Hypertext Training Resources
	Glossary of HTML Terminology

These definitions are for the most part from 'Spinning the Web: How to Provide Information on the Internet', by Andrew Ford. (London, International Thomson Publishing Company, c1995, pp207-212)

Anchor

A marker for the beginning or the end of a hypertext link.

Attribute

A parameter of an HTML element, that modifies its effect.

Authoring Tool

A programme which partially automates the process of writing HTML.

Body

In reference to an HTML document, the main text part of a document: its content.

Bookmarks

Bookmarks are a set of stored URLs that can be used by a Web Client to connect to selected information resources on the Internet.

Browser

A program which sends requests for resources across networks and displays those resources when they are received. Another name for a Web Client program.

Client

A program requesting information from a Server program. In Web-speak the program that a person uses to browse the Web (also called a browser).

CWIS

a Campus-Wide Information Service provides network users with university-related information. At Murdoch, the CWIS is offered by means of a Home Page on the University's Web Server. The CWIS includes links to local Servers in Schools, Offices & Units as well as links to Servers throughout the Internet.

Element

A structural part of an HTML or SGML document.

GIF

Graphics Interchange Format. A standard graphics file format developed by CompuServe, Inc.

Head

That part of a Web document, at the beginning, which contains meta-information about the document.

Home Page

A Home Page is a top level hypertext document maintained on a Web Server which is displayed as the initial screen when Web Client software establishes a connection with a Web Server. It may also be known as a Welcome Page. The URL for the Home Page often includes the filename home.html or homepage.html. A Home Page may include links to other hypertext documents held on the Server and links to other Servers at the same site. There may also be links to information Servers at sites throughout the Internet. The URL for Murdoch University's Home Page is http://www.murdoch.edu.au/

HTML

Hypertext Markup Language. The markup language used for documents on the World Wide Web.

HTTP

Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol. The Internet protocol that is used to allow Web Clients to retrieve information from Web Servers.

Hypertext

Words or phrases in a document which when selected, usually by clicking with a mouse, are used as links which summon up other information.

Hypertext Link

A pointer from a place in a document to another destination. The destination may be a labelled point in the original document; a different document; a resource such as an image or video clip; or an information service such as a Gopher Server, a NMTP or news Server, a WAIS Server, an FTP Server or a telnet connection.

Hypertext Markup Language

The markup language used for World Wide Web documents

JPEG

Joint Photographic Experts Group, also refers to the graphics file format developed by that body.

MPEG

Motion Pictures Expert Group, also refers to the format for files containing moving pictures, developed by that group.

Node

A physcal sub-division of a logical Web document. When a large Web document is divided into smaller sections to facilitate rapid access across the Internet, each separate section is termed a node.

Protocol

A standardised description of the messages that computer programs exchange to communicate with each other over the Internet so as to provide a particular service. Also used to refer to the service, such as, FTP, HTTP, and so on.

Server

A program that provides a service by responding to requests from Client programs. The term is also used to refer to the computer system on which the Server program runs.

SGML

Standard Generalized Markup Language. A system for describing markup languages, standardized as an international standard, ISO 8879.

Tag

An SGML character sequence that starts an element. The term has the same meaning in HTML.

URC

Uniform Resource Citation. A new Internet addressing system, still under discussion, that will allow multiple copies of a resource to be identified.

URI

Uniform Resource Identifier. A standard means of addressing resources on the Web.

URL

A Uniform Resource Locator, or URL, is a unique string of characters that includes details such as access method, host computer, directory and filename information. URLs for the documents on the Web begin with the access method http and end with either a forward slash /, or the filename extension .htm or .html

The current addressing scheme for resources on the Web, which gives the location of a particular copy of a resource.

URN

Uniform Resource Name. A new Internet addressing scheme, still under discussion, which will allow multiple copies of resources to be identified.

Welcome Page

The introductory Web Page for a Web Server, also referred to as a Home Page.

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web, also known as the Web or WWW, is an Internet protocol that enables the transmission of text, graphics, software and sound files between computers using communications based on the Client/Server model and employing hypertext links.