Faceplates in Allen Bradley HMI

This may be a silly question. But I have only recently heard the term "faceplate" used.

I am doing a little research into this, but thought I'd ask here as well.

So, what is a faceplate? When is it used? etc, etc...

Thanks,

Burch

A Faceplate in terms of an HMI is usually a small popup screen with a specific use. An example would be a faceplate for a process valve. Touching the valve on the screen could bring up a faceplate which then could allow the operator to change its mode, or to open and close it manually.

Faceplate is getting to be a popular buzzword and is generally being used to refer to HMI elements that are either automatically generated for a device (like jog, home, error handling for a servo) or which is easily reused (like a synonym for template).