S

  Save  

The process of permanently storing data for later use on one of a number of digital media, usually the computer's hard disk or a floppy disk. Other storage devices include tape streamers and, thanks to more recent advances in technology, compact disks and DVDs.

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  Screen Resolution  

The area, in pixels, of the screen display. A screen resolution of 640 by 480 means that the pixels on the screen number 640 across and 480 down. The smaller the resolution, the larger the pixels, and hence the larger the images and text on the screen. However, the higher the resolution, the larger the area. A screen resolution of 800 by 600, for instance, contains more space for text and images, but these may appear smaller than when viewed at a resolution of 640 by 480.

Although these two are the most common screen resolutions, video cards nowadays offer even higher resolutions.

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  Screen Saver  

Data on a monitor display is presented as an array of tiny dots of light, burning on the inner surface of the cathode ray tube (CRT). When an image remains static for a long time, this may cause screen burn, which may eventually render the monitor useless. For this reason, small programs were created to run automatically after the monitor screen remains static for a number of seconds or minutes (depending on the user's settings.

Initially, screen savers displayed simple patterns, continuously changing shape and colour to vary the intensity of the dots of light. Nowadays they have developed into complicated multimedia experiences in their own right.

Screen savers do not erase the program or programs currently being run on the computers, and they can be de-activated by a simple press on the keyboard or a click of the mouse.

In education, screen savers have been found to be effective in their own way, especially in SEN cases.

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  Server  

A dedicated computer which provides particular functions to a network of computers. Data, for instance, can be strored on the server's hard disk, but can then be accessed by any computer which is networked to it. This is actually the main concept behind the use of the Internet, which makes use of a network of servers worldwide to provide access to public information by millions of computers across the globe.

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  Setup  

This is usually the program used to install software.

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  Shareware  

Software which is available free for sampling or evalution. You are required to pay for it or register after using it for a period of time. Sometimes it is confused with public domain software, which is completely free.

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  Shortcut  

In Windows this is usually an icon on the desktop which provides a link to a file or a folder.

Very often users may confuse the shortcut with the file or the folder itself. Deleting a shortcut does not necessarily mean that you have deleted the file or folder to which it is linked.

Shortcut links can usually be identified by the small framed arrow at the bottom left of the icon.

For example, the icon on the left, above, is a direct link to the file forms.htm. Deleting this icon will also delete the file itself. The icon on the right is a shortcut. Deleting this icon will not delete the file.

There are then Keyboard shortcuts. These are usually a combination of keys which, when pressed in combination or in succession, have the same effect as if clicking with the mouse on an icon or an option on a menu bar.

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  Software  

A program or group of programs which passes on instructions to the computer hardware to perform certain functions.

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  Soundcard  

A plug-in device which enables the PC to play sound. Unlike the Apple Macintosh computers, a PC has no in-built sound generation, and so a soundcard needs to be inserted into one of the PC's expansion slots in order to produce sound. Sound cards can also give you the facility of recording speech. Of course, for this to be possible you will need to have a microphone plugged into the soundcard.

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  Spreadsheet  

A dedicated program for displaying financial information in a grid of columns and rows. Modern spreadsheets have quite a number of features which enable more than just tabular display of numbers. MS Excel is a spreadsheet.

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  Surge Protector  

Surges are sudden increases in the electrical power, due to faults (or noises) or a component failure. Surges mat be dangerous for PC equipment. Surge Protectors, or Suppressors, are devices which filter this sudden burst of electrical power before it can damage the PC or any of its components.
See also UPS

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T

  Toolbar  

A small window containing a number of icons or buttons. In an application these buttons will give access to the functions of the program. On the Windows Desktop, these will launch other programs.

Usually, by clicking somewhere on the toolbar and dragging with the mouse, the toolbar can be moved across the screen or 'anchored' to any one of the sides.

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  TrueType Fonts  

TrueType Fonts were introduced by Apple and Microsoft as a means to print exactly what is displayed on screen. These are scalable fonts, in that they loose nothing of their resolution when reduced or enlarged.

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U

  Uninstalling Software  

The process of deleting from the system an application or software and all other related files. When a software is installed a number of files are usually set up on the hard disk, and not always in the software's directory as specified by the user. Modern software usually includes an Uninstaller program which should always be used whenever you wish to uninstall a program. It is not enough simply to go in Windows Explorer, find the software's directory, and delete it from there. This may upset the Windows registry and may have dire consequences. The software's dedicated uninstaller will remove the software files and will update the registry accordingly.

Not all earlier software may have uninstallers available. For this reason, there are dedicated uninstaller programs which can be used to install any software on the PC. These will keep track of all the files installed and where they are installed, so that when you wish to uninstall a program the correct files are removed safely.

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  UPS  

Short for Uninterrupted Power Supply. This is a device which keeps a fully-charged battery on standby in case of power failure. When there is loss of power, the system will automatically switch over to battery power without interrupting the current computer operations. Depending on the kind of UPS available, you may keep on working for a limited amount of time on battery backup power. The system is useful as it gives the user the chance to close all programs and switch of Windows properly. Without a UPS this is impossible, and may at worst cause some problems with the registry the next time the system is switched on.

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  URL  

Short for Uniform Resource Locator. It is the specific address of a particular resource or server on the Internet.

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  User Login Name  

The name you are required to enter in order to access your personal files on a network or your personal e-mail account. Together with the password it makes up your personal electronic ID.

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V

  Video Card  

Like the Sound Card, this card enables the PC to use multimedia functions. It enables the computer to display text, pictures and animations on the screen. The most recent video cards enable the screen to be displayed at a number of resolutions depending on the capabilities and/or limitations of the monitor.

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  Video Conferencing  

Nowadays the more precise technical term is Desktop Video Conferencing. It is the technology which enables participants to sit at their own desks in their own offices or classrooms, and call up other individuals via their PC, very much like a video telephone. It can be described as a sort of 'videophone', with the additional facility of sharing applications and files.

Video Conferencing has become an integral part of education in many countries where ICT and the Internet have been implemented in the classroom. The advantages are obvious and the potential enormous. Children from one particular classroom can communicate with others in other schools across the country or abroad, working on projects and sharing information and ideas.

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  Virus  

A program that interrupts the normal running of computer software or hardware. Such computer programs are so called because they are set to duplicate themselves on other hard disks when transferred from one computer to another via portable media, networks, e-mail or the Internet.

There are dedicated virus checker programs which scan the computer's storage media to check for any viruses and if possible delete them from the system.

Viruses can range from the merely annoying to the downright fatal. While some may simply display some senseless message or graphic on the screen, others may completely erase all data on the hard disk.

Some sound advice to avoid getting your system infected:

Buy a reliable virus checker software and update it regularly. Before subscribing to an ISP for Internet or e-mail service, make sure that they have virus checking software on their systems. This will greatly minimise the possibility of your getting infecting by downloading files or opening e-mail messages. Be weary when exchanging files on disk with other people. Check every new media (whether a floppy, a zip disk or a CD) you intend to use on your computer. Do not open any files before scanning the disk with your virus checker. This also includes magazine cover disks and commercial programs.

For updated information on viruses, go to the site www.ca.com/virusinfo.

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  Virus Checker  

Also known as a Virus Killer, this is a special software which scans the PC for any known virus. Whenever possible, once a virus is detected the program proceeds to delete it. This of course depends on the type of virus. The virus checker may be able to erase the virus without harming any data on the PC. Sometimes, however, the only way of killing a virus may require the total deletion of the data file carrying it.

New viruses appear by the thousands every month, and it may be possible that your virus checker, if not regularly updated, may fail to recognise the more recent ones. Nowadays regular updates of virus checkers are readily available for download from the manufacturer's web site. It is always wise to keep an eye on these and update regularly.

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W

  Web Page  

A computer document written in HTML and linked to other computer documents of the same type, through hypertext or other hyperlinks. HTML documents are recognisable by their extensions .htm or .html. These documents are read by browsers which display them accordingly on screen. A number of related HTML documents make up a web site.

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  Web Site  

A collection of web pages. Web sites are usually set up by organisations (such as the government, or commercial companies) or individuals, and are published, or uploaded on the Internet.

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  Windows  

A display technique in graphic user interfaces whereby a section of the screen is designed to act as a viewing area for a seperate body of text or graphics. This enables an application to display different sets of information in layers as if on seperate sheets, one appearing underneath the other. Each window can be moved by the user independently across the screen, enlarged to take up the whole screen, reduced to occupy just a corner or closed altogether (removed from the screen).

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  Word processor  

Initially the term was applied to specialised computers dedicated to the creation, editing, manipulation and storing of text documents. Nowadays the term is loosely used to specific software packages which serve the same function but which run on conventional computers. Microsoft Word is an example of a word processor.

Word processors today can boast of many features which go beyond the production of simple text-only documents. A dedicated word processor can create content tables and an index, can paginate the document in a number of ways and can even contain graphics. More sophisticated programs are the document publishers or desktop publishers, which can even produce documents ready-made for professional printing.

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  Write  

See Save

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  WWW  

Short for World Wide Web. The huge collection of information available on the Internet. As its name implies, it links all the internet servers from around the world into one huge network or web.

The WWW is an ever-growing phenomenon. From the 50 web sites registered around the world in 1992 (one year after the release of the WWW), the number has grown exponentially: 150 in 1993; 25,000 in 1995; 1,200,000 in 1996; 2,400,000 in 1997.

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Z

  Zip File  

A type of compression which enables a file to take less disk space. A zip file can be identified by its .zip extension. A compressed zip file has to be de-compressed (unzipped) in order for the computer to read it properly. There are various compression programs available specifically for this purpose.

Refer to Unzipping Archived Files in the Help Pages of this web site for more details.

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