About glossary

This little glossary meant for beginners. It explains only the terms that we consider essential for good use of vGallery.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

Alias - (Mac OS, equals Shortcut under Windows) a computer desktop icon that enables user to easily see and select a particular program or data object. The operating system comes with some shortcuts already visible on the desktop. User can remove these or add new ones. An alias is recognizable by a small arrow on the bottom-left of its icon. Accidental deletion of an alias does not affect the file it represents. To make an alias on Mac OS, click the wanted item, go to File menu on the menu bar and choose Create Alias.

Application - shorter form of application program; a program designed to perform a specific function directly for the user or, in some cases, for another application program.

B

Button - a user interface element that provides the user a simple way to trigger an event, like searching for a query or to interact with dialog boxes, like confirming an action.

C

Ctrl - keyboard key, generally placed at the extreme left side of keyboard.

D

Data - anything in a form suitable for use with a computer.

Desktop - (or Finder on Mac Os). The area of the screen in graphical user interfaces against which icons and windows appear.

Directory - (catalog, folder) entity in a file system, which contains a group of files and/or other directories.

Display modes - in vGallery, there are three manners by which records can be displayed :

Dock - extensible bar in MacOS X that offers a convenient way to access commonly used applications, files, and folders. You can customize Dock by dragging and dropping the features you use the most.

Document - block of arbitrary information, or resource for storing information, which is available to a computer program and is usually based on some kind of durable storage. Computer documents (files) can be considered as the modern counterpart of paper documents that traditionally were kept in offices' and libraries' files, which are the source of the term.

E

Extension (filename extension) - a suffix to the name of a computer file applied to indicate the encoding convention (file format) of its contents. For example, ".jpg" is extension of image compressed in JPEG format; ".psd" is extension of Adobe Photoshop file, etc.

F

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) - listed questions and answers, all supposed to be frequently asked in some context, and pertaining to a particular topic.

Field - (vGallery), a named unit of information that can be of several types e.g. text, calculation or container, editable or not, standard or formatted. In Address Book, for example, Last Name, First Name, Company, are editable fields, in Invoicing, Balance Due is a calculation field that cannot be modified.

File - block of arbitrary information, or resource for storing information, which is available to a computer program and is usually based on some kind of durable storage.

Finder - default application program used by Mac OS and Mac OS X operating systems that is responsible for the overall user-management of files, disks, network volumes and the launching of other applications. See also Desktop.

M

Mac OS (Macintosh Operating Systems) - operating system installed on Apple computers.

Menu - a list of available features.

Menu bar - menu bar is a region where computer menus are housed. Under Mac OS, the menu bar is a horizontal "bar" anchored to the top of the screen. On the left side, it contains the Apple menu and the currently focused application menus (e.g. File, Edit, View, Window, Help). The menu bar under Microsoft Windows is usually anchored to the top of a window under the title bar; therefore, there can be many menu bars on screen at one time.

Modes

Module - (vGallery), virtual unit. Address Book, Works, Press, work as independent modules although they belong to the same file.

P

Password - access to modules can be secured by a password. If you want to deny free access to your data, do not forget to indicate a password. See how to change password in the chapter User Settings.

PDF (Portable Document Format) - a file format created by Adobe Systems for document exchange. PDF is used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system. PDF files can be prepared to read on PDAs or computers (Acrobat Reader required) or to be sent to your printer. Thanks to the variety and quality of its features, the PDF format has become indispensable.

R

Record - see Display modes.

S

Sidebar - extension area present in Works, Invoicing and Events (in Record Mode). To show or hide the sidebar, click on the blue bar located at the extreme left of the windows. The sidebar contains additional information. The data entered in the sidebar is sometimes difficult to be refreshed. Click outside of the fields to force refresh.

Screen resolution - refers to the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It is expressed by the physical number of columns and rows of pixels creating the display (e.g., 1280×1024). To change the screen resolution under Windows, right-click on the desktop and then left click on Properties from the menu that appears. The display properties dialogue box will appear, click on the settings tab at the top right of the box. In Screen resolution area slide the bar along to the resolution of your choice and then click the Apply button. Under Mac OS (10 and later), go to System Preferences, select Monitor to modify the resolution of your monitor.

Shortcut - (see Alias). To create a shortcut under Windows, right-click on an element and point Create Shortcut in contextual menu.

V

Value lists - contained in certain fields to make entering of repetitive data easier. The fields containing a value lists are marked by a bottom pointed arrow. If a value list is long, you can quickly tape some first characters of wanted value. A value list can be fixed in advance or dynamic, containing only the data you previously entered.