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Glossary
Base tag

Base tag

The base tag () sets the default base URL for every relative link on a page, so links elsewhere in the code don't need to repeat the full address. It has to live inside the of the document, and while it doesn't need a closing tag, it does need either an href or a target attribute to do anything.

The base tag must be within the <head> of the code. It doesn’t need a closing tag but does need an href or target attribute. If there’s a target attribute, it will be the default attribute for all hyperlinks within the HTML. 

Here’s a syntax example: <base href="https://www.webflow.com"> 

The base element allows for a default target attribute for all links within the HTML page code. 

Target attribute values include:

  • _self — opens the link in the current window
  • _blank — opens the link in a new window
  • _parent — opens the link in the parent window if using a frame. Otherwise, it uses the current window.
  • _top — opens the link in the topmost browsing content. If there’s no parent browser, it uses the current window.

Here’s another syntax example with target attributes: 

<base href="https://www.webflow.com" target="_blank">

This target attribute would open the link in a new, blank browser window or tab (depending on browser settings).

Get hands-on with HTML basics in Custom code in Webflow.

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Other glossary terms

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Embed component

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A Webflow component you can use to embed HTML to display external content, plugins, or applications.

Python

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Python is a high-level, object-oriented, general-purpose programming language (GPL).

Callback function

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A callback function is passed as an argument to another function and executed upon completing the latter’s task.

ATAG

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Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) are a layered rule-set that influence how designers and developers create a more accessible internet.

Em

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An em in CSS is a scalable and relative unit of measurement that defines the size of an element relative to its parent's font size.

Sitemap URL

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The location your sitemap is stored in relation to your site, and what’s used when submitting your sitemap to search engines.

Color field

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A color field specifies a graphical color picker or user interface for entering a color into a text field in a seven-character, hexadecimal format.

Layout section

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A tab in the Add panel that houses prebuilt layouts for your Webflow site.

Element breadcrumbs

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A navigational aid that displays in the bottom of the Webflow Designer to&nbsp;help you keep track of the element you're interacting with in relation to its hierarchy.

Second-level domain (SLD)

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A second-level domain (SLD) is the part of a domain name that precedes a top-level domain (TLD).

Bundling

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Bundling, or bundle pricing, is a pricing technique in which retailers sell products together at a lower price than they would be sold at individually.

Total asset size

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The total weight of your site's HTML, CSS, JS, and images.

Publish site

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The act of updating your live site to reflect new design changes.

Element settings panel

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The second panel on the right side of the Designer. Here, you can change element-specific settings such as the element ID, Custom attributes, Search index settings, Editor settings, etc. You can learn more about the element settings for a specific element by searching for the element’s name on Webflow University.

Save as Backup

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The ability to manually save a version of your site that you can restore at a later date using the keyboard shortcut Command + Shift + S (on Mac) or Control + Shift + S (on Windows).‍

ID selectors

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You can assign element IDs from the Element settings panel in the Designer. ID selectors are useful for HTML anchors, linking to page sections, or for custom code.

Select field

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A form element that allows you to make a selection in a dropdown list.

Height: auto

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The "height: auto" CSS property automatically adjusts an element’s height based on its content.

Footer code

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Footer code creates a section at the bottom of every web page that displays important information like disclaimers, copyright or contact information, and links to related documents.

Locked site

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When you have more unhosted sites in your Dashboard than your Workspace plan allows, those additional sites past your limit will be “locked” until you upgrade your plan. When you upgrade, you’ll be allowed more unhosted sites (up to the limit for your Workspace plan) and will be able to access your previously locked sites.

SCA and PSD2 Regulations

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Mid-September 2019, new European requirements for authenticating online payments were introduced in Europe as part of the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2). The Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements apply to businesses in the European Economic Area (EEA) that accept online card payments from cardholders whose banks are also located in the EEA.Webflow Ecommerce payments are PSD2 and SCA compliant (i.e., support 3D Secure payments) for European customers.If you’re a merchant in the European Economic Area (EEA), all you need to do to ensure that your Webflow Ecommerce store is PSD2 and SCA compliant for your European customers is to republish your store if it wasn’t published on or after September 11, 2019. Read more about how to make your ecommerce store compliant in our Payment gateway article.

Dynamic element

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Dynamic elements are web page components that can change based on user interaction or external factors, like a live news feed, without requiring a page refresh or reload.

Synchronous

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Synchronous programming refers to sequentially executed operations.

Webflow branding

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A visible “Made in Webflow” badge displayed in the bottom right corner of Webflow sites. Webflow branding also appears in the site’s HTML. Learn more about Webflow branding.

Minimized CSS

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A method of lowering the file size of your stylesheet(s) by removing all white space from your CSS files.

HyperText Markup Language (HTML)

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A standard markup language that web browsers use to display websites.

A/B testing

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A/B testing compares two different versions of something — like a web page or campaign — to determine which performs better.

Element

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Elements are individual HTML components that constitute a webpage’s structure and contents.

Header

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A header is a section at the top of a webpage.

Slug

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A slug, also known as a URL slug or a website slug, is descriptive text that appears at the end of a URL and identifies a web page.

States dropdown menu

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The dropdown menu to the right of the Selector field that allows you to access and change the styles of an element when it is hovered, pressed, or focused.

Object-oriented programming (OOP)

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Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming approach that organizes code into self-contained units of data, functions, and behavior.

Idempotent

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Idempotency is a computing principle where multiple applications of a function or operation produce the same result as a single execution.

Last updated

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The last time someone made a change to your site.

Columns

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Columns let you create sections of content that sit side by side on your website, like the columns in newspapers. You can choose how many columns you want and their widths. You can also control how they display on smaller screens — such as stacking them.

Inline style

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Inline style applies CSS to an individual HTML element using the "style" attribute within the HTML tag.

Pixel

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A pixel (px) is the smallest unit of measure in a digital image or display, representing a single point of color or light.

PNG (Portable Network Graphics)

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PNG, short for Portable Network Graphics, is a lossless image format known for its transparency support and quality retention after compression.

URL

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A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a standardized web address format that allows users to identify and access an online resource.

Certificate authority

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A certificate authority (CA), also known as a certification authority, issues digital certificates that verify a website’s owner.

Div block

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A generic element that is typically used to group content, or when no other element is specifically or semantically suitable. Div blocks have no effect on the content or layout until styled with CSS.

Dither

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Dithering is a design technique that simulates additional colors on a display to smooth transitions in images with limited color palettes.

Display: none

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Display: none is a CSS property that hides website elements. This code tells the document flow to ignore the element entirely, making it invisible.

Top margin

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Top margin is a CSS property that defines the space between the top edge of an element and its surroundings, such as other elements, the browser window, or the edge of a container.

Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

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The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) project to enhance accessibility for users with disabilities.

Interpolation

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Interpolation is a mathematical process that estimates and creates new values based on known values and their relationship.

Localization

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Localization (l10n) involves adapting digital content and applications to meet a specific region or culture’s language and conventions.

Network Address Translation (NAT)

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NAT (Network Address Translation) is a technique that enables communication between devices with private internet protocol addresses and the public internet.

Component Module

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A section in the Add Panel that houses pre-built Webflow elements such as sliders, tabs, and lightboxes.

Left toolbar

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The vertical bar of tools on the left side of the Webflow Designer. It holds the Add panel, Symbols panel, Navigator panel, Pages panel, CMS panel, Ecommerce panel, Assets panel, Settings panel, Site Activity log, Audits, Search, Video tutorials, and Help.

Gamut

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Color gamut describes the full range of colors a device can reproduce on its display.

Collection list layout

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Lets you control how Collection items display inside a Collection list. The default layout option has each item covering the full width of the parent element. You can change this to display Collection items in 2, 3, 4, or 6 columns.

ASCII

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The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is an encoding standard that assigns numerical values to characters and translates them into computer-readable code.

Application context

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An application context is a set of data that identifies an application’s tasks, where those tasks originate, and how those tasks are configured.

Urgency

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Urgency is a marketing term and psychological trigger that incites potential customers and website visitors to act swiftly.

Deployment

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In software and web development, deployment is the process of moving code from one environment to another, usually in the form of changes or updates.

List item

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A list is a Webflow element that displays multiple pieces of content in a structured, visually appealing way. The individual elements that make up the list are called list items.

Beacon

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A beacon — also called a web beacon or web bug — is an HTML-embedded object that tracks user behavior on a web page.

Ciphertext

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Ciphertext is unreadable, encrypted data that ciphers use for security during data transit.

Single-page publishing

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Single-page publishing lets you publish changes to one page without republishing the rest of the site, useful for quick fixes on large sites.

Fold

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The fold distinguishes the visible portion of the webpage immediately visible to users without scrolling from the remaining content viewable by scrolling down.

Flexbox

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Flexbox is a CSS layout mechanism that offers precise alignment and stacking control for the content inside an element.

Node title

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The type of element you're working with, i.e., H1, link, button, etc.

Flex-justify

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A flexbox property that lets you customize the alignment behavior of flex children, based on the main axis of the flex container — that is, whatever you defined as the flex-direction. Options include start, center, end, baseline, and stretch.

Multi-reference field

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A CMS field used in Collections. Just like a reference field, the multi-reference field lets you reference other Collections in your site. But it’s even more powerful, as it lets you reference multiple items within a Collection instead of just 1 item.

External link

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External links direct users to different websites and impact a site's search engine visibility and rankings.

Clickjacking

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Clickjacking is when a malicious actor deceives website visitors into clicking buttons or links hidden in a fake layer to steal sensitive data or install malware.

Base tag

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The base tag specifies the base URL for all relative links within HTML code for a specific page or document.

Number field

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Available in CMS Collections. It lets you insert an integer with or without decimals.

Minimum height

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The min-height CSS property defines an element’s minimum height.

Custom font

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A custom font is any non-system-default typeface you manually upload to your website.

Flex-shrink

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The flex-shrink CSS property defines how much an element shrinks relative to other flexible items inside the same parent element.

Link field

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A link field is a form input field that enables you to add links to your designs dynamically. You can connect a link field to text links, buttons, or other link elements to turn them into active links.

Right-side panel

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The far right vertical panel in the Designer that houses the Style panel, Element settings panel, Style manager panel, and Interactions panel.

URL redirect

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URL redirect, or URL forwarding, is a web server function that automatically sends users from one web address to another.

Dashboard

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From your Dashboard, you can access, create, and manage all your sites.

Effects

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A section in the Style panel that houses CSS properties for changing how an element appears, such as its opacity, outline, and box shadows.

Media section

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A section of the Add panel that holds multimedia elements like images, video, and Lottie animation.

Anti-flicker

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Anti-flicker is a technique that hides content until it's ready to display correctly, preventing visitors from briefly seeing something that's about to change.

Profile settings

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The area where you can manage your profile, email settings, and security settings.

Image

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A Webflow&nbsp;element that displays graphical files on your website.

Single Instruction Single Data (SISD)

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Single Instruction and Single Data Stream (SISD) is a computer architecture where a central processing unit (CPU) executes one instruction at a time on a single data piece.

Null

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“Null” represents the absence of a value or the presence of invalid objects in computer science and web development.

RGB (Red-Green-Blue)

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RGB, an acronym for Red, Green, Blue, is a color model that screen displays use to represent various colors.

Canvas

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The &lt;canvas&gt; tag in HTML5 creates a container for dynamic graphics and image rendering on a webpage.

Parent folder

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A parent folder is a directory containing one or more folders and files.

Webflow forum

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The place to go when you need help with your site's design, custom code, etc. Visit the forum.

Drafted pages

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You can exclude pages from being published to your site by setting them as drafts. These can be unfinished pages, internal pages such as style guides, archived pages saved for backup, etc. Learn more about drafted pages.

Navigator

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A navigator, or a navigator window or panel, is a graphical user interface (GUI) that provides an overview of a website's structure and layout.

Width: auto

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The way browsers calculate an element's width automatically where Block level elements fill the available space of its parent and Inline elements shrink to the size of its children/content.

Flex-order

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In CSS, flex-order is a property that allows you to manipulate the default source order of the items within a flex container. Flex-order is especially useful when you want content to display differently on mobile than on desktop.

List

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An element that contains ordered (numbered) or unordered (bulleted) lists.

Read-only link

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A way for others to test/debug your Webflow site in the Designer without being able to save or make permanent changes.

ALPN

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ALPN stands for Application-Layer Protocol Negotiation. It’s a Transport Layer Security (TLS) extension that aids client and server identification during secure data transfers.

Strong text

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The&nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;&nbsp;element defines important text with added semantic&nbsp;importance.

Flex-basis

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Flex-basis is a CSS property used in flexboxes that sets the initial size of a flex item before it grows or shrinks.

CRLF

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On Windows-based systems, the sequence of two ASCII characters representing a line break in text files is called "Carriage Return, Line Feed," or CRLF.

Ligature

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A ligature in typography groups adjacent letters or characters into one glyph.

Dynamic content

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Content you create once, then publish in many different places across your website. As you update this content in the CMS, it automatically updates wherever it exists on your site, making it convenient to create and manage larger websites.

UI state

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The UI state changes how Collection lists display when you’re designing. The Items state is the default option, and shows the items that you have within the Collection. The Empty state doesn’t show these items and gives the designer the opportunity to design for a circumstance if/when there is no data to be displayed in the Collection list.
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