In an effort to make sure everyone is "on the same page," terms and choices likely to be encountered by customers filling out order forms or talking with Window Craftsmen personnel are listed below, along with definitions, elaborations, and abbreviations. The company welcomes suggestions for additions to this page.

Windbreaks are arrangements of easily removable panels used to enclose lanais, porches, and balconies. The Florida Building Code requires that they carry a label instructing homeowners to remove the panels when the winds may reach 75 miles per hour. Windbreaks are not intended to substitute for regular structural windows.

Sliding glass doors consist of by-passing or center-meeting panels in two-, three-, or four-track frames. Heavy-duty sliding box screens can occupy tracks as well. The frames of pocket doors overshoot the actual door opening on one or both sides. (When ordering a pocket configuration, customers should always submit a drawing showing the existing walls and future door frame in cross section.)

Horizontal sliders are windows utilizing two-, three-, and four-track frames. Optional removable screens occupy a separate channel (integral on two tracks, mechanically fastened on the others).

Vertical four tracks are windbreaks consisting of four vents which slide up and down. Glazing is vinyl or acrylic. Removable or fixed screens are available as options.

Lip frames are windbreak panels with a 3/4" wide flange which is typically fastened to porch-enclosure framing with clips for easy removal. Lip frames can be made in irregular shapes (submit a drawing) as well as rectangular.

Picture windows consist of a lite fixed captive within a four-sided frame with a one-inch-wide flange.

Screen garage enclosures consist of four by-passing panels which hang from rollers captive in head-jamb tracks. A threshold extrusion on the floor guides the suspended panel bottoms.

Vertical door inserts are exactly like vertical four tracks except that they have only two vents.

Main frames consist of jambs on the sides, a head jamb or header at the top, and a sill at the bottom.

Vent frames and sliding glass door panels consist of vertical members on either side, called stiles, and horizontal members at the top and bottom called top and bottom rails, respectively. Spreader bars (or divider rails) are horizontal members between the top and bottom rails.

A series is a grouping of windows or doors wherein all units are made with the same extrusions. The series number - 30, 45 or 70 - refers to the pressure (in pounds per square foot) to which at least one configuration within each series was tested.

Sizes to which windows and doors are to be built, always described as width x height, may be dimensioned three different ways:

Daylight openings (DLOs) are simply the size of the openings in a building into which the windows or doors will fit. From the daylight opening dimensions, Window Craftsmen will for certain products subtract an allowance to provide ample clearance for irregularities and out-of-square conditions.

Exact dimensions are the sizes to which the windows or doors will be built exclusive of the flange. Contractors are responsible for any clearance allowances.

Tip-to-Tip (TTT) dimensions are the exact outside dimensions of the window flange.

The operation of windows and doors is described in the following ways:

Center open: Panels or vents slide open from the center to stack on either side.

Regular by-pass: panels/vents step back in tracks proceeding from left to right.

Reverse by-pass: panels/vents step back in tracks proceeding from right to left.

Vertical: Lightweight vents slide up and down - four-track vertical windbreakers and two-track door (including storm door) inserts only.

Double-hung: heavier-duty vents - windbreaks glazed in acrylic, windows in glass - slide up and down in two-track frames. Standard on prime doors.

Swinging (storm and prime doors): Door swings are always described from the outside-looking-in (OLI) perspective. Doors are said to swing right or left when the hinges are located on the right or left side, respectively. So doors may swing in (towards the inside) right or left or out right or left.

Fixed: Lip frames and picture windows only.

Windows may be mounted with the frame flange facing inside the building - an inside mount (ISM) - or facing outside the building - an outside mount (OSM). A reverse inside mount is set up the same as an outside mount except the flange is mounted on the inside wall around the perimeter of the window opening, so that the tracks project back into the room rather than into the opening.

The flanges on sliding windows and windbreaks are typically one inch wide; a half-inch flange is also available for outside mounts and is most often used in frame or masonry construction. Lip frames have a 3/4" flange to accommodate clips.

Frame colors are white (WH) or bronze (BR).

Glazing materials are glass (GL), acrylic (AC), vinyl (VI), or screen (SC).

Glass types are: annealed (AN), heat strengthened (HS), tempered (TP), insulated glass (IG), laminated (or impact) glass (LAM), low-E, or some combination thereof.

Glass thicknesses available include: 1/8" AN, 3/16" AN, 1/4" AN; 1/8" TP, 3/16" TP, 1/4" TP, 3/8" TP; 1/2" AN (or TP) IG with or without Low-E; 7/16" AN LAM, 9/16" HS LAM.

Glass colors: clear (CL), bronze (BR), gray (GR), and azurlite (AZ).

In addition to acrylic, customers can special order Lexan, a polycarbonate material with enough impact-resistance to withstand a direct hit by a golf ball.

Acrylic thicknesses available are 1/8" (standard) and 3/16"; same for Lexan.

Acrylic colors: clear (CL), bronze (BR), and gray (GR).

Vinyl colors: clear (CL), smoke (SM), and charcoal (CH).

Screen meshes: 18/14 (standard), 20/20, solar (white).

Screen colors: gray (GR), charcoal (CH), and solar white (WH).