Glossary

Stands for "Kilobits Per Second." Don't confuse this with Kilobytes per second (which is 8 times more data per second). This term is commonly used in describing data transfer rates. For example, two common modem speeds are 33.6 Kbps and 56 Kbps.

As the name implies, a keyboard is basically a board of keys. Along with the mouse, the keyboard is one of the primary input devices used with a computer. The keyboard's design comes from the original typewriter keyboards, which arranged letters and numbers in a way that prevented the type-bars from getting jammed when typing quickly. This keyboard layout is known as the QWERTY design, which gets its name from the first six letters across in the upper-left-hand corner of the keyboard.

While the design of computer keyboards may have come from typewriters, today's keyboards have many other keys as well. Modifier keys, such as Control, Alt/Option, and Command (Mac) or the Windows key (Windows) can be used in conjunction with other keys as "shortcuts" to perform certain operations. For example, pressing Command-S (Mac), or Control-S (Windows) typically saves a document or project you are working on. Most of today's computer keyboards also have a row of function keys (F1 through F16) along the top of the keyboard, arrow keys arranged in an upside-down T, and a numeric keypad on the right-hand side. Some keyboards have even more buttons, allowing you to change the system volume, eject a CD, or open programs such as your e-mail or Web browser.

A keyboard shortcut is a key combination that performs a certain command, such as closing a window or saving a file. For example, pressing "Control-S" in a Windows program or "Command-S" on the Mac is the standard shortcut for saving an open document. You can also usually close a window on the Mac by pressing "Command-W" or by pressing "Alt-F4" in Windows. The shortcut for copying data is usually "Control-C" (Windows) or "Command-C" (Mac) and for pasting data, it is "Control-V" (Windows) or "Command-V" (Mac).

Most keyboard shortcuts are shortcuts for commands located in a program's menu bar. For example, most of the commands within the File and Edit menus have standard shortcuts. Each command that has a keyboard shortcut usually has the shortcut listed next to the command in the menu. For example, the Save option in a Windows program will usually have the text "Ctrl+S" next to it, indicating that pressing Control and S together will save the document.

While most keyboard shortcuts are located in a program's menu bar, there are many keyboard shortcuts that are sometimes not visible to the user. To view a list of keyboard shortcuts available for the Macintosh and Windows operating systems, view the pages below:

Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts | Windows XP Keyboard Shortcuts

A keystroke is typing one character on a keyboard (not stroking your keyboard like a cat). Every time you hit a key, you perform a keystroke. Therefore, 5400 keystrokes in one hour means hitting 5400 keys in one hour, or 90 keys a minute (5400 ÷ 60 minutes).

Sometimes keystrokes per hour (KSPH) or keystrokes per minute (KSPM) are used to measure typing speed instead of words per minute (WPM). After all, typing the word "hi" 50 times doesn't take quite as long as typing "Nebuchadnezzar" 50 times.

A kilobyte is 2 to the 10th power, or 1,024 bytes.

"But doesn't 'kilo' mean one thousand?" you ask. Well yes, but in the computer world, certain rules and guidelines don't have the same influence they do in other areas of life. Just ask any computer programmer. A kilobyte is technically 1,024 bytes because it is measured by 2^10, which equals 1,024. However, kilobytes are often estimated as 10 to the 3rd power, or 1,000 bytes. While this makes it easier to add kilobytes together, estimating can throw off larger measurements. This is because 1,024 kilobytes equal one megabyte, 1,024 megabytes equal one gigabyte, and so on.

Most small files on your computer are measured in kilobytes. For example, thumbnail images might use only 5 to 10KB of space. A larger 900x600 pixel JPEG image can take up 250KB of space. Text files are often less than 1KB. Most documents you save on your computer should be between 1 and 1,024KB. Anything larger than 1,024KB is measured in megabytes.

Equal to 1,024 bytes.