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Building
Websites that Work the way your business does
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| This
glossary was put together to try and help our customers
understand the issues of data conversion, and the technical
terms that are most commonly used in the business. The
list is not all-inclusive, but over time it will evolve
into a valuable resource. That's where you might be
able to help! If there's a technical term you'd like
explained, send us an email. Chances are, you'll see
it up here in no time. |
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| 99.95%
accuracy: |
| An
accuracy measure usually used for key-entry or
OCR, this number literally translates to the percentage
of characters that are correct. 99.95% means that
there are no more than 5 character errors per
10,000 characters, which for typical materials
translates to 1-2 erroneous characters per page.
99.99% accuracy is 5 times as accurate with 1
error per 10,000 characters or 1 error every 5-10
pages. In United Informatics electronic conversions,
the standard character accuracy level is 100%. |
| Aggregator: |
| A
company who specializes in selling content from
multiple sources via the Web. Generally, the aggregator's
site is focused on a particular subject matter.
Although aggregators are most common in the Scientific,
Technical and Medical(STM) world, many are now
popping up in other fields such as Libraries,
Technology and Education. |
| Ambiguous
Mapping: |
| Ambiguous
mapping occurs when a particular style, code or
string maps to two or more possible SGML tags,
depending on context or content. For example,
italicized text may map to an SGML tag used to
mark case names ("Smith v Jones"), an SGML tag
used to mark foreign words ("c'est la vie"), or
an SGML tag used solely for emphasis ("almost").
The number of such ambiguities can usually be
resolved programmatically (e.g. italicized text
with the word v is a case name). |
| ASP: |
| An
Active Server Page is an HTML page that includes
scripts that are processed on the server side
before the page is sent to the user. The primary
purpose of using ASPs is so that a page can be
tailored specifically to the user, based on his
or her preferences. Basically the page pulls information
from a database and then builds the final page
on the fly before sending it to the browser. Examples
of ASPs are "My Yahoo" and the customized pages
that investment houses provide to allow you to
view "your portfolio" as soon as you sign on.. |
| CALS
Tables: |
| This
model for the representation of tabular data was
originally defined by the US Department of Defense
as part of its CALS document interchange initiative.
The table model (defined in military standard
MIL-M-28001B) has become a de facto standard within
the SGML industry. |
| Cascading
Style Sheet: |
| CSSs
allow authors and users to attach style (e.g.,
fonts, spacing, and aural cues) to structured
documents (e.g., HTML documents and XML applications).
CSSs separate the presentation style of documents
from the content of documents, and thereby simplify
Web authoring and site maintenance. Both Netscape
and IE now support CSSs. |
| CGM: |
| Computer
Graphics Metafile is a graphics file format developed
by experts working under the auspices of ISO and
ANSI, and was designed specifically as a common
format for the platform-independent interchange
of raster (bitmap) and vector data. This format
is used primarily to store vector graphics information.
CGM files typically contain either vector or raster
data, but rarely both. Used in its primary role
as a vector format, it offers the advantage of
small file size and resolution independence, while
not being tied to a specific software package
or hardware platform. CGM was adapted by the Department
of Defense as one of the CALS initiative standards. |
| Conditional
Text: |
| Conditional
text allows the selective inclusion of a piece
of text in an output document based on a series
of conditions. A desktop publishing program which
supports conditional text allows a user to have
a one master document with a series of variant
output documents. For example, a software manufacturer
may want to distribute one user manual to it's
customers and deliver the same manual with additional
text to its Technical Support people. Conditional
text makes this possible. Packages that support
conditional text include FrameMaker and Bookmaster. |
| DPI: |
| Dots
per inch are a measure of the sharpness or resolution
in an image. Higher DPIs result in greater quality
images although they can dramatically increase
file size. The effect of this is that images will
print more slowly or display more slowly on a
computer screen. With the Internet, sophisticated
compression algorithms have become popular to
dramatically reduce file size without compromising
quality. The JPEG format is an example of such
compression. For web display 72DPI is typical,
while for printing to a common laser printer 300
or 600 are more common. In Desktop Publishing,
DPIs are typically much higher. |
| DTD: |
| A
document type definition is a specific definition
that follows the rules of the Standard Generalized
Markup Language (SGML). A DTD is a specification
that accompanies a document and identifies markup
codes, and the rules for their use. SGML documents
need to be parsed or validated to ensure that
they conform to the DTD. A DTD is optional with
XML, but highly recommended with more complex
document sets. |
| GIF: |
| Graphics
Interchange Format is the most common format for
graphic images on the Internet. This highly-compressed
format is used to display 2-dimensional raster
images. A newer version, GIF 89a allows for an
animated GIF, which is a short sequence of images
within a single GIF file. GIF files are generally
not used for photographs on the Web; JPEGs are
optimized for that purpose. The LZW compression
algorithm used in the GIF format is owned by Unisys,
and companies that make products that use the
algorithm need to license its use from Unisys.
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| "Glass
Typewriter" : |
| This
particular problem is very often an issue with
data authored in the days preceding the sophisticated
desktop publishing packages and word processors
we know today. On older, proprietary document
systems, data was often formatted inconsistently
with the singular goal that it appear correctly
on screen. This "glass typewriter" approach is
not uncommon, and while it served its function
for display purposes, it greatly reduced the underlying
structural integrity of the data. Most markedly,
the practice greatly increases the complexity
and effort of enhancing and converting data to
more structured formats like XML, SGML, and FrameMaker. |
| HTML: |
| Hypertext
Markup Language is the set of "markup" codes or
tags inserted in files intended for display on
the World Wide Web. This markup tells the Web
browser how to display a Web page's text and images.
Examples of typical HTML tagging include the following:
HTML is a standard recommended by the World Wide
Web Consortium (W3C) and adhered to by the major
browsers. |
| IETM: |
| Interactive
Electronic Technical Manual. This technical manual
is usually stored on CD-ROM and provides for unique
user interactivity. In general, the IETM helps
do away with the page-turning that is normally
associated with paper manuals in order to see
referenced figures, tables, chapters, etc and
to do trouble-shooting. In the case of referenced
figures and tables, etc., the IETM lets the user
hyperlink directly to the referenced item. In
a trouble-shooting section, the user simply clicks
on the current problem and the IETM walks him/her
through the trouble-shooting process by specifying
a trouble-shooting test and the possible results
of the test. |
| JPEG: |
| Joint
Photographic Experts Group files are used for
monochrome, gray scale or full-color digital still
images. JPEGs use compression to tremendously
decrease file size while still maintaining high
image quality. JPEG has become the de facto standard
for photographs on the Web. |
| Mapping: |
| In
the context of XML/SGML conversions, this means
the specification of the SGML tagging to be produced
when a particular style (paragraph or font), coding,
or string of text is found in the input file.
For example, the ChapTitle style may map to the
SGML tagging , meaning that when the
paragraph style ChapTitle is found in the input
file, then the SGML-encoding software will produce
with the "..." representing the text
found in the paragraph styled as "ChapTitle".
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| Master
Format: |
| In
DCL's conversion methodology, this is a format
into which all incoming data is converted in order
to standardize it for further conversion processing.
DCL's master format uses SGML as its base. From
here, data can be converted to multiple output
formats, and even to multiple DTDs. The major
advantage of this approach is that all incoming
formats can be normalized into a common dataset
on which DCL's conversion software can operate.
The approach also facilitates multi-purposing
of the same data for multiple output formats.
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| OCR: |
| Optical
Character Recognition is a visual recognition
process that turns printed or written text into
an electronic character based file. The process
involves photo-scanning of the text character-by-character,
analysis of the scanned-in image, and then translation
of the character image into character codes, typically
ASCII. In OCR processing, the page image is scanned,
then analyzed for light and dark areas in order
to identify each alphabetic letter or numeric
digit. Popular commercial OCR packages include
the Xerox company's TextBridge and Adobe's Acrobat
Capture. |
| Parse: |
| While
traditionally a concept of syntax and grammar
validation, when used in relation to mark-up languages,
this terms refers to a process of validating files
by checking that tags are applied legally according
to a pre-defined structure. This structure is
typically defined by the Document Type Definition
(DTD). Common terms used in mark-up validation
are "parser" (a piece of software that validates)
and "parsed". |
| PDF: |
| Portable
Document Format ("PDF") reproduces the documents
almost precisely as they were originally composed,
provides built-in compression, is supported by
all popular operating systems and is compatible
with most printers. The freely available Adobe
Acrobat Reader is required to view, print and
search PDF documents. The PDF format was developed
by Adobe, is modeled after the PostScript language,
and is both device and resolution independent.
While mark-up languages are generally preferred
for content-oriented materials, PDF files are
especially useful for documents where appearance
is critical. A PDF file contains one or more page
images, each of which you can zoom in on or out
from. |
| Raster: |
| Also
referred to as bitmap images, these are images
that are represented by a sequence of pixels (picture
elements) or points, which when taken together,
describe the display of an image on an output
device. There are many different raster image
formats in use, among them GIF, JPEG, PCX, and
TIFF. |
| Resolution: |
| Resolution
refers to the number of pixels (individual points
of color) contained on a display monitor. The
number is expressed in terms of the number of
pixels on the horizontal axis and the number on
the vertical axis. The sharpness of the image
on a screen depends on both the resolution and
the size of the monitor. The same pixel resolution
will gradually lose sharpness as monitor size
increases because the same number of pixels are
now being spread over a larger physical area.
Resolution is similar to DPI except that DPI is
more typically used in regards to printed output.
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| Sample
Markup: |
| An
initial step in the Proof of Concept phase, this
refers to the text of a sample document with the
SGML tags inserted. The sample markup may be a
hardcopy document with the tags written in or
it may be an electronic SGML file along with the
corresponding hardcopy. |
| SGML: |
| Standard
Generalized Markup Language is an internationally
agreed standard for information representation.
SGML can be used for publishing in its broadest
definition - from single medium conventional publishing
on paper to on-line multi-media database publishing.
SGML can be used to produce files which can be
read by people, and exchanged between machines
and applications in a straightforward manner. |
| Styled: |
| Most
modern word processing and desktop publishing
programs allow the user to supply a base stylesheet
(sometimes called a template) so that 'like' paragraphs
can all have a similar look. A document is called
'styled' if the component paragraphs are produced
by use of these styles. |
| Stylesheet: |
| A
master document template made up of a collection
of styles. Most desktop publishing and word processing
packages come with a standard stylesheet (also
called template) that include styles for things
such as first-level headings and bulleted list
items. Stylesheets are critical to enforcing structure
and consistency across document sets, especially
where multiple authors are involved. |
| Template: |
| see
stylesheet. |
| Text
Frames: |
| Text
Frames are popular in desktop publishing, and
are used to position text absolutely on a page.
Many of the popular magazines that you read, render
sidebars and the like, by using text frames. Text
frames or boxes can significantly complicate the
conversion process because they do not follow
the logical 'story' structure of the document. |
| TIFF: |
| Tag
Image File Format is a common format for exchanging
raster (bitmapped) images between application
programs. Usually identified with the ".tiff"
or ".tif" filename extension, the format was developed
in 1986 by an industry committee chaired by the
Aldus Corporation (now part of Adobe). Microsoft
and Hewlett-Packard were also on the committee.
One of the more common image formats, TIFFs are
common in desktop publishing, faxing, and medical
imaging applications. |
| Unstyled: |
| Unstyled
documents are produced by using specific text
formatting (such as justification, emphasis, tabs,
indents, and font selection) for each paragraph
individually, rather then by giving them a specific
appearance based on selection of a particular
style from a preselected stylesheet. This approach
undermines the structural integrity of a document
and often leads to inconsistency within a set
of documents. Unstyled materials add tremendously
to the task of performing large-scale automated
conversions. |
| Vector: |
| Vector
images are images that are represented by collections
of independent line and shape objects which are
typically defined by mathematical formulas. This
makes these images easier to modify than raster
images. Popular vector image programs include
Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, and AutoCad. Typically,
each program will have its own vector file format. |
| WYSIWYG
(pronounced "wiz-ee-wig"): |
| Literally,
What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get, this refers to an
editor or program that incorporates a graphical
user interface (GUI) so that a developer (usually
working with code or markup) can see the end result
while creating the document. Many products now
exist for web design that allow pages to be build
graphically without the user having an in-depth
knowledge of the underlying HTML code. Adobe's
PageMill and Microsoft's Front Page are such products. |
| XML: |
| Extensible
Markup Language is a subset of ISO 8879, Standard
Generalized Markup Language (SGML). XML has been
designed specifically to function on the Web,
and both major browsers support it. Currently
a formal recommendation from the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C), XML is similar to HTML in that
both XML and HTML contain markup symbols to describe
the contents of a page or file. HTML, however,
describes the content of a Web page only in terms
of how it is to be displayed. XML describes the
content in terms of what the data is that is being
described. For example the tags
could indicate that the data following it was
an author's name and his affiliation. This allows
an XML file to be processed purely as data by
a program as well as being displayed in a certain
way. XML is "extensible" because, unlike HTML,
the markup symbols are unlimited and self-defining. |
| XSL: |
| Extensible
Stylesheet Language is a stylesheet language that
gives us the ability to specify how data coded
with XML will format on screen. This language
was developed based on the ISO companion standard
for SGML known as DSSSL (Document Style Semantics
and Specification Language.) |
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