragraphs, lists and headers. (see also HTML.)
metadata - Metadata are sets of machine readable information and instructions; elements within an html/xhtml document. Most search engines will look at metadata such as "keywords".
Non-Exclusive - License to Use: Your purchase of this design style will include the non-exclusive right to use this layout, background and up to two additional stock images as part of your website design. All these products remain the intellectual property of WildIrisDigital.com and may not be resold or used on more than one website, by our customers or a third party. Because these products are licensed to our customers as "non-exclusive" WildIrisDigital.com retains the right to resell the same designs, layouts and images (our images) to other customers (just not your content), for use on more than one website.
PayPal - "PayPal enables any individual or business with an email address to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online. PayPal's service builds on the existing financial infrastructure of bank accounts and credit cards and utilizes the world's most advanced proprietary fraud prevention systems to create a safe, global, real-time payment solution." -www.paypal.com See also: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal
Registration (registrar) - Domain name registration is a service provided by companies such as NetworkSolutions.com. Generally, a domain name becomes and remains yours as long as you register and maintain its registration. There are many "ifs, buts and exceptions" to this short definition. The most important thing for most of us to keep in mind is that you want your domain registrar to be a reputable party and you do not want to let your registration expire (unless you never want to use it again).
Search Engine Optimization / SEO - The process of analyzing and modifying a website; enabling search engines to read it, understand it and catalog it correctly (This is a specialized area that WildIrisDigital.com does not get into in any depth. We do, however, provide a general "search engine friendliness" via MetaData).
Server - A computer using software designed to "serve" up content to other computers (in this case - other computers on the internet). Your website and e-mail would be housed on a server(s).
Spam - A less than desirable canned meat. As anyone who uses e-mail knows, spam (multiple unsolicited e-mails) is the scourge of the internet. WildIrisDigital.com prefers to not do business with any person or business that engages in spamming.
Splash Page - A splash page is designed to introduce your website with some sort of dramatic "fan-fare". Most professional page designers disapprove of splash pages. The vast majority of site visitors do not want to be taken to a page that heralds the approach of your website - they just want to be taken directly to your site.
Spoofing - As it applies here, is creating a website with address that gives visitors the false impression that they are visiting another site. This deceptive practice is not supported by our service.
Template - The term template, as used on our site, simply refers to a design that can be modified for use for more than one of our clients.
URL - Uniform Resource Locator - as in: www.address.com
Usability - What this comes down to is enhancing the visitor experience by making a web site's navigation, layout and interaction predictable, intuitive and controllable by them.
Web ready graphics - Before submitting an image there are a number of things to consider when preparing a graphic for the web; among them are: image quality, file size, dimension, colors and file type and also how that image will be used. (You should never incorporate an image that you have not been licensed to use.)
Website Traffic - Visits to your website. Sophisticated server tools such as those found in the Control Panel feature used by Total Choice Hosting - totalchoicehosting.com - enable you to view and break down the stats on visits to your site.
Xhtml - Extensible Hypertext Markup Language is a stricter and cleaner version of HTML. It improves the functionality of the Web by letting you identify your information in a more accurate, flexible, and adaptable way. Will eventually replace HTML. Currently works in all major modern web browsers.

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