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.
Please report broken links to HelpDesk@WildIrisDigital.com
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