North Carolina Education



Glossary of Computer Terms

Animation: The design of making an object in such a way as to make it appear to have motion.

Button: In hypermedia programs, an object or feature used to create links between different cards, to initiate other actions, or to reproduce sound. For example, a button can be created to send a message to a laserdisc player to run a video segment.

Camcorder: A hand-held video camera.

Card: In hypermedia programs, an electronic card that is used to store some type of data. Cards have different components used for information storage or actions. For example, a card might have a picture of a tiger, a button to press to hear sound, and text describing a tiger. Cards of information form a hypermedia stack.

CD-ROM: Stands for Compact Disk Read Only Memory. A optical disk that can only be read from and not written to.

Centering: To place text horizontally or vertically in the middle of a page.

Clip art: A series of picture files that are stored on a disk that can be "clipped" and pasted into a document.

Computer graphics: The creation, display, and storage of pictures with a computer.

Computer generated effects: The use of a computer in making a film to create certain effects.

Copy: To highlight a section or whole document and leave it unaffected but make a duplicate and put it in another place.

Cursor: A highlighted or bright sometimes blinking line or other mark that shows where the next letter or character will appear. Sometimes the cursor is a special picture or icon.

Desktop publishing: A computerized layout program that integrates graphics and text to produce a professional looking document.

Digitized effects: To change analog information into digital information that the computer can use to produce certain effects. For example, when a picture is scanned, the picture image is digitized. This means that the picture image is converted to a digital or numerical format.

Edit: To change or make corrections in a document.

Electronic thesaurus: A disk-based thesaurus for on-screen use.

Field: In hypermedia, an object or area on a card or page where text is entered.

File: A word processing document.

Font: A specific design for a set of letters and characters.

Grammar checker: A software program that checks for possible grammar mistakes. Suggestions for corrections are often given.

Graphing: A feature in a software program that allows numerical data to be interpreted as a graph or chart.

Home row keys: The starting point for your hands when beginning to keyboard. The keys on the keyboard a, s, d, f, j, k, l, ; are home row keys.

HyperCard/HyperStudio/LinkWay: Authoring systems that allow for text, graphics, sound, animation, and other effects to be composed for a presentation or for organizing information; hypermedia.

Hypermedia: A way (for users and programmers) to gather, organize, present, search and customize information from multimedia, databases, and other types of stored information. HyperCard, HyperStudio, and LinkWay are three examples of hypermedia programs. (See button, card, field.)

Hypertext: "Active text" where one word is linked to another into a computer program; a type of indexing system. (See hypermedia, button, card, field.)

Laserdisc: A disc that is recorded with sound and pictures and read on a laserdisc player by a laser beam.

Laser printer: A printer that produces high quality images using a method similar to that of a photo copying machine.

Layout: The physical placement of texts and graphics in a document.

Load: To enter a program or file into a computer's memory.

Morphing: Used to create exciting visuals and special effects in movies. A film image is scanned into the computer then changed by a graphics artist. This image is sometimes combined with images created on the computer and then integrated into a film clip to make effects that look real.

Move: To rearrange text in a document.

Multimedia: The merging of a traditional computer creation with other media such as laserdisc, television, CD-ROM, sound and video. Outliner: A software program that will assist the user in producing an outline.

Print: To produce a copy of the document onto paper, computer screen, or diskette.

Retrieve: To load a file from a diskette or hard drive.

Save: To store a file on diskette or hard drive for future use.

Scanner: A peripheral device that converts text or pictures into bit-mapped data that is put into a computer. The digitized images can then be edited.

Spell checker: Part of a word processing program that uses a disk-based dictionary to check and correct misspellings in documents.

Tab: A key on the keyboard that causes the cursor to jump to a specific place such as to indent paragraphs or make columns.

Telecomputing: Sending information electronically across a distance using a computer and modem.

Type styles: Features in a word processing program that allow for changes in the appearance of text such as bold, italics, and underlining.

Virtual reality: A lifelike world that is created by a computer in which participants can become part of the action.

Word processing: A process using a computer to input and edit text; a computer application that resembles typewriting but allows instant correction of errors, moving text to different locations, and other editing functions.

Primary source of definitions: Understanding Computers Through Applications (Teacher's Guide);Glencoe, Macmillan/McGraw-Hill.





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