ALS 3203 - Lesson 4
Glossary of Terms

Alien file format: File format different from that of the application you are using. If you save a file as a word document, then try to open it in WordPerfect, the WordPerfect import filters recognize this as an alien format and convert it to WordPerfect format to display it.

ANSI: American National Standards Institute extended character set used in Windows. Characters up to 127 are the same as ASCII, but from 128-255 are different. This can cause problems when files are converted between Windows and non-Windows applications.

ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange - a standard code for representing characters as numbers that is used on most PC's. The first 127 characters are considered the standard ASCII characters, while 128-255 are the extended ASCII characters. ASCII characters are generated by the alt key and a number. Unlike the ANSI character set used in Windows which generates characters with the alt key and 4 numbers typed on the numeric keypad.

Character set: The complete set of characters from 1-255 for a single typeface.

Character map: The result of Run, start, charmap (Windows). Graphic representation of all 255 characters of a given typeface. Moving the cursor over a character displays the keystroke combination used to produce that character. You may also copy and paste characters from a character set. Later version of Windows may display the hexadecimal code for the special character. If this happens, you may have to convert the code to ANSI value in order to use the keystroke combination to insert it into your document.

Character Keystroke generating sequence: In Windows, the alt key combined with a four digit number (on the numerical keypad) to produce characters. Example, alt - 0189 produces the ½ symbol.

CPI: Characters per inch. Unit of measurment for monospace fonts. Refers to a horizontal measurement since all characters have the same width.

File type: Format of file, includes the file type version (MS-Word 95, 97, 2000, MS-Word 6.0, etc.), Text only, RTF, etc. This option allows you to save a file in many different format (used to be under export formats).

Font: Consisting of a single typeface (Times Roman, Arial, Century Schoolbook, etc.) and attributes (size, bold, italics, underlined).

Hexadecimal: The base 16 numbering system, as opposed to our decimal (base 10) system. The numerals 0-9 and letters a-f (or A-F) represent the numerals 0 through 15. In Java programs, hexadecimal numbers are preceded with 0x. These values may be converted to ANSI values to get their keystroke combination.

Justification: Alignment of text relative to page margins; (left, center, right, full). Also known as justification.

Landscape: Page orientation, horizontal. Wider than tall. Page orientation used for large tables, data sets, that you want diplayed together. The opposite of portrait.

Line spacing: The vertical gap between lines of text. The most appealing (from the reader standpoint) is 1½ spaces rather than the usual double space.

Monospaced: Typeface category, letters are of equal width, resembles typewriter type. Since each character occupies the same horizontal space these may be described in CPI (characters per inch). An example is Courier typeface.

Native file format: File format when file is saved in application it is created in. A document saved in Word is a Word document unless you save it as another type. Its native format would be MS-Word in this case.

Point(s): Unit of measure for proportional fonts. 72 points (pts) = 1" vertical height. Since proportional fonts have varied character widths their size is described in vertical units, points.

Portrait: Page orientation, vertical. Taller than wide, the default page orientation of most (all?) applications. YOu may change between portrait and landscape in the same document if you know how.

Proportional font: Fonts that have letters or characters of varying widths. The horizontal space occupied by each characters is "propotional" to its shape, therefore an "l" takes up less space than a "w". This is why it is impossible to line up vertical data using just the space bar if you are using proprtional fonts. This is also why the unit of measurment for size is a vertical measurment, points.

RTF: Rich Text Format (Windows). Text file format that maintains some formatting (font, attributes). Uses the ANSI character set, and is readable by all Windows applications. This is a useful text file format to be aware of. I recomend that you get used to saving all important documents in this format if you are going to exchange between Windows applications and you are not sure that each machine will have the same version of word processing software installed.

Save as: File Save choice that I recommend you use the first time you save a file. Choose the type of file, the location (path) you want it saved to. From that point on pressing Ctrl-s (save) will save to the selected location.

Text only: DOS text. No graphics in text only file. Also known as ASCII text, the simplest text file, created with a text editor such as Notepad (Windows) or the Text Editor (DOS). There is no word wrap, each line ending usually created by a hard return (Enter key).

Typeface: Used in the sense of "Font", refers to a name of type. Examples are Times Roman, Arial, Helvetica, Century Schoolbook.
Unicode: A code that assigns a unique number to each character in each of the major languages of the world. Intended for use on all computer systems, not just Windows. Itr has a potential to cope with over one million characters, as opposed to the ANSI code limited to 256 characters. Presently is assigns a unique identifier to 96,383 characters, covering the scripts of principal written languages and many mathematical and other symbols. See the following website for additional indformation: http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/index.html.
For a comprehensive gallery of Unicode Fonts visit the web site: http://travelphrases.info/fonts.html

Word wrap: Automatic wrapping of text at end of line. Your higher levl word processing applications do this automatically. This feature is not available in the low-end text editors such as Notepad.