OS X Mountain Lion Bible

Glossary

AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) A standard for creating digital music files. It's the default format for iTunes music and is higher in quality than the more commonly used MP3 format.

absolute pathname A pathname that specifies the exact location of a single directory. An absolute pathname begins at the root directory, a slash (/), and traverses through the Unix file system, ending at the desired directory or file, and naming each directory that is passed through. Each directory that is passed through is named and separated by a slash. /Users/galen/Documents is the absolute pathname of the user Galen's Documents folder. Compare to relative path.

active application The application visible in the foreground. If iTunes is the active application, its name is visible in bold in the menu bar, directly to the right of the (Apple) menu.

ActiveSync See Exchange ActiveSync.

adapter A device that lets devices with different connector standards connect to each other.

admin See administrator account.

administrator account A type of OS X user account that gives the user access to system-wide resources, including the abilities to modify system preferences, create and edit other user accounts, and install applications. When OS X is initially set up, the first user created is an administrator.

adopted ownership When an OS X user account is deleted, its contents can be transferred to an existing ...