Help on Topic Query

DESCRIPTION:
The topic query window is used to construct a topic to be used in a query, or to be saved to your private topic set for future use.

The topic query window consists of two panes.  The upper pane consists of the Topic Editor, which is used to create a topic tree and assign operators, modifiers, and weights which express the relationship and importance of lower levels of the topic tree to higher levels.  A topic tree is displayed with the higher topic levels, or parents, towards the left portion of the Topic Editor, and branches to the lower topic levels, or children, towards the right portion of the Topic Editor.  The lower pane contains the Results List, which is used to display a list of retrieved documents associated with the topic displayed in the Topic Editor.  A slider bar is used to separate the two panes of the query window.  The slider bar can be selected using the mouse, then dragged up and down to expose more of the upper or lower pane, as needed.

To scroll this window to see more text, use the scrollbar.

To close this window, use the same procedure used to close a window in your graphical user interface.

USING THE TOPIC EDITOR:
When you create a new topic using the Topic Editor, the ACCRUE operator appears in the upper left portion of the pane.  A handle appears to the left of the operator, which is used to move topics within the Topic Editor.  An open/close icon appears to the right of the operator, which is used to open and close that branch of the topic tree.

When creating a new topic, you perform the following steps:
1.  Choose the operator to be used with the topic to be defined.
2.  Enter the topic name.
3.  Create branch topic and leaf topic children, assigning operators and weights to be used with each.

To select an operator, click on the existing operator with the mouse button to highlight it, then use the Add Operator menu to choose the operator you wish to assign to the topic.  The Add Operator menu appears when you select the "Add Operator" option from the Query menu.

The operators that can be assigned are as follows:

Leaf Operators:  WORD, STEM, SOUNDEX, and WILDCARD
Proximity Operators: PHRASE, SENTENCE, and PARAGRAPH
Concept Operators:  AND, OR, and ACCRUE
Boolean Operators:  ANY and ALL
Relational Operators:  EQUAL (=), GREATER THAN (>), GREATER THAN OR EQUAL 
TO (>=), LESS THAN (<), LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO (<=), THROUGH, and CONTAINS

Once you have selected the operator for the topic being defined, you can assign a topic name.  To assign a topic name, position the pointer to the left of the operator, then click on it.  A cursor appears at the location where you can enter the topic name.

Modifiers can be used with certain operators to alter their behavior when your topic is used in a retrieval.  The modifiers which can be included in in your topic are MANY, NOT, and CASE.  These modifiers are available from the Add Operator menu, which appears when you select the "Add Operator" option from the Query menu.

Weights can be assigned to lower topic levels to indicate their importance to their parent topic, if the parent topic uses the AND, OR, or ACCRUE operators.  Weights range from 0.01 to 1.00.  The higher the weight, the more important that topic is considered to be with respect to its parent topic.  To assign a weight to a topic, position the pointer to the right of the handle for that topic, then click on it with the mouse button.  A cursor appears at the location where you can enter the weight.  

For a complete description of how operators, modifiers, and weights function and how to define them in your topic tree, refer to the TOPIC User's Guide for your retrieval client.

STARTING A SEARCH:
Once you have created your topic tree, you can start a search by clicking on the Retrieve button in the middle portion of the topic query window with the mouse button.  As documents are retrieved which meet your topic tree, they appear in the Results List in the lower portion of the topic query window.

MERGING RESULTS:
If you have selected the Auto-merge Partitioned Retrievals option for your query, TOPIC automatically merges partitioned retrievals as they become available.  If you have not selected this query option for your query, you need to merge partitioned retrievals on demand as they become available.  To merge partitioned retrievals, click on the Merge button or select the "Merge Results" option from the Query menu. 

For more information on query options and partitioned retrievals, refer to the TOPIC User's Guide for your retrieval client.

VIEWING RESULTS:
To view a retrieved document which appears in the Results List, position the pointer over the desired document, then double-click with the mouse button.  The document is then displayed within a document window, which can be scrolled up or down.  You can display several documents at a time in separate document windows by double-clicking on each desired document.

SORTING RESULTS:
When your retrieved documents appear in the Results List, they are ranked by their score (their relevance to your topic tree).  The ranking appears in descending sequence, meaning that the retrieved documents which are most relevant to your topic tree appear at the top of the list, and those which are less relevant appear farther down the list.  The score appears as a numeric field, and is included with each retrieved document.

You can specify that your retrieved documents are sorted against a field other than the score field.  To specify another sorting order, select the "Sort" option from the View menu to display the Sort dialog box.  The Sort dialog box lists the current sort order by field in the Available Fields list.  To change the sort order in effect, click on a listed field to select it, then move it to the Sort By list.  You can also change the sort order from descending sequence to ascending sequence.  

To store your preferred sort order for a query's future retrievals, click on the OK button in the Sort dialog box.  To re-sort the current retrieval results and store the preferred sort order for a query's future retrievals, click on the OK button in the Sort dialog box. 


DELETING A DOCUMENT:
As you review documents in the Results List after performing a retrieval, you may want to selectively remove some from the Results List to make it more manageable.  TOPIC provides two options for deleting documents:  Clear and Delete.  These options perform two different functions, as described below.

Clear: The "Clear" option is used to clear one or more documents from the Results List.  When documents are cleared, they will not appear again for the query you are currently using, but they remain in the TOPIC database so they can be searched over using another query definition or topic.   To clear a document, click on the desired document in the Results List to highlight it, then select the "Clear" option from the File menu.

Delete:  The "Delete" option is used to delete one or more documents from the Results List as well as from your TOPIC database.  When documents are deleted, they will not be included in retrieval results for any other query definition or topic.  Note that when you delete a document, it cannot be viewed by any other TOPIC user.  To delete a document, click on the desired document in the Results List to highlight it, then select the "Delete" option in the Edit menu.

SAVING A QUERY:
To save a query for future use, select the "Save Query" option of the File menu.  The query is saved using the name that appears in the upper portion of the query window, and is automatically appended with a .qry suffix.

If you use the "Save Query" option to save a query that you have already named, TOPIC assumes that you want to save the revised query under the same name, and will overwrite the existing query.  To save a revised query under another name, use the "Save As ..." option of the File menu, then complete the information specified within the dialog box.     

SAVING A TOPIC:
When you create a topic using the Topic Editor, you can save it using the "Save Topics" option of the File menu.  If you create topics during a TOPIC session and do not save them using this option, you will be asked whether or not you wish to save your topics when you exit TOPIC.  If you choose to save your topics, you will be able to use the new topics when you start another TOPIC session.  If you choose not to save your topics, you will not see the topics you create when you start another TOPIC session.