Formaterer

Formaterer is the present tense of the Norwegian verb formaterere, meaning to apply a format to data or media or to prepare something according to a specified format. In everyday language it can refer to arranging the appearance and structure of a document, a dataset, or a storage device. The term is widely used in computing, publishing, and information technology to describe standardizing how content is presented or stored.

Formaterere derives from format, borrowed from English, with Norwegian adaptations and spelling conventions. The noun formater describes a program or person that performs formatting; in many contexts the process is described as “formatting” in English and “forming” or “tilpassing” in Norwegian.

In computing the most common use is disk formatting: erasing a storage device and creating a filesystem so it can be used by an operating system. Text or document formatting changes fonts, sizes, margins, and other stylistic attributes. Data formatting refers to structuring data for processing or exchange, such as formatting numbers or dates, or organizing data into CSV or JSON layouts. Formatting can be destructive on storage devices but is often reversible by reformatting with a new filesystem.

See also format, formatting, formatters, and relevant Norwegian terms such as filformat and tekstformatering.