There is a lot of jargon when dealing with the Internet and creating websites. Here are some of the most used words, explained briefly for you. A lot of this is related to various tools and knowledge, so take a peek at the Recommended Reading and Tools pages.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the code used to construct a web page. It is not a programming language but rather a markup language. Think of it like writing an essay or designing a page in InDesign. Here is a heading, there is a paragraph and in the corner lies an image. An HTML page is made up of any number of tags that define various parts of the page, such as headings, paragraphs or images. For example, the tag for an image looks like this:
<img src="http://domain.com/image.jpg" alt="Text to show when mouse hovers" />
A complete listing, with explanations and examples, of all HTML tags can be found at http://www.w3schools.com/tags/default.asp.
CSS (Cascading Stylesheets) is what controls the look of your page. It is what you use to style HTML tags but it is also used to position elements on the page. It behaves very much in the same way as an InDesign stylesheet does, defining style information such as colours, borders, fonts, sizing etc. CSS allows you to define styles for specific HTML tags, but also lets you create your own classes - custom style definitions - that can be applied to any element.
CSS is very powerful and can change the look and feel of an entire website just by changing a few lines of code. Any HTML outputted by The Secretary can by styled by CSS, giving you full control. For more information about CSS take a look at the Recommended Reading page.
Think of HTML as the raw structure of the page - the bones of your body - and CSS as the styler - how long is each bone? what colour are they? are they wrapped in skin? how much? where is each located on the body?
JavaScript is a scripting language that is most often used in web development to add usability features and effects to a web page. It is not essential to know JavaScript to use The Secretary, but of course it can be used to further enhance your website. A lot of The Secretary's own interface is controlled and aided by JavaScript, and a lot of the Template Widgets take advantage of its power to display content in an engaging way.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is what is used to transfer files to and from a web server.
The absolute path of a page is a type of web address similar to a URL. It differs slightly in form and is used by the system to access certain files on your server. While your web host can provide you with your absolute path, The Secretary will, in most cases, attempt to determine it on its own. If you ever need to double check the absolute path to your installation, navigate to the Home > About page, where you will find (technical) information about the system.
A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the web address of a web page/document, such as http://www.secretarycms.com/learn
A domain name is the address of a website, for example secretarycms.com
The term “front-end” (or “frontend”) refers to the actual viewable page - your website itself, while the backend refers to an automated system that powers the frontend, such as The Secretary.
A server is where all the files that make up a website are stored. Think of the server as your house. In your house you have rooms (folders or directories), and in each room there are many things (HTML files, images, etc). Your house also has an address, so that people (including you!) know how to get there - think of this as the URL or domain.
This documentation will sometimes refer to something called “the system” - this is simply another way of referring to The Secretary itself and often your own installation of it.