Select the first letter of the word from the list above to jump to appropriate section of the glossary or type the term on which you want to search.

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object

a graphical image such as a photograph visible on a display monitor, that may be manipulated using one or more components of a software application.

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object oriented

in programming, a combination of code, which is a sequence of instructions referred to as functions, along with data units, referred to as structures. In the past, operating systems dealt with these entities separately. The combination of function and structure, called an object, allows for significant advantages to programmers as well as the end users of software.

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OCR

(Optical Character Recognition) a type of system comprised of hardware and software that is capable of scanning text or images into a file with a user having the ability to edit the material. There is a great advantage to using OCR because when text is scanned using an ordinary optical scanner, the image is stored as a bitmap (in simple terms, one large picture). The OCR, on the other hand, allows the user the ability to edit the scanned text as though it were entered using a word processing program.

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OEM

(Original Equipment Manufacturer) a company that assembles computers and other hardware devices. The term has taken on several meanings. In some cases an OEM buys hardware components in bulk and uses them to add special features to other hardware devices without producing anything new. OEMs are sometimes referred to as value-added resellers (VAR).

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Office

short for Microsoft Office, a grouping of software (bundle) products that includes word processing, publishing, spreadsheets, visual presentation and Web page creation programs. Users are offered a significant price reduction when purchasing the software in this package.

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offline

not connected, either to one of a computer’s supportive hardware devices such as a printer or scanner, or to the Internet.

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off-line reader

software that allows a user to log onto the Internet, download Web pages and email, and view them offline at the user’s leisure.

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OLE

(Object Linking and Embedding) software that allows a user to create a file in one application and incorporate it into another, while retaining the original file format and association to the program that created it. Windows and Macintosh operating systems allow for OLE.

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on the fly

a Web page with dynamic content, or one where the content is frequently changed. On the fly is the opposite of a static or hardwired page whose content seldom changes.

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online

1. operational or connected, either to one of a computer’s supportive hardware devices such as a printer or scanner, or to the Internet.
2. to be actively connected to a network, such as the Internet.