SharePoint Definitions - Common

The below are some common SharePoint definitions that are often asked:

Active Directory - a directory service from Microsoft utilized in SharePoint for grouping user login accounts in named groups.
Activities -  tracked updates related to a specific user. They are often related to the users social interaction within SharePoint (such as tagging, rating, etc).
Check-out: To lock a file while editing it to prevent others from overwriting or editing it inadvertently. Only the user who checks out a document can edit the document.
Content Type - a named and uniquely identifiable collection of settings and fields that store metadata for individual items in a SharePoint list. One or more content types can be associated with a list, which restricts the contents to items of those types.
Document Library - a configurable list in which documents and folders can be stored. The document library has special settings above and beyond a folder such as versioning settings, workflow settings, and information policies.
Follow - ability to subscribe to receive that user’s updates.
Hash tag – way to organize tweets. Users simply prefix a message with a hash tag to enable others to discover relevant posts. One commonly used hash tag is to utilize a user’s name example #Kevin O’Neill.
Home Page: A Home Page is the main page of a SharePoint web site; it provides a navigational structure that links the site components together. The home page has two major navigational areas: the top link bar and the quick launch bar.
Library: A library stores files as well as information about files. You can control how documents are viewed, tracked, managed and created in libraries.
List: A list is similar to a library, except that it is a collection of information where a team or department can store, share and manage information (not files).
Metadata - data about data. Metadata describes how and when and by whom a particular set of data was collected, and how the data is formatted.
mySite/OneDrive – a single page portal that contains the user’s personal sites, links, etc. My Site consists of both a public and private view. The private view is intended as a personal workplace for the individual end user. The public view, on the other hand, acts like a business card that can be accessed by other portal users.
Page – used to display or summarize information and links within a site or sites.
Public Site - a site created in SharePoint which is available to all users as well as the information it contains is relevant to all users.
Private Site - a site created in SharePoint which is available to targeted designated users as the information it contains is relevant to only members of a said team or project.
SharePoint Designer - a tool which allows administrators to modify pages, and customize their SharePoint sites in more powerful ways than the out of the box graphical user interface.
Site - a complete web site stored in a named leaf of the top-level Web site.
Subsite - a named subdirectory of the top-level Web site that is a complete Web site. Each sub site can have independent administration, authoring, and browsing permissions from the top-level Web sites and other subsites.
Survey - a Web site component that enables users to respond to a set of questions specified by the creator of the survey. Results are tallied in a graphical summary. Surveys provide a way to poll portal users for input on a subject. Surveys support a wide variety of response types from simple Yes/No answers to free-form text.
Tag - keywords that are assigned to content. Tagging pages to share with others is social bookmarking.
Term Set – a designated listing of metadata tags to be utilized for a particular area, department, project or initiative.
Versioning: The process of creating a numbered copy of a file or an item whenever a revision is saved to the library or list.
Web Part: Web parts are basic building blocks of a web part page. A Web Part can be reused, shared and personalized by all users who have permission to access it.
Web Part Page: a special type of page on a SharePoint site that contains one or more web parts.
Workflow - the automation of business processes, where business documents and tasks are passed automatically from one user to another for action, according to a set sequence.