glossary of internet terms - f

A COMPLETE LIST OF DEFINITIONS OF THE TERMS USED THROUGHOUT OUR WEBSITE

Use the letters below to jump to a particular section or scroll down through the definitions.

misc A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Fader - A vertical or horizontal sliding control used to alter the level of sound or other setting.

Fades, wipes and dissolves - Methods of moving from one scene to another, without a sudden 'jump' cut. Fades let the picture fade in and out from black or white. Wipes are like a curtain moving up, down or across to reveal the picture. And dissolves fade one picture into another.

FAQ - Stands for frequently asked questions, usually a text file containing useful information about an application or website.

FAT File Allocation Table - A system used by Windows to organise files stored on a hard disk. Windows 95 used a system called FAT16, Windows 98 and Me use FAT32 that allows, among other things, long filenames.

Favorites/Bookmarks - Your personal address book of places on the internet that you visit periodically. Bookmark a site and it will be stored in your Favorites/Bookmarks list for future visits.

Feathering - A term used to describe a print-out of a text or picture which is marred by blurred or irregular edges.

Field - In a database, a field is an individual container that can hold a particular type of information. For example, if you have a contacts list of your customers, each entry is called a record and the various parts of each record are called fields.

File extension - The file extension is the suffix ? or letters after the dot ? in a file's name. Examples include .doc (for a word document) and .xls (Excel) and .txt (Notepad). This is how Windows knows which application to use to open a particular file.

File Manager - Part of the Windows 3. 1 operating system, since replaced in later versions of Windows by Explorer. File Manager displays lists of all of the files you have stored on your PC's hard disk.

Fill - The interior area of a vector shape, which may be given a colour, gradient, pattern, texture or a bitmap image.

Filter - In image-editing, applies a transformation to either improve image quality or produce special effect on all or part of an image. There is a filter for every need from sharpening out-of-focus pictures to wrapping them round spheres.

Financial manager - A program to help you manage your money.

Firewall - A system that prevents unauthorised access to a computer over a network, such as the internet. Firewalls can be either hardware or software ? businesses tend to use the former; home users the latter.

FireWire - A super-fast data link between your PC and devices such as digital camcorders. Also known as IEEE1394.

Firmware - Basic software permanently stored on a device (such as a graphics card) that controls it's basic operation. Firmware can be upgraded using a process known as 'flashing'.

Flash -
An application used to create high-quality animations on websites.

Flash memory - A special type of memory that maintains its contents even when the host machine, like a palmtop computer, is switched off.

Flatbed - A type of image scanner that resembles a small photocopier. Place a document face down on the glass scanning bed and the scan-head is moved across it, building up a digital image as it goes.

Flat-panel display - Slim monitors, similar to the liquid-crystal displays (LCD) found in notebook computers, designed for use with desktop PCs.

Floppy disk - A small, rigid square of plastic used to store data. Inside the case is a circular magnetic disk (the floppy bit). The most common type of floppy disk is the 1. 44Mb 3. 5in version used by almost all PCs.

FM - Stands for frequency modulation, a method of generating sounds from simple wave forms.

FM synthesis - An old form of sound generation by soundcards. Still used by games, but doesn't sound as good as newer wavetable synthesis.

Folder - Files on PC's hard disk are arranged within a system of folders, which group related items together, helping you find the item you need. Folders have names to describe what's in them, for example: My Documents.

Font - A set of letters, numbers and other symbols in a particular style. Popular Windows fonts are Arial and Times New Roman.

Font size - This is the measurement typographers use to describe the size of text. Thus, 72pt text is bigger than 34pt text. The text you are reading now is set in 8. 5pt.

Footer - A special area at the bottom of a word-processor document: type something in here and it will appear at the base of every page.

Footprint - The desk area occupied by a peripheral, like a printer or scanner.

Force feedback - A term used to describe joysticks that can wiggle of their own accord, giving tactile feedback in games.

Form - A document formatted in a certain way for entering data, much like the paper version. Forms are typically used by databases.

Format - The process of preparing a floppy disk for use with a particular computer and operating system.

Formula bar - In spreadsheets, this is located at the top of the screen, above the grid of rows and columns. If a selected cell contains a formula, it will be visible in the formula bar. Otherwise any contents in a cell will be displayed in the formula bar. You can, for example, type text directly into a selected cell, or into the formula bar ? the result will be the same.

Formulas - Formulas tell spreadsheets how to act on data stored in cells. For example, '=SUM(B13+B16)' tells the program to add the contents of cells B13 and B16 together.

Fragmentation - When there's not enough contiguous room to save a file in one physical location on your hard disk, the file will be spread over several smaller locations. This fragmentation is an inevitable consequence of constantly saving and deleting files ? especially if space is scarce. Eventually your hard disk will need to be tidied up, or defragmented.

Frame rate - The number of images, or frames, shown each second that make up a moving image. The higher the rate, the smoother the moving image. Games and movies in particular benefit from high frame rates.

Frame size - The size or resolution of each individual frame of video, usually set on capture and dependent on whether you require full screen or a small video window on your monitor.

Frames (web animations) - Animated GIFs contain multiple images (otherwise they wouldn't move) which are held in frames, just like those you would see in a movie reel.

Frames (web pages) - In the context of web pages, these are used to segment content. One frame might contain a menu of the website while the other displays the information that you're interested in. The frame borders might be visible but are often hidden.

Freeware - Software, often downloadable from the internet, which is then free for you to keep and use.

FTP - Stands for File Transfer Protocol, which is a way of transferring files over the internet, particularly when maintaining websites.

Full duplex - The ability of a device (like a modem or sound card) to send and receive data simultaneously.
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