F
File
A named, ordered collection of informa- tion stored on your hard disk or floppy disk.
File menu
A menu that lists commands that affect your documents. File menus typically contain commands such as Save, Print and Quit.
Floppy disk
A disk made of flexible plastic which stores information from your computer. Floppy disks come in two types: 3.5" and 5.25."
Font
A set of letters, numbers or symbols of the same typeface design.
G
GDI
An abbreviation for Graphics Device In- terface.
H
Handshaking
In data communications, the automatic ac- knowledgment by the receiving device of information that has been sent to it, either by signals and the interface ("hard") or by software controls ("soft").
Hex dump
Conversion by the printer of ASCII sym- bols into their hexadecimal (base 16) equivalent. This is useful for programmers or other users who want to troubleshoot the communications between the computer and the printer.
I
Icon
A small pictorial representation of an item on your computer's desktop in Windows.
Interface
A hardware plug that allows cable connec- tions of two devices. For example, a cable from a computer parallel port to a printer's
parallel port.
L
Landscape
Printing on paper across its wider dimen- sions, such as a spreadsheet that is 11 inches wide and 8.5 inches high; landscape pic- tures are usually wider than they are tall.
M
Megabyte
1024 kilobytes, or 1,048,576 bytes. Also represented as MB.
Memory
Part of the computer system that can store information and retrieve it later.
Menu
A list of items either in the group windows or in your applications from which you can select. These are selected by clicking on them with your mouse button.
Mouse
A device that controls the pointer arrow on your display in Windows.
Mouse button
The button on the top of the mouse which you press to make selections or do some action on your screen.
MS-DOS
Microsoft Disk Operating System.
O
Output
Information which is transferred from your computer to an external device such as your screen, a disk, printer or modem.
P
Parallel
A communications interface that sends or receives 8 bits of information plus control signals at a time.
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