Glossary of Terms

This glossary is a work in progress. It does not include all the terms in AsciiDoc.
attribute reference

an expression for dereferencing the value of a document attribute.

attrlist

the source text that defines attributes for an element (i.e., block, block macro, inline macro) or an include directive.

admonition

a callout paragraph or block that has a label or icon indicating its priority.

backend

a moniker for the expected output format; used as a key to select which converter to use; often used interchangeably with the name of a converter (i.e., the "html5" backend").

block element

a line-oriented chunk of content in an AsciiDoc document.

block attribute

an attribute associated with a delimited block or paragraph; these attributes can affect processing of the block, and are available to block processors, but cannot be referenced using an attribute reference.

block name

used to refer to custom blocks, which can map an arbitrary name to one or more contexts; has a similar role as the style for a built-in block, such as an admonition block

block style

a modifier that specializes the context of a block

built-in attribute

a document attribute that controls processing, integrations, styling, and localization.

content model

determines how the content of a block is parsed and processed (e.g., simple, compound, verbatim, raw, etc.)

context

the element’s type; describes the primary function of an element (e.g., sidebar, listing, example)

converter

a software component that an AsciiDoc processor calls to convert a parsed AsciiDoc document to a given output format; the converter and output format are correlated using a backend identifier.

cross reference

a link from one location in the document to another location marked by an anchor.

document attribute

an attribute associated with the document (node); in other words, an attribute in the global document attributes dictionary; the value of these attributes can be referenced using an attribute reference; if defined in the header, the document attribute is known as a header attribute.

element

discrete content in the source or output document. May be a branch (contains child elements) or a leaf (does not contain child elements).

element attribute

an attribute associated with a block, macro, formatted text, or the include directive; these attributes can affect processing of the element (or include directive) and are available in the document model; however, the value of these attributes cannot be resolved using an attribute reference.

environment attribute

a dynamic document attribute that pertains to, or gives information about, the runtime environment.

header attribute

a document attribute defined in the document header; visible from all nodes in the document; often required for global settings such as the source highlighter or icons mode.

inline element

a phrase (i.e., span of content) within a block element or one of its attributes in an AsciiDoc document.

list continuation

a plus sign (+) on a line by itself that connects adjacent lines of text to a list item.

macro

a syntax for representing non-text elements or that expands into text using the provided metadata.

macro attribute

an attribute associated with a block or inline macro; these attributes can affect processing of the macro, and are available to macro processors, but cannot be referenced using an attribute reference.

node

an in-memory representation of a block or inline element in the parsed document model.

predefined attribute

a document attribute defined for convenience; often used for inserting special content characters.

structural container

the fixed set of reusable block enclosures (delimited regions) defined by the AsciiDoc language; implies the block’s content model; characterized by a pair of matching delimited lines defining the boundaries of the block’s content

quoted text

text which is enclosed in special punctuation to give it emphasis or special meaning.

user-defined attribute

a document attribute defined by the content author; used for storing reusable content, and controlling conditional inclusion.