1.1 Glossary

This document uses the following terms:

accelerator key: Any combination of keys that are pressed simultaneously to run a command.

ActiveX control: A reusable software control, such as a check box or button, that uses ActiveX technology and provides options to users or runs macros or scripts that automate a task. See also ActiveX object.

ASCII: The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is an 8-bit character-encoding scheme based on the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that work with text. ASCII refers to a single 8-bit ASCII character or an array of 8-bit ASCII characters with the high bit of each character set to zero.

big-endian: Multiple-byte values that are byte-ordered with the most significant byte stored in the memory location with the lowest address.

Boolean: An operation or expression that can be evaluated only as either true or false.

cell: A box that is formed by the intersection of a row and a column in a worksheet or a table. A cell can contain numbers, strings, and formulas, and various formats can be applied to that data.

character pitch: A quality that measures the number of characters that can be printed in a horizontal inch. Pitch is typically used to measure monospace fonts.

character set: A mapping between the characters of a written language and the values that are used to represent those characters to a computer.

class identifier (CLSID): A GUID that identifies a software component; for instance, a DCOM object class or a COM class.

color palette: A collection of colors that is available to format text, shapes, cells, and chart elements.

datasheet: A worksheet window that contains the source data for a Microsoft Graph chart object.

dual interface: An interface that can act either as a dispinterface or a Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) interface.

dynamic virtual table: An ordered array that contains pointers to virtual functions.

font family: A set of fonts that all have common stroke width and serif characteristics. For example, Times Roman and Times Roman Italic are members of the same font family.

globally unique identifier (GUID): A term used interchangeably with universally unique identifier (UUID) in Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the value. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] must be used for generating the GUID. See also universally unique identifier (UUID).

hanzi: A set of ideograms that is used to write Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. The set is also referred to as kanji in the Japanese writing system and Hanja in the Korean writing system.

HIMETRIC: A metric mapping mode in which each logical unit is .01 mm.

IDispatch identifier (DispID): A 32-bit signed integer that is used in Automation interfaces to identify methods, properties, and arguments.

Input Method Editor (IME): An application that is used to enter characters in written Asian languages by using a standard 101-key keyboard. An IME consists of both an engine that converts keystrokes into phonetic and ideographic characters and a dictionary of commonly used ideographic words.

license key: An array of bytes that enables access to a control according to the usage policies for that control.

little-endian: Multiple-byte values that are byte-ordered with the least significant byte stored in the memory location with the lowest address.

macro: A set of instructions that are recorded or written, and then typically saved to a file. When a macro is run, all of the instructions are performed automatically.

persist: The process of storing data in a memory medium that does not require electricity to maintain the data that it stores. Examples of such mediums are hard disks, CDs, non-volatile RAM, and memory sticks.

point: A unit of measurement for fonts and spacing. A point is equal to 1/72 of an inch.

property bag: A name/value pair that stores a property of a control or object, typically by using the IPropertyBag interface.

range: An addressable region that is in a workbook. A range typically consists of zero or more cells and represents a single, contiguous rectangle of cells on a single sheet.

storage: An element of a compound file that is a unit of containment for one or more storages and streams, analogous to directories in a file system, as described in [MS-CFB].

stream: An element of a compound file, as described in [MS-CFB]. A stream contains a sequence of bytes that can be read from or written to by an application, and they can exist only in storages.

system palette: An itemization of all of the colors that can be displayed by the operating system for a device.

twip: A unit of measurement that is used in typesetting and desktop publishing. It equals one-twentieth of a printer's point, or 1/1440 of an inch.

type information: A collection of information that describes the characteristics and capabilities of an object, including the properties, events, and methods for the object.

Unicode: A character encoding standard developed by the Unicode Consortium that represents almost all of the written languages of the world. The Unicode standard [UNICODE5.0.0/2007] provides three forms (UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32) and seven schemes (UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-16 BE, UTF-16 LE, UTF-32, UTF-32 LE, and UTF-32 BE).

variant type: An unsigned 16-bit integer that indicates the data type of a variant, as described in [MS-OAUT].

worksheet: A single logical container for a set of tabular data and other objects in a workbook.

MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.