A glossary of over 60 acronyms, neologisms, and other "gibberish" from
Neil Perlin's presentation on 9/8/2005
Hastily "hand-coded" by the NEO STC webmaster
ASTD
American Society for Training and Development.
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AuthorIT
Single-source content management software product.
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Blog
Web log: a frequently-updated web page, usually resembling a diary or commentary.
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Bluetooth
A low-cost, short-range, wireless computer networking technology.
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Camtasia
A software studio of computer screen recording for demonstration, presentations and training.
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Captivate
A software product for creating interactive simulations and software demonstrations.
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CFO
Corporate Financial Officer: the person within a business who's responsible for allocating funds.
Clippy
A paperclip-shaped virtual person found in Microsoft Office 1997 and 2000.
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CMS
Content Management System: a type of application designed to store and organize many documents in a complex database.
CSML
Cave Survey Markup Language: an XML-based language used by speleologists.
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CSS
Cascading Style Sheets: a standard format for globally assigning format styles to web content.
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Enterprise-class XML-based authoring and publishing software product, whose niche is large documents.
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GIF
Graphics Interchange Format, a compressed image file format popularized by CompuServe in the 1990s,
and remaining popular today particularly because it allows animation with quick download times.
HTML
HyperText Markup Language, a language which allowed authors to mark up (format) text to be published on the World Wide Web.
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International Society for Performance Improvement.
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IT
Information Technology, a department often found in larger companies, whose role it is to
support their fellow employees (as opp. to clients).
J2ME
Java version 2 platform, Micro Edition: a development environment for wireless mobile devices.
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JPEG
Joint Photographic Experts Group: an organization who designed (and copyrighted) an image file compression
format especially effective for photographs (as opp. to drawings, movies or logos).
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Longhorn
Project name for the version of Microsoft Windows after Windows XP. Now called Vista.
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Lotus 1-2-3
An early spreadsheet program, once a rival of Microsoft Excel
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MAML
(1) Micro Array Markup Language. (2) Microsoft Assitance Markup Language.
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Metadata
Information about information. Ex: a web user needs to skim a web site about entomology.
To find such a web site, the user must first skim metadata to find such a web site.
Metator
Metatag editor, a term coined by Bob Boiko.
Microsoft Agent
A "virtual person" found in Microsoft Office 1997 and 2000.
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MS-DOS
Microsoft Disk Operating System, what PCs ran before Windows.
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OASIS
Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards.
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PDF
Portable Document File or Portable Document Format.
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PNG
Portable Network Graphic: a file format for compressing images without the loss of quality
characteristic of JPEG files.
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Podcast
A democratized radio show, similar to blogs but in an audio format.
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RDF
Resource Description Format: the W3C's standard for structuring metadata.
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RFID
Radio Frequency Identification: a technology similar to bar codes, but readable by transponder
rather than by a scanner.
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RFP
Request For Proposal: documentation, supplied by a business to its potential vendors before a
contract is negotiated, explaining what is needed for a project.
RoboHelp
A popular but aging help-authoring software product.
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ROI
Return On Investment: the capability (and sometimes speed) with which a new and perhaps expensive
business policy "pays for itself."
RSS
Really Simple Syndication. (Competing standards and versions expand this acronym differently.)
The technology and XML-based file format which makes it possible for one web site to make some of its
content available for automatic republishing on other web sites.
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SGML
Standard Generalized Markup Language. A structured data standard, the constraints of which apply to
many markup languages such as HTML and XML.
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Single sourcing
Using a single document to produce multiple documents, in multiple formats, for multiple audiences.
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SVG
Scalable Vector Graphics: a W3C standard file format which is more powerful and more complex than
currently popular file formats, though still well-compress for more efficient download.
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SWF
ShockWave Flash: a file format used to transmit Flash movies.
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Syntax predictability
A file's level of compliance with its format, necessary for proper rendering and interpretation
by the recipient's computer.
Veredus
An XML-based help-authoring software product by Rascal Software.
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Virtual People
A computer-generated character, especially for the purpose of automated technical support.
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Vista
Current product name for the version of Microsoft Windows after Windows XP. Previously called Longhorn.
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W3C
WWWC: World Wide Web Consortium: the standards body responsible for web-based file format standards.
The STC is a member organization of this consortium.
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W3C Watch
A liaison organization chaired by Neil Perlin, consisting of STC members, who monitor
and report on W3C standards, and their effect on technical communicators.
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Web help
Trade name for a few computer-based tools based on and/or supporting use of the World Wide Web.
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WebHelp
Trade name for a few other computer-based tools based on and/or supporting use of the World Wide Web.
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WebWorks ePublisher Pro
Single-source content generation software product.
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Wiki
Online collaborative documentation. (WikiWiki means "Quick" in Hawaiian.)
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Wikipedia
Arguably the most popular encyclopedia on the World Wide Web. It uses Wiki technology, as opposed
to other, established encyclopedias which are carefully developed by a private organization.
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Windows Help
In-product documentation for Microsoft Windows.
WinHelp
A help-authoring tool designed for Windows, but not owned by Microsoft.
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XHTML
eXtensible HTML. (See HTML and Extensible.)
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XML
eXtensible Markup Language: an extensible set of formatting rules, not for text, but rather for
any structcured data.
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XMP
eXtensible Metadata Platform: a document labeling technology that allows the embedding of metadata
into the file itself.
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XSLT
XML Stylesheet Language Transformations: a language for transforming XML documents into other XML documents.
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