This article covers basic usage and terms to be familiar with when using Visual Pursuits.
These topics are for the beginner computer user that may be unfamiliar with terms used on this website. We also highly recommend you review the instructional mater that came with your computer or that your visit Microsoft.com for some basic training.
Terms
- Browser: A browser is the program that displays web pages from the Internet. The program that is displaying this message is a web browser.
- Dropdown List: One method for entering information is by selecting an item from a list. To conserve space on a page, a "dropdown list" is frequently used. There is a small arrow on the right side of the list. If you click this the list will be displayed so that you can scroll to an item and click on an item in the list to select that item.
- Server: A Server is simply a computer that is running the website. This machine might be located anywhere and may host many websites at the same time.
- Web: This is a short version of the term "World Wide Web". This is what you see in a browser when you are viewing information on the Internet.
- Web Address: A web address is the name of the computer as it is known by the Internet. Web addresses are in the form of "computer.domain.com" or "domain.com". These names are registered by Domain Name Services (DNS) so that the names refer to the computers on the Internet that will be serving up web pages and other services.
Using Web Pages
Each time something is displayed by your browser, it is displaying a "web page". Communication between a browser and a web server is a very loose connection. Delivery of information in either direction is not guaranteed and the server does not know if you will be continuing with another page on the same website. The browser and server are not generally in constant communication, but send pages back and forth as needed.
Web browser pages do not normally transmit the information on a page to a web server until you click a button. If you fill in fields and then navigate to another page the server will not see what you entered into the page.