Computer & Internet Terms
Technology & Innovation in conjunction with College Communications maintains the technology style guide to create consistency and avoid confusion within Davidson College documentation. This style guide is informed by recommendations from the Associated Press Stylebook (AP Style).
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
Acronyms
Always spell out the acronym on first reference, with the acronym itself in parentheses. On subsequent references, you can use the acronym by itself.
Technology & Innovation (T&I) uses lots of acronyms.
alternate email address
Do not capitalize.
A user’s alternate email address is used to reset her password.
anti-virus
Always hyphenate.
You should run no more than one anti-virus program on your computer.
B
Banner Self-Service
Always capitalize the entire name of the service and hyphenate “Self-Service”
Log in to Banner Self-Service to print your paystub.
D
Davidson credentials
Use “Davidson credentials” when referencing username and password in general descriptive terms. Use “Davidson username and password” when used in specific help documentation.
Your Davidson credentials consist of your Davidson username and password.
drop-down
Always hyphenate.
Select Quasimodo from the drop-down list.
double-click
Always hyphenate.
Firefox will open with a double-click.
E
eduroam
Always lowercase, even at the start of a sentence
eduroam is the secure, world-wide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community.
Always lowercase, no hyphen. Lowercase the entire address except at the beginning of a sentence; do not italicize email addresses.
Also, hyphenate e-book, e-commerce, e-business.
Your Davidson email account is accessible on campus and from home.
e-portfolio
Always lower case.
An e-portfolio is a collection of electronic evidence assembled and managed by a user, usually on the Web. Such electronic evidence may include inputted text, electronic files, images, multimedia, blog entries, and hyperlinks.
F
File sizes: KB, MB, and GB
Units of measurement for file sizes. Capitalize only if the first word of a sentence. Files may also be described in terms of download per second, for example, MB/s, GB/s and KB/s respectively.
- kilobytes (KB)
- megabytes (MB)
- gigabytes (GB)
- terabytes (TB)
The files available to download are 875 KB, 2 MB, and 1.7 GB respectively.
G
Gmail
One word, no hyphen. The G is always capitalized.
Davidson College does not use Gmail as its email solution.
G Suite
No hyphen, the initial letters of each word are always capitalized.
G Suite includes Gmail, Google Calendar, and other Google web applications.
H
homepage
One word, lowercase, never hyphenated.
Your homepage should be saved as index.html.
Help Desk
Please refer to Support Center.
I
internet
Always lowercase.
Access to the internet at Davidson is incredibly fast.
L
login
One word when describing a component of the interface.
Enter your Davidson College username and password at the login window.
log in
Two words when referring to the action of logging in.
You may log in when prompted.
log in to
Three words, used for the act of logging in to a service.
You will be required to log in to Banner Self-Service.
M
menu bar
Two words, lowercase.
The menu bar is located at the top of the application.
mobile
Microsoft Outlook connects to my mobile device seamlessly.
multi-factor login/authentication
Always lowercase, “multi-factor” and hyphenate. Abbreviated as “MFA.”
To use multi-factor authentication on your phone, download the Duo app.
MFA, also known as mutli-factor authentication, provides added security for web applications.
O
online
Lowercase, do not hyphenate.
P
pop-up
Always hyphenate.
Type your name in the pop-up box.
R
right-click
Always hyphenate.
Hover over the picture and right-click to copy.
S
single sign-on
Always lowercase, with “sign-on” hyphenated. On first reference, spell out single sign-on with the acronym in parentheses. On second reference, you can use the acronym.
Moodle uses single sign-on (SSO).
SSO
Refer to single sign-on.
Support Center (formerly Help Desk)
When referring to the College’s official T&I Support Center (formerly Help Desk), it is uppercase on all references. Always include the contact information starting with the email address and then the full phone number. Davidson College’s Help Desk is now called the T&I Support Center. Davidson no longer uses help desk when referencing T&I support.
Contact the T&I Support Center at ti@davidson.edu or (704) 894-2900.
T
Technology & Innovation
Use the full department name on first reference with T&I in parentheses, T&I on subsequent references.
Technology & Innovation (T&I) is responsible for the College’s plethora of technological offerings.
U
URL
Acceptable in all references for uniform resource locator, a standard website address. Omit http:// in URLs. Just use www.davidson.edu, for example when referring to a web address. Exception: Include https:// when necessary to identify a secure site or in the URL field of a hyperlink.
W
web
Always lowercase.
The web is where you can access davidson.edu.
website address
Refer to URL.
webpage
One word, lowercase.
Visit my photo album webpage to see pictures from our trip to San Diego.
website
One word, lowercase. Also webcam, webcast, webmaster.
Nothing is finer than a website containing kitten pictures.
Webmail
Uppercase when referring to the T&I service.
Most students check their email using the Webmail interface.
wiki
Lowercase when referring to a generic wiki. Title case when referring to a specific wiki.
Our wiki allows us to collaborate more easily.
Wi-Fi
Two words, hyphenated with the W and F capitalized.
Davidson has several Wi-Fi networks. For computing devices, choose eduroam.