PracticeWEB Glossary

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A

A Record - Your website's 'A record' is a number used to point Internet traffic to a website address. Just before your website goes live, we will ask you to have your website's 'A Record' redirected to a new number rather than the old one.
ALT Tag - A descriptive piece of text used by a screen reader, for example, to describe the contents of an image.
Accessibility - The practice of designing and building websites so that a wide variety of people can comfortably access them, in particular those people with auditory, visual or neurological impairments. The underlying premise is that every user should have access to the online information experience.
Assets - Useful information from a client (images, logos, fonts, copy, documents, etc.)

B

Blog - Short for "web log", this is page on a website which acts as a way of frequently updating your site with opinions, news, event, insights, personal anecdotes.
Bulkload - When your site goes live, we can we can load the details of your clients and members of staff into the database and pre-register them on your website so that they will have a login and will begin to receive your newswires. Please note that due to the Data Protection Act, the clients who you pre-register must already have agreed to receive email correspondence from you. Click here for more information and the standard spreadsheet.
Browser - An application which lets you view and browse the internet. Internet Explorer and Firefox are currently the most commonly used browsers.

C

Caching - To make web surfing faster, web browsers store recently visited pages for easy access later on. When the site is revisited, the browser displays pages from the cache instead of requesting them from the server - thus saving time for the user. If you have been told that a page should look different, but it does not, try clearing your cache by pressing CNTRL-F5.This will reload the page from the server instead of your computer.
CRM - Client Relationship Management
CMS - Content Management System: A piece of software which lets you create, manage and organise content on a website without requiring extensive technical knowledge.
Content - The text, images, documents, sound or video files which make up a web page.
Cookie - A file stored locally by the browser on behalf of a website which allows that site to uniquely identify that browser. Cookies are usually required for sensitive sites with user logins and shopping carts, for example.
CSS - Cascading Style Sheets. This is a language which website developers use to format the page.
Copy - The written text which appears on a web page.

D

Data Protection Act (DPA) - The Legislation for the Protection of Data. Visit the Directgov website for more information.
DNS - The Domain Name System makes using the Internet easier by allowing a familiar string of letters (the 'domain name') to be used instead of the IP address. So instead of typing 194.131.210.132, you can type www.practiceweb.co.uk.
Domain Name - A domain name, such as PracticeWEB.co.uk, signifies your own address on the Internet.

E

EPS - Encapsulated Postscript file is a standard format for any combination of text, graphics, and images. When we ask you to provide us with your logo in electronic format, this is likely to be the type of file you will send us.

F

Flash - A technology which enables elements of a website to move and be animated.

G

GIF - Graphical Interface Format it is the most widely used standard for web graphics, and has the file extension .gif

H

Hexadecimal - A numerical notation used to specify colors on web pages, displayed in the following format: #RRGGBB, where RR specifies the the Red component of the color, GG the Green component and BB the Blue component.
Holding Page - This is a page which is explains to your clients that a new website is under construction. We will include your contact details on this page. details such as your email and telephone number until your website is ready to be made live.
HTML - HyperText Markup Language is a markup language designed for the creation of web pages.
HTML Email Template - This is an email template which matches the branding of your website. You can use this email template to send correspondence to your clients. To send the email you will use MailCannon.
Hyperlink - This is the clickable link in text or graphics on a Web page that takes you to another place on the same page, another page on the same site, or a whole other site.

I

iEdit - This is usually the place where the main copy on a page will live. Being in an iEdit allows the Adminstrator of the website to click on the [Edit] link on the page and add/delete/amend text, images, links and other media in a similar way as you would within a Word Document with our WYSIWYG.
Illustrator - Adobe Illustrator is a vector-based drawing program commonly used in the design industry for items such as a logo.
IP Address - Is the unique address of every computer on the Internet. It is a string of complicated numbers, for example: PracticeWEB's IP Address is: 194.131.210.133

J

JavaScript - JavaScript is a programming language that is mostly used in web pages, usually to add features that make the web page more interactive.
JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group. JPEG's are a standard image format with the file extension: .jpg or .jpeg

K

L

Landing Page - The web page a user arrives at once a link is clicked. Also referred to as a destination page, destional URL, or target URL.
Live Environment - Your website which is live on the Internet for anyone to see.

M

MailCannon - Is a service within the Admin area of your website which allows you to send emails and Newswires to all of the clients/ users who are registered on your website, all in one go.
Meta data - Meta data refers to descriptive information built into the code of the webpage. It can contain, for example, a description of the web page's contents or a list of keywords relevant to the content.

N

Navigation - The Navigation Bar/Menu on your website is typically shown horizontally or vertically, and is used to link a user to the major sections of your site.
Newswire - A Newswire is the electronic form of a Newsletter which is sent directly to a user. Registered users of your website can opt-in to receive weekly Newswires, which we write and send on your behalf.

O

Operating system (OS) - The program that looks after a computer's hardware and enables you to interact with it. For example: Windows XP and MacOS.

P

Photoshop - Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard image manipulation tool used for many tasks, from photo retouching to website design.
Plain Text - A plain-text contains only text with no graphics, color or detailed formatting.
Platform - The PracticeWEB platform refers to the framework on which our software has been developed.
Project Area - When we kick-off our work on your project, you will be sent login details for your Project Area. It contains important information which you will need to access throughout your project.
PSD - The default file extension of the proprietary file format of Adobe System's Photoshop program.

Q

Quality Assurance (QA) Testing - Just before we put your website "live" to the public, we will conduct in-depth testing to ensure that it is functioning correctly.
QBE - Stands for Query By Example. This is a feature which we can set up on your website which will provide you with a very simple and easy way of displaying a series of items such as Firm's News, Job Vacancies or Events. To see an example of a QBE visit the home page of our example website, Adder Black. There you will see the Business News section at the bottom of the page. This section has been set up as a QBE. If we were to create a QBE for your company events, you would be able to go into the Admin area of your website and publish an event within the Articles & Items feature.

R

RBG - Stands for the colors Red-Green-Blue. In web design and design for computer monitors, colors are defined in terms of a combination of these three colors.
RSS - RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It allows websites to share their latest headlines with you via an RSS Feed which you would need to install onto your computer. For more information of RSS and to subscribe to ours click here.

S

Screen Reader - A piece of software for the blind and visually impaired which converts text to speech, describing the contents of a web page or computer screen.
Search Engine - A website visitors can use to search the internet. For example, Google or Yahoo.
Secure Document Exchange (SDE) - SDE is a service PracticeWEB offers to provide our clients and in turn their clients a confidential environment to view, transfer and store sensitive client information securely.
SEO - Search Engine Optimization is a way of building a website so that it is easy for potential clients to find when they perform a search on a website such as Google or Yahoo.
Server - The place where websites are permanently stored. When a user types in a web address it is "served up" to them on their browser.
Secure Server - When a user visits a web page stored on a secure Web server, the URL always begins with "https:/". A secure server preserves the privacy of sensitive information such as credit card numbers.
Site Administration - Once your website is live you will be able to log in as an Administrator and make updates. You will be offered training on how to make these updates.
Site Structure - The site structure is a map which shows all of the pages which will be built for your website, in relation to each other.
Spam - This is a term widely used for unsolicited email. You might also hear it referred to as junk mail.
Splash Page - A splash page is a preliminary page which precedes the regular home page of a website. We typically advise against using a splash page because it is viewed as a barrier to content, and search engines have difficulty in accessing your website.

T

Test Site - A copy of your website in a non-live environment, so that major changes can be viewed and tested prior to placing them into the live website.
Title Bar - The horizontal bar at the top of a browser window. The title bar shows the name of the window or website/page

U

URL - The web address, or location, of a website, file, or resource on the Internet. For example: http://www.practiceweb.co.uk/ is a URL.

V

W

WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get. This is an application within the Admin area of your website which lets you create and edit content for a page.

X

XHTML - Extensible Hypertext Mark-up Language is a hybrid of XML and HTML.
XML - eXtensible Markup Language is a system of marking up which web developers use to manage the documents displayed on a website.

Y

Z

ZIP File - ZIP Files are a common type of compressed file used to save space on disk. The word has developed a verbal use: to "unzip" a file is to uncompress the files. ZIP Files have the file extension .zip

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