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.

---

word processor

a program and/or hardware that allows a user to create word documents. Before the widespread popularity of personal home computers, word processing machines (the combination of hardware and software all in one device) existed for the sole purpose of word processing.

---

word wrap

a word processing feature that makes text conform to margins so words do not continue forever. This is the feature that brings the cursor to the next line without a user having to press the Enter key. For certain types of documents the word wrap feature may be disabled.

---

WordPerfect

a popular word processing application that can be used on both Windows and Macintosh. WordPerfect is versatile in that it supports many different file formats and includes a wide range of different characters. Among these are full alphabets for Russian, Hebrew and Japanese.

---

workgroup

two or more individuals who share files and databases. Local networks (LANs) are designed to provide electronic sharing of data within workgroups. In general, products designed for workgroups support approximately 50 people, whereas departmental devices support several hundred, and enterprise devices serve several thousand.

---

workstation

a computer with large storage capabilities and memory capacity, a high resolution display monitor, and a fast microprocessor used for engineering or scientific applications.

---

World Wide Web

(WWW, W3) an extremely large group of computers linked together utilizing many networks, offering information to users via Web servers and browsers. Most of the information found on the Web is formatted in a programming language called HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and transmitted using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Navigating the World Wide Web is often as easy as clicking a hyperlink located on one Website leading to another. Though the terms Internet and Web are used interchangeably, there is a distinction between the two. The Internet is actually a global collection of computers linked to exchange information, of which the World Wide Web is a part. The distinction lies in that Web pages are characteristically linked through hyperlinks and most of the information found on the Web is formatted in HTML. The Internet evolved from ARPANET, which was originally a communications tool of the US Department of Defense. The World Wide Web was officially established by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 at CERN, a research institute in Switzerland.

---

World Wide Web Consortium

(W3C) founded by Tim Berners-Lee in 1994, an international group of companies that exists to create standards and enhance the Web. One of the main concerns of W3C is that the medium progresses together, in a single direction, rather than divide into many factions with different goals.

---

worm

a program that enters a computer and replicates itself, often causing damage to the system. see virus.

---

WORM

(Write Once Read Many) an optical disk that allows a user to copy data to it one time only, thus making it permanent. WORM disks can only be read by the type of driver that created them.

---

WPA

1. see Windows Product Activation.
2. (Wi-Fi Protected Access) a security protocol for wireless 802.11 networks from the Wi-Fi Alliance that was developed to provide a migration from WEP. The WPA logo certifies that devices are compliant with a subset of the IEEE 802.11i protocol. WPA2 certifies full support for 802.11i.