Absolute path – a path that leads to a file or a folder, using its full directory address, e.g., C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\bin\gimp-2.10.exe; used in websites and operating systems.
Admonitions – specially marked (usually with icons, indentations, etc.) blocks of content that provide users with additional information (e.g., “❕ NOTE: …“), give them a warning, draw their attention to something important, etc.
Agile – an iterative approach in software development and project management that emphasizes adaptability, continuous improvement, and incremental delivery of a product; flexible – good for software projects; includes various methodologies and practices, such as Scrum.
Application programming interface (API) – a software intermediary for developers that allows for communication between two programs.
Breadcrumbs – a type of navigation scheme in the form of textual elements that raise users’ awareness of their current location in a web document; for example, topic hierarchy markers and prompts such as “Home > Chapter 1 > Introduction”, “Next topic” or “You are here!”.
C
Content management system (CMS) – software for managing digital content; it typically allows users to manage content at a document level.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) – a style sheet language that provides presentational elements to an HTML content; it is responsible for the looks of a web page.
D
Distributed Version Control System (DVCS) – a version control system which doesn’t rely on a central server; instead, every contributor to a project has an independent repository with a full history of changes.
Endpoint – in API, a point at which two programs can communicate with each other; the code that allows developers to make two programs communicate.
F
G
Git – a very popular open-source distributed version control system DVCS.
GitHub – a cloud-based development platform that provides repository hosting services and user interface for Git.
H
Help Authoring Tool (HAT) – a type of content management system (CMS designed specifically for creation and publishing of documentation; for example: MadCap Flare.
High-level operation – any operation that concerns more general functioning of a system; requires less technical knowledge than low-level operations.
HTML – a markup language (also: a file format) used for structuring the content of a website; a standard for displaying documents in a web browser.
I
Input – any material required for processing to produce the output.
Low-level operation – any operation that concerns more specific elements of a system; requires deeper technical knowledge than high-level operations.
M
Markdown – a markup language with simple tags that allow for quick and easy formatting of text; used especially in web writing; converts to HTML upon publication.
Markup language – a computer language with tags that can be interpreted by software as instructions to format or otherwise transform the encoded text.
N
O
Open-source software – software that anybody can modify and contribute to; a source code that is open to and maintained by the public.
Output – the end result achieved through the processing of input.
P
Persona – in content design, a fictional profile of a person or a group of people with features that represent some key characteristics (e.g., level of knowledge, social group, age) of the target audience.
Plain English – a subset of English that is easy to understand, with simple vocabulary and grammar.
Q
R
Raster graphics – a type of computer graphics where the image is represented as a grid of pixels; example: JPG.
Reuse – a practice where a piece of content is written once and then reused many times, e.g., as snippets.
S
Scrum – an agile methodology in project management for teams of <9 people, where products (mainly software) are updated and released in sprints of <1 month.
Simplified Technical English (STE) – a controlled language created to provide better clarity and less ambiguity in technical texts; has very specific rules regarding grammar and vocabulary.
Single sourcing – a practice where a document is written once and then presented in multiple output formats.
Source code editor – text-editing software for writing computer code, e.g., Visual Studio Code.
Sprint – a time-boxed period of work with a set number of tasks to complete; used in agile methodologies such as Scrum.
Static site generator – a tool for generating static HTML websites; used for rapid deployment of simple web projects.
Subject-matter expert (SME) – a person with extensive knowledge in a particular area; an authority to refer to for expertise in a project.
T
U
Usability – a degree of efficiency, simplicity, and satisfaction with which a product can be used to achieve its intended purpose.
User experience (UX) – all aspects regarding users’ experience with a product or a service; user experience design focuses on how the user interacts with a product and how this interaction can be made more intuitive, efficient, and satisfactory.
User story – in agile software development and management, a short description of how and for what purposes a user would interact with a product; it helps to asses the product’s requirements.
V
Validity – a document written in a markup language is valid when its syntax and structure follow the rules of that language, e.g., tags are closed and properly nested, correct attributes are used, etc. In XML, validitiy is easy to confuse with well-formedness.
Vector graphics – a type of computer graphics where the image is drawn by a computer along specified coordinates, according to a set of commands and mathematical statements. This allows for scaling of the image without loss in resolution, as the graphics are rendered from the code and not stored as a fixed-sized grid of pixels; example: SVG.
Version Control System (VCS) – a system for tracking and controlling changes in the source code.
W
Waterfall – in project management, a linear methodology where a product is released “all at once” after all phases of development are completed; inflexible – better for hardware projects.
Well-formedness – an XML document is well-formed when its syntax and structure follow the rules specified by W3C; in this context, it’s different from validity – conformance to rules specified in the document’s meta files (Read more).
What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) – a type of software, functionality, or user interface where the edited content visually resembles the intended finished output.
X
Extensible Markup Language (XML) – a markup language (also: a file format) with non-predefined tags; used for storing, processing, or reconstructing data in different programs and formats; both human- and machine-readable.
Y
You Aren’t Gonna Need It (YAGNI) – in software development, a principle whereby new functionalities are added to the product no earlier than when they are deemed necessary.
