Glossary

Facebook is a social networking website that was originally designed for college students, but is now open to anyone 13 years of age or older. Facebook users can create and customize their own profiles with photos, videos, and information about themselves. Friends can browse the profiles of other friends and write messages on their pages.

Each Facebook profile has a "wall," where friends can post comments. Since the wall is viewable by all the user's friends, wall postings are basically a public conversation. Therefore, it is usually best not to write personal messages on your friends' walls. Instead, you can send a person a private message, which will show up in his or her private Inbox, similar to an e-mail message.

Facebook allows each user to set privacy settings, which by default are pretty strict. For example, if you have not added a certain person as a friend, that person will not be able to view your profile. However, you can adjust the privacy settings to allow users within your network (such as your college or the area you live) to view part or all of your profile. You can also create a "limited profile," which allows you to hide certain parts of your profile from a list of users that you select. If you don't want certain friends to be able to view your full profile, you can add them to your "limited profile" list.

This strange term refers to the way Windows stores data on your hard drive. "FAT" stands for "File Allocation Table," which keeps track of all your files and helps the computer locate them on the disk. Even if a file gets fragmented (split up into various areas on the disk), the file allocation table still can keep track of it. FAT32 is an improvement to the original FAT system, since it uses more bits to identify each cluster on the disk. This helps the computer locate files easier and allows for smaller clusters, which improves the efficiency of your hard disk. FAT32 supports up to 2 terabytes of hard disk storage. Unless you are a serious power user, that should be more than enough space for you.

A file is a collection of data stored in one unit, identified by a filename. It can be a document, picture, audio or video stream, data library, application, or other collection of data. The following is a brief description of each file type.

Documents include text files, such as a Word documents, RTF (Rich Text Format) documents, PDFs, Web pages, and others. Pictures include JPEGs, GIFs, BMPs, and layered image files, such as Photoshop documents (PSDs). Audio files include MP3s, AACs, WAVs, AIFs, and several others. Video files can be encoded in MPEG, MOV, WMV, or DV formats, just to name a few.

A library file is a unit of data that is referenced by a specific program or the operating system itself. These include plug-ins, components, scripts, and many others. An application is a program, or executable file. Programs such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Apple iTunes are both applications, but are also files.

Files can be opened, saved, deleted, and moved to different folders. They can also be transferred across network connections or downloaded from the Internet. A file's type can be determined by viewing the file's icon or by reading the file extension. If the file type is associated with a specific application, double-clicking the file will typically open the file within the program.

A file extension is the last part of a filename, after the dot (e.g. ".pdf"). Most file extensions are three characters long, but they can be shorter or longer as well. File extensions are used to define the file type of each file. The operating system uses this information to select which application will open the file and choose the appropriate icon for the file.

Visit the Sharpened File Extensions Reference to view an extensive list of file extensions and their associated file types.

A file format describes the way data is stored in a file. It defines the data structure (how the data is organized in the file) as well the type of data that the file contains. Some file formats are "open formats," meaning they are publicly available and can be used by all software developers. Other file formats are proprietary or "closed formats," meaning they can only be opened by specific applications.

There are two different ways of storing data in a file – as text or binary data. Text-based file formats, such as XML and HTML, store data as plain text, which means the file content can be viewed in a text editor. Binary files, on the other hand, can only be opened with a program that recognizes the specific file format. While some binary files can be opened in a text editor, most of the data will appear garbled and unintelligible.

Most people have several thousand files on their computer's hard disk, so imagine how hard it would be to find anything if the files were not organized. Fortunately, all hard disks use a file system, which organizes all the files on the disk. The file system is created when you initialize or format your hard disk. It sets up the root directory and subsequent directories beneath it. The file system allows you to create new files and folders, which are added to different parts of the "file tree" on your hard disk.

For example, your hard disk probably has separate folders for programs, documents, pictures, music, and movie files. Within these folders, there are likely other folders that futher organize your files. All these folders (or directories) are organized by your computer's file system. There are also several folders your computer's operating system uses to store system files, such as startup data and system preferences. Some of these folders are invisible to the user, but are recognized by the computer's file system.

Older Windows machines used a file system called FAT32, while newer Windows computers use NTFS. Macintosh computers used the HFS file system for a long time, but now use an updated version of HFS, called HFS+. Though you typically don't need to know all the details of your computer's file system, it is nice to know that it is always working to keep your files organized.

A file type, as the name implies, is a specific type of file. Some file types are associated with a single application, while others file types are universal and can be opened by several different programs. For example, a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation (saved with a .PPTX extension) is a proprietary file type that can only be opened by Microsoft PowerPoint. A rich text document (saved with an .RTF extension) is a universal file type that can be opened by most text editors.

You can often identify a file type by a file's extension. For example, a .DOCX file is a Microsoft Word document. ".DOCX" is the file extension, while "Microsoft Word document" is the file type. Proprietary file types typically include the program name in the file type, while universal file types do not. For example, a .JPG file is simply called a "JPEG image" since it is not associated with a specific application.

Important: While the terms "file type" and "file format" are often used interchangeably, a file format technically refers to the way data is stored within a file.

A filename is a text string that identifies a file. Every file stored on a computer's hard disk has a filename that helps identify the file within a given folder. Therefore, each file within a specific folder must have a different filename, while files in different folders can have the same name.

Filenames may contain letters, numbers, and other characters. Depending on the operating system, certain characters cannot be used since they conflict with operators or other syntax used by the operating system. Different operating systems also have different limits for the number of characters a filename can have. While older operating systems limited filenames to only 8 or 16 characters, newer OS's allow filenames to be as long as 256 characters. Of course, for most practical purposes, 16 characters is usually enough.

Filenames also usually include a file extension, which identifies the type of file. The file extension is also called the "filename suffix" since it is appended to the filename, following a dot or period. For example, a Microsoft Word document may be named "document1.doc." While technically the filename in the preceding example is "document1" and "doc" is the extension, it is also acceptable to refer to "document1.doc" as the filename. In some cases, the filename may even refer to the file's directory location, i.e. ("\My Documents\School Papers\document1.doc").

A structure for containing electronic files. In some operating systems, it is called a directory.

Just like real world folders, folders on your hard drive store files. These files can be documents, programs, scripts, libraries, and any other kind of computer file you can think of. Folders can also store other folders, which may store more files or other folders, and so on.

Folders allow people to organize their files in a way that makes sense to them. For example, a college student might store all her photos in a folder named "Pictures," all her papers in a folder named "School Work," and all her financial information (including the tens of thousands of dollars in student loans) in a folder named "Finances." All these folders might reside within a folder called "My Documents."

The computer's operating system also uses folders to store data such as system files, library files, and user preferences. Often, the folders that the system uses are locked, meaning users cannot alter their contents.

A font is a specific typeface of a certain size and style. For example, one font may be Arial 12 pt bold, while another font may be Times New Roman 14 pt italic.

Most word processing programs have a Font menu that allows you to choose the typeface, size, and style of the text. In order to use a font, you must have it installed on your computer. Windows provides access to fonts using the Fonts control panel. The Mac OS stores fonts in a Fonts folder and includes a separate "Font Book" application for managing fonts.