Office Features
Options dialog box
A dialog box within each Office application where you can select program settings and other options and preferences.
Commands
An instruction to a computer program that causes an action to be carried out.
Location
Any disk drive, folder, or other place in which you can store files and folders.
Pointer
Any symbol that displays on your screen in response to moving your mouse.
Nonprinting characters
Characters that display on the screen, but do not print, indicating where the Enter key, the Spacebar, and the Tab key were pressed; also called formatting marks.
Formatting marks
Characters that display on the screen, but do not print, indicating where the Enter key, the Spacebar, and the Tab key were pressed; also called nonprinting characters.
SharePoint
Collaboration software with which people in an organization can set up team sites to share information, manage documents, and publish reports for others to see.
Context-sensitive commands
Commands that display on a shortcut menu that relate to the object or text that you right-clicked.
Keywords
Custom file properties in the form of words that you associate with a document to give an indication of the document's content; used to help find and organize files. Also called tags.
Metadata
Details about a file that describe or identify it, including the title, author name, subject, and keywords that identify the document's topic or contents; also known as document properties.
Document properties
Details about a file that describe or identify it, including the title, author name, subject, and keywords that identify the document's topic or contents; also known as metadata.
Clip art
Downloadable predefined graphics available online from Office.com and other sites.
Font styles
Formatting emphasis such as bold, italic, and underline.
Alignment guides
Green lines that display when you move an object to assist in alignment.
Selecting
Highlighting, by dragging with your mouse, areas of text or data or graphics, so that the selection can be edited, formatted, copied, or moved.
Enhanced ScreenTip
A ScreenTip that displays more descriptive text than a normal ScreenTip.
Insertion point
A blinking vertical line that indicates where text or graphics will be inserted. .. . .
Layout Options
A button that displays when an object is selected and that has commands to choose how the object interacts with surrounding text.
Backstage view
A centralized space for file management tasks; for example, opening, saving, printing, publishing, or sharing a file. A navigation pane displays along the left side with tabs that group file-related tasks together.
Apps for Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013
A collection of downloadable apps that enable you to create and view information within your familiar Office programs.
File
A collection of information stored on a computer under a single name, for example, a Word document or a PowerPoint presentation.
Keyboard shortcut
A combination of two or more keyboard keys, used to perform a task that would otherwise require a mouse.
Copy
A command that duplicates a selection and places it on the Clipboard.
Cut
A command that removes a selection and places it on the Clipboard.
Folder
A container in which you store files.
Open dialog box
A dialog box from which you can navigate to, and then open on your screen, an existing file that was created in that same program.
Portable Document Format
A file format that creates an image that preserves the look of your file, but that cannot be easily changed; a popular format for sending documents electronically, because the document will display on most computers.
Compressed file
A file that has been reduced in size and thus takes up less storage space and can be transferred to other computers quickly.
Gradient fill
A fill effect in which one color fades into another.
Compressed folder
A folder that has been reduced in size and thus takes up less storage space and can be transferred to other computers quickly; also called a zipped folder.
Serif font
A font design that includes small line extensions on the ends of the letters to guide the eye in reading from left to right.
Sans serif font
A font design with no lines or extensions on the ends of characters.
Paste Options gallery
A gallery of buttons that provides a Live Preview of all the Paste options available in the current context.
Points
A measurement of the size of a font; there are 72 points in an inch.
Shortcut menu
A menu that displays commands and options relevant to the selected text or object; also called a context menu.
Portrait orientation
A page orientation in which the paper is taller than it is wide.
Landscape orientation
A page orientation in which the paper is wider than it is tall.
Read-Only
A property assigned to a file that prevents the file from being modified or deleted; it indicates that you cannot save any changes to the displayed document unless you first save it with a new name.
Footer
A reserved area for text or graphics that displays at the bottom of each page in a document.
Header
A reserved area for text or graphics that displays at the top of each page in a document.
Protected View
A security feature in Office 2013 that protects your computer from malicious files by opening them in a restricted environment until you enable them; you might encounter this feature if you open a file from an email or download files from the Internet.
Pane
A separate area of a window.
Path
A sequence of folders that leads to a specific file or folder.
Font
A set of characters with the same design and shape.
Ellipsis
A set of three dots indicating incompleteness; an ellipsis following a command name indicates that a dialog box will display if you click the command.
ScreenTip
A small box that that displays useful information when you perform various mouse actions such as pointing to screen elements or dragging.
Dialog Box Launcher
A small icon that displays to the right of some group names on the ribbon, and which opens a related dialog box or pane providing additional options and commands related to that group.
Mini toolbar
A small toolbar containing frequently used formatting commands that displays as a result of selecting text or objects.
Dialog box
A small window that contains options for completing a task.
Live Preview
A technology that shows the result of applying an editing or formatting change as you point to possible results—before you actually apply it.
Clipboard
A temporary storage area that holds text or graphics that you select and then cut or copy.
Object
A text box, picture, table, or shape that you can select and then move and resize.
Ribbon
A user interface in both Office 2013 and File Explorer that groups the commands for performing related tasks on tabs across the upper portion of the program window.
Scroll bar
A vertical or horizontal bar in a window or a pane to assist in bringing an area into view, and which contains a scroll box and scroll arrows.
Print Preview
A view of a document as it will appear when you print it.
App for Office
A webpage that works within one of the Office applications, such as Excel, and that you download from the Office Store.
MRU
Acronym for most recently used, which refers to the state of some commands that retain the characteristic most recently applied; for example, the Font Color button retains the most recently used color until a new color is chosen.
Gallery
An Office feature that displays a list of potential results instead of just the command name.
Notification bar
An area at the bottom of an Internet Explorer window that displays information about pending downloads, security issues, add-ons, and other issues related to the operation of your computer.
Folder window
In Windows, a window that displays the contents of the current folder, library, or device, and contains helpful parts so that you can navigate the Windows file structure.
Desktop
In Windows, the screen that simulates your work area.
Progress bar
In a dialog box or taskbar button, a bar that indicates visually the progress of a task such as a download or file transfer.
Option button
In a dialog box, a round button that enables you to make one choice among two or more options.
Navigation pane
In a folder window, the area on the left in which you can navigate to, open, and display favorites, libraries, folders, saved searches, and an expandable list of drives.
Quick Access Toolbar
In an Office program window, the small row of buttons in the upper left corner of the screen from which you can perform frequently used commands.
Info tab
Info tab
Context menus
Menus that display commands and options relevant to the selected text or object; also called shortcut menus.
Groups
On the Office ribbon, the sets of related commands that you might need for a specific type of task.
Cloud storage
Online storage of data so that you can access your data from different places and devices.
Cloud computing
Refers to applications and services that are accessed over the Internet, rather than to applications that are installed on your local computer.
Sizing handles
Small squares that indicate a picture or object is selected.
Contextual tabs
Tabs that are added to the ribbon automatically when a specific object, such as a picture, is selected, and that contain commands relevant to the selected object.
pt
The abbreviation for point; for example, when referring to a font size.
The acronym for Portable Document Format, which is a file format that creates an image that preserves the look of your file; this is a popular format for sending documents electronically because the document will display on most computers.
Deselect
The action of canceling the selection of an object or block of text by clicking outside of the selection.
Right-click
The action of clicking the right mouse button one time.
Drag
The action of holding down the left mouse button while moving your mouse.
Point
The action of moving your mouse pointer over something on your screen.
Paste
The action of placing text or objects that have been copied or cut from one location to another location.
Click
The action of pressing and releasing the left button on a mouse pointing device one time.
Center alignment
The alignment of text or objects that is centered horizontally between the left and right margins.
Backstage tabs
The area along the left side of Backstage view with tabs to display screens with related groups of commands.
Address bar (Internet Explorer)
The area at the top of the Internet Explorer window that displays, and where you can type, a URL—Uniform Resource Locator—which is an address that uniquely identifies a location on the Internet.
Address bar (Windows)
The bar at the top of a folder window with which you can navigate to a different folder or library, or go back to a previous one.
Scroll box
The box in the vertical and horizontal scroll bars that can be dragged to reposition the contents of a window or pane on the screen.
Office Web Apps
The free online companions to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and OneNote.
Fill
The inside color of an object.
KeyTip
The letter that displays on a command in the ribbon and that indicates the key you can press to activate the command when keyboard control of the ribbon is activated.
Alignment
The placement of text or objects relative to the left and right margins.
Formatting
The process of establishing the overall appearance of text, graphics, and pages in an Office file—for example, in a Word document.
Navigate
The process of exploring within the organizing structure of Windows.
Edit
The process of making changes to text or graphics in an Office file.
File Explorer
The program that displays the files and folders on your computer, and which is at work anytime you are viewing the contents of files and folders in a window.
Common dialog boxes
The set of dialog boxes that includes Open, Save, and Save As, which are provided by the Windows programming interface, and which display and operate in all of the Office programs in the same manner.
Paragraph symbol
The symbol ¶ that represents the end of a paragraph.
Desktop app
The term that commonly refers to a computer program that is installed on your computer and requires a computer operating system like Microsoft Windows or Apple OS to run.
App
The term that commonly refers to computer programs that run from the device software on a smartphone or a tablet computer—for example, iOS, Android, or Windows Phone—or computer programs that run from the browser software on a desktop PC or laptop PC—for example Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, or Chrome.
Default
The term that refers to the current selection or setting that is automatically used by a computer program unless you specify otherwise.
Extract
To decompress, or pull out, files from a compressed form.
Collaborate
To work with others as a team in an intellectual endeavor to complete a shared task or to achieve a shared goal.