Web Design Glossary

Atom

Blog

An online diary or journal, usually consisting of regular, short, time-stamped posts from one author (though sometimes more than author and/or longer posts). One of the key features is that readers can interact with the author through some sort of comment system on the blog itself, or by commenting in their own blog. The network of blogs is known as the blogosphere.
See also: Atom, RSS

CDATA

Used in an XML document to demarcate areas of the document which contain character data - ie. are not to be parsed as XML.
In the context of web standards, applies to elements which are planned to be removed from a future version of the standard but are currently still valid.

JSON

RSS

Browser

A language for the Web to define the look and feel of a Web page. Using a <acronym title="Cascading Style Sheet">CSS</acronym> stylesheet it is possible to define the visual look of web page elements - including the fonts, colours, borders, spacing and positioning. It also allows for different styles to be used for different output media, for example print or handheld devices. Earlier versions of <acronym title="HyperText Markup Language">HTML</acronym> mixed information about presentation (ie. the style) with information about content (ie. the text on the page), <acronym title="Cascading Style Sheet">CSS</acronym> allows a 'seperation of concerns' which is considered good practice not only in web design and development but in the wider world of software engineering.
See also: HTML, XHTML, Web Standards, CSSFirstSteps, CSSForPageLayout, CSSAdvancedTopics
External links: W3C CSS Home Page∞, CSS Discuss Wiki∞, CSS Beginner's Guide∞, CSS Zen Garden∞, Position Is Everything∞
See: Cascading Style Sheets
See also: XHTML, CSS, HTMLFirstSteps

JPEG

Shortened version of JPEG commonly used to identify JPEG files by the addition of a three letter extension, eg. picture.jpg

---

CategoryWebDesign
CategoryWebDevelop

Accessibility

Accessibility is the degree to which that Web site is usable, traditionally this is considered in the context of web browsers and people with disabilities such as visually impaired people using screen readers, who therefore cannot take advantage of visual or graphical cues, colour blind people, who cannot distinguish between page elements of different colours but the same intensity, or people who are physically impaired, who perhaps cannot easily manipulate a mouse to click on small areas. In recent years, with a greater focus on web standards and multiple browsing devices, the term has taken on a slightly wider meaning and is now usually considered in the wider context of useability - accessibility is an issue for all users, not just those normally considered disabled, and outside just the standard web browser. For example, use of small fonts can make large blocks of text difficult to read even for those with normal eyesight, and users today are far more likely to be accessing a website using their PDA or phone or even TV.
See also: Useability, Web Standards, WAI and WCAG
External links: W3C Accessibility Page∞, Jaws Screen Reader∞, Accessibility Services∞, Google Accessible Search∞

Agent

See also: User Agent, Robot

AJAX

Apache

See also: Web Server

Applet

See also: Java

Application Server

See also: Web Server

Attribute

Aural

Azimuth

CGI

CSS

DHTML

DOM

DPI

DTD

GIF

HTML

HTTP

PNG

Robot

SOAP

Useability

W3C

WAI

WCAG

Web Browser

See also: User Agent

Web Server

Web Standards

WYSIWYG

WYSIWYG editor

XHTML

XML

XSL

XSLT