Glossary of computer and
web site terms
(NOTE: Unless specified, these definitions are for Windows-based computers only.)

Browser – This is the computer program that lets you look at web pages. The most common browsers are Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator.

Button – When you look at a web page or a computer screen, you will often see pictures on the screen that look like buttons. For example, some of them look like this:

These can be clicked with your mouse to “push” them and go to a different page or open a program. Not all buttons look like the ones you see above! When we’re talking about web pages, it is also common to refer to any kind of link as a button. This means that sometimes pictures or text will be called buttons.

Click – When you put the mouse pointer over something and push the left mouse button, then you “click” it.

Home Page – This is the main page for a business, college, government, or organization.

Icon – This is similar to a button or a link. Often an icon is a picture that links to another page when you click it.

Internet – This is a vast collection of networks that talk to each other with a special computer language. This is short for “Inter-connected Networks”.

Link – This is a kind of shortcut to another web site or another page within the web site you’re looking at. A link can be a picture or text. Very often the text will be underlined, but not always!

Mouse – This is the device that you use to move a pointer across the computer screen. The mouse usually has 2 buttons on top (left and right). (A Macintosh mouse will have only one button.) For this web site, you only need to use the left mouse button.

Page – Sometimes this is called a web page. A page is the screen of information you see at any one time. A web site consists of one or more pages. You can think of it like pages in a book, with the web site being the whole book.

Pass Over – When you move the mouse pointer across the screen, sometimes it will turn into a hand. This means that the text or picture under the hand is a link. You have “passed over” with the mouse.

Pointer – This is the arrow that appears on your computer screen. You move the pointer by moving the mouse.

Task Bar – At the bottom of the screen is a blue bar that keeps track of the programs and web pages you have open. You will see a series of buttons to the right of the “Start” button.

Web Site – This refers to one or more pages of information that you can view on the World Wide Web.

World Wide Web – This is a part of the Internet. Sometimes called the WWW or the Web, this consists of pages of information that are written and transmitted in special computer languages.