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ANSI
American National Standards Institute
ASCII
ASCII is an acronym that stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, a standard originally defined by ANSI which assigns the binary values used by computers to letters, numbers and symbols recognizable by humans. ASCII is described in many places on the web, such as ComputerHope.com.
aspect ratio
In these help pages, aspect ratio typically refers to the ratio of width to height of a picture or digital image. When resizing a digital image, it is usually best to maintain the same aspect ratio to avoid a stretched appearance.
Before Common Era
BCE and BC refer to the years before 1 AD / CE.
cascading stylesheet (CSS)
A cascading stylesheet defines styles that control the format of HTML elements. CSS is also used to refer to the statements that appear inside a CSS stylesheet and in the style parameter on HTML elements.

An in-depth discussion of styles and stylesheets is beyond the scope of this glossary. There are many reference guides for CSS on the web, including one at w3schools that you may find useful. The official standards are published and maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium. See their CSS home page for more information.

case sensitivity
In computer parlance, case sensitivity refers to how text is processed with regards to uppercase and lowercase characters. "Case sensitive" operations consider an uppercase character to be different from a lowercase character. "Case insensitive" operations consider an uppercase character to be the same as a lowercase character.

Case sensitivity affects text comparisons. If an operation is case sensitive, then "Example" is not the same as "example".

Text comparisons are performed when sorting text, so a case sensitive sort will not sort "Example" and "example" together. Using a simple character sort, uppercase letters sort before all lowercase letters, so "Example" will sort before "apple".

Most text comparison operations in GedSite are case insensitive: uppercase and lowercase characters are treated as being equal.

CD (compact disc) or CD-ROM (compact disc, read-only memory)
In general computer parlance, CD refers to a compact disk, a 4.75" diameter optical disc digital storage medium.
citation reference
A citation reference is a superscript number following an event, a name, a relationship, or other genealogical data that references an associated item in the following citation list.
coaster
A coaster is a DVD or CD that cannot be read. When a disc cannot be read, it is better at preventing wet cups and glasses from staining the furniture than it is at storing data!
Common Era
CE and AD refer to the years starting after 1 BC / BCE
Content Item
Content Items are a subset of User Items. Content Items add content to pages and must be added to a Page User Item or they will not be visible.
custom sentence
A custom sentence is a sentence that has been keyed into the sentence field for a specific name or event. See default sentence.
default preposition
A variable expression may include a preposition (also known as a prefix) that prints before the value of the variable but only if the variable is not empty. Some variables, such as the date and place variables, have a default preposition that is displayed when the conditional variable reference does not include a user-supplied preposition.
default sentence
The default sentence for a name or event is the sentence defined for the tag type. So, the default sentence for a particular Marriage event is the sentence defined for the Marriage tag. See custom sentence.
deprecated
A deprecated feature is one that is being phased out. In these Help pages, deprecated usually refers to HTML elements and parameters that have been superceded by CSS parameters.
direct import
GedSite reads GEDCOM files. It will also read genealogy data directly from the database of selected genealogy applications, which is described as a "direct import".
DIV
A DIV element is an HTML element that is used to create a generic block of content. GedSite uses DIV elements for a variety of content. For more information, see the specification.
DVD
DVD stands for Digital Video Disc, an optical disc storage media format that is similar to a CD. When used with GedSite, a DVD is a high-capacity replacement for a CD-ROM disc. GedSite does not create video DVDs that you can view using a DVD player; GedSite creates data files that you may burn to a blank DVD disc.
flash drive
A flash drive is a removable data storage device that uses non-volatile memory to store data. The most common examples are USB devices. They are also called thumb drives, data sticks, and many other names.
FTP
File Transfer Protocol is a set of technical rules for exchanging files on the Internet. See the Wikipedia article on FTP for more information.
GEDCOM Standard
According to WikiPedia, "GEDCOM (an acronym standing for Genealogical Data Communication) is an open de facto specification for exchanging genealogical data between different genealogy software. GEDCOM was developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [...] as an aid to genealogical research."

There are multiple versions of the GEDCOM standard. GedSite follows version 5.5.1 as described in a document titled The GEDCOM Standard, Draft Release 5.5.1, prepared by the Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and dated 2 October 1999. While labeled a draft, version 5.5.1 is the de facto standard. The only other version in widespread use is version 5.5, released 2 January 1996. Most GEDCOM documents that claim to follow version 5.5 include structures or options defined in version 5.5.1.

All the GEDCOM standards, including version 5.5.1 and version 5.5, include ambiguous definitions and suffer from other problems. Also, because the standards do not support all the data items that are recorded by genealogy applications, GEDCOM documents include many non-standard data records. For that reason, GedSite has been designed and implemented to support application-specific data import rules.

geocode
When used as a verb, to geocode typically means to assign a latitude and longitude to a location based on its address. In some cases, a mapping service will derive a set of coordinates, such as the outline of a city, state, or country, based on the input text.

Geocoding is an imprecise process where the results vary by the components of the address and the database and software used by the geocoding application.

H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6
H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6 are HTML elements that are used to create section headings. GedSite uses Hn elements for page and section titles. For more information, see the specification.
HRef
HyperText Reference, which specifies the location of a web resource and is used as the destination of a hypertext link. Often called a "web address" or "URL". See the W3C's Links page.
HTML
HyperText Markup Language, the language used to create most web pages. The HTML standard is administered by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
HTTP
HyperText Transfer Protocol is a set of technical rules for exchanging files on the World Wide Web. See the Wikipedia article on HTTP for more information.
image code
In GedSite, an image code is the filename portion of an image file, i.e., the image code does not include the filetype. GedSite populates various pull-down menus with a pre-defined set of image codes that represent image files that are defined in one or more Themes. Users can add to the set of available image codes by adding graphic files to the Input (-i) Folder. The filetype is omitted because Themes may provide image files in different formats, so Theme1 may use "background.jpg" but Theme2 may use "background.gif". The user chooses the image code "background", and GedSite searches for background.gif, background.jpg, and background.png, in that order, and uses the first file it finds.
input folder
GedSite creates the Input (-i) folder automatically when you make a new GedSite file. GedSite appends "-i" to the GedSite file name and uses that as the Input folder name. Graphic files you supply, and any other files that should be copied to the Output (-o) folder should be placed in the Input (-i) folder.
IPTC
The IPTC is a consortium of the world's major news agencies. The IPTC's primary focus is on developing and publishing industry standards for the interchange of news data. Many image editing programs support the IPTC standard for embedding metadata in the image file. See the Exhibits page for information about how GedSite uses IPTC-format metadata stored in image files.

ISP
ISP is an acronym that stands for Internet Service Provider. An ISP is a company that provides access to the Internet. Many cable TV providers are also ISPs.
Javascript
Javascript is a programming language that is primarily used to add functionality to web pages. See the Wikipedia article on Javascript for more information.
JPEG
JPEG is commonly used to refer to digital image files that have been compressed with the JPEG compression method.
JSON
JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a text-based format for exchanging data. See the Wikipedia article on JSON for more information.
LatLong
LatLong (or lat-long) is a common abbreviation for latitude/longitude, geographical coordinates that are used to specify precise locations. See the WikiPedia definition of geographic coordinate systems for more information.
lifespan
In these help pages, a lifespan refers to the combination of the birth date and the death date. GedSite has a few formatting options for lifespans that are explained in the Dates section.
linked image icon
GedSite displays an icon in place of an image exhibit when the user chooses "Link" for one of the external image exhibit properties. The default icon is a camera. Clicking on the icon opens a page that displays the linked image exhibit.
linked text icon
GedSite displays an icon in place of a text exhibit when the user chooses "Link" for one of the external text exhibit properties. The default icon is an image of a document. Clicking on the icon opens a page that displays the linked text exhibit.
metadata
Metadata is data that describes other data. In the GedSite help pages, metadata typically refers to textual information that describes an image that is stored inside the image file, such as a caption.
nesting
In computerese, nesting usually means placing one element inside another.
non-person
Some users add people to their genealogy database that do not represent real people. A "non-person" is used to record events involving another entity such as a ship, a census, a battle, etc. Tags attached to the non-person link actual people to whatever the non-person represents.
open source
Open source refers to a practice where goods, products or other resources are shared. The term was first applied to software source code, but has been extended to other items such as digital graphics and digital photographs. See the WikiPedia definition for more information.
Output folder
GedSite creates the Output folder automatically when you make a site. GedSite appends "-o" to the GedSite file name and uses that as the Output folder name. GedSite writes all the generated pages to the Output folder.
Page Item
Page Items are a subset of User Items. Page Items create an entire HTML page.
Person Entry
For each person in the database that is included in the site, GedSite produces a person entry on a person page. GedSite builds as many person pages as necessary. The person entry includes information from the name and event tags associated with that person as well as other information about the person such as parent and child relationships. The format of the names and events in the person entry is determined by the selected Format.

When GedSite is building a particular person entry, the person whose information is being processed is called the subject.

regular date
A regular date includes only recognized date parts, such as a day, month, and year. A regular date may be a partial date, i.e., it may include a month and year only, or a year only. A regular date may include a modifier such as "before", "after", etc.

In contrast, an irregular date is not recognized as a date value. It might contain text that is not a recognized part of a date, or a phrase that indicates a time frame without a specific date, for example, "after the census of 1880".

See the Dates section for more information about dates in GedSite.

removable media
Removable media refers to any CD, DVD, or flash drive that can easily be inserted into, and removed from, a computer.
script
A file used by GedSite that contains C# statements.
string
In computer parlance, a sequence of text characters. You may edit the strings that GedSite uses when making a site via the Utilities > Strings... commands.
TABLE, TR, and TD
TABLE, TR, and TD are HTML elements that create tabular content. GedSite uses these elements when constructing tabular output. For more information, see the w3schools.com HTML Tables page.
UL, OL, and LI
UL, OL, and LI are HTML elements that create lists. GedSite uses these elements when constructing menus, lists of links, lists of citations, and other items. For more information, see the HTML 4 specification.
variable expression
A variable expression is a variable reference enclosed in "<" and ">", for example, "<[PO]>". If the variable is empty, i.e., has no value or is excluded, the variable and the associated preposition and/or suffix are omitted from the sentence. Variable expressions are described in more detail on the Sentences help page.
variable, variable name, or variable reference
A variable name is a symbol that is used to refer to data whose value may change. A variable reference is a variable name enclosed in brackets, e.g., [S]. Variable references are replaced by the value of the variable when GedSite formats a sentence.
WYSIWYG
WYSIWYG is an abbreviation for "what you see is what you get", and usually refers to editing programs that manipulate something that looks like the end result as you edit. See the WikiPedia definition for more information.
XML
XML is an acronym that refers to the eXtensible Markup Language, a simple, flexible text format used to interchange data between computer applications. The XML standard is administered by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
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