Word Wheels
A Word Wheel is a dialog box that shows all possible choices in a search field on the query screen for a module of the database. The Word Wheel dialog appears when you click a Word Wheel button on a search screen. The Word Wheel allows you to select a term to enter into the search box.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The Word Wheel always inserts an = and " " around the term entered in the search box. When the = and the " " are there, search will return only exact matches for the term. For example, if the company name ="ABC" is entered as the Primary Developer in a search, only drugs developed by ABC will be returned in the search. The search will not return drugs developed by ABC Pharmaceuticals or ABC Genetics. In order to make the search more general, i.e. to get more results, remove the = and " ".
NOTE: The Word Wheel is a Java Applet that requires version 3.0 or later of Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer. If the browser is version 4.0 or later, Word Wheels will include scroll bars. To check the version of the browser, open the browser, click on Help then click About Internet Explorer or About Communicator or About Navigator (whichever is appropriate for your browser). The display screen will indicate the version number for the browser.
In Microsoft IE, the Java console should be enabled or in Microsoft IE 5.5, the JIT compiler for Virtual Machine should be enabled. (see Figure 1) To get to this dialog box, select Tools>Internet Options from the menu. Then click on the Advanced tab. Scroll down to the options listed under Microsoft VM.
Figure 1For Netscape 3.0 and above the box next to Enable Java should be checked. You can get to this screen by selecting Edit>Preferences from the menu, then click on the Advanced selection. (See Figure 2).
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Below is an example of a word wheel for the Company Name field of the Company module of the OncologyKnowledgeBase.
Figure 3To find an entry in the list, type the first few letters of the entry in the text box at the top of the Word Wheel window, next to Find:. Or use the scroll bar at the right of the choices list to scroll to the desired entry.
After locating the desired search entry, click on the term to highlight it and click on the Paste button to paste the entry into the search box for that field. Close the word wheel window either by clicking on the Close button or by clicking on the X at the top right of the window. Then, either select another field or press the Submit Query button to begin the search.
The Choices List shows the indexed values for a field. Under the right column, the Keys are displayed. This list is a collection of words or terms that have been indexed for that field. This way, there is no guessing what terms are included in a certain field. All possible entries are displayed for you. The number of Hits for each indexed term is displayed in the left column. This is the number of records that contain that field value.
The Words List lists individual words that are included in the index entries. The Terms List lists the complete terms that are entered in the index. Not all fields are indexed at both the word and the term level.
To display the individual words indexed for a field, click on the Words List radio button. To display the complete entry that has been indexed, click on the Terms List radio button. You can search for a complete term, such as active immunization or just on the word active or the word immunization. You will get different results for each of these searches.
An index is a list of all searchable values that have been linked to a field. The Field drop down box shows the fields that will be searched for the chosen entry. For example, in the Company database, the field names displayed in the Field drop down list are:
- Company (primary company name)
- Abbreviation
- Developer Note (relevant notes on mergers and acquisitions)
- Company 1 (name of other division or subsidiary)
- Company 2 (name of other division or subsidiary)
To see the values for any one of these fields, click on the drop down arrow and select one of the field names. The values displayed in the Hits and Keys lists will reflect the values for the selected field. To see the values for all of these fields, leave the default value in the Field drop down box.
Once you select a field and select one of the values in the Hits list, press Paste to insert the value into the search box on the main search screen. When the entry is pasted into the search box, an equals sign and quotes are added to the text of the entry. For example, if company ABC is selected from the word wheel, the entry will be pasted as ="ABC". The search will only return entries that exactly match ABC. If the quotes and equals sign are removed, the database will perform a more general search, looking for any entries that contain ABC.
In either case, the search will not only include the Company Namefield, but will also include fields that have been linked to the search box value. For example, in the Company module, if the term ABC was entered into the Company Name box, the database will return all entries that have ABC in the following fields:
- Company (primary company name)
- Abbreviation
- Developer Note (relevant notes on name changes, mergers, and acquisitions)
- Company 1 (name of other division or subsidiary)
- Company 2 (name of other division or subsidiary)
An OR (/) symbol is added between items that you paste. For example, if you paste ABC and Cellular the search form will contain ="ABC"/ = "Cellular". When you submit the query, you will find records that contain either the word ABC OR the word Cellular (or both). Before submitting the query, you can change the OR (/) symbol to AND (&) or NOT (!). This will change the outcome of your search.
After pasting your word wheel selections into the search boxes, you may add terms to other boxes. After adding all search parameters, press the Submit Query button to initiate the search.
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Having trouble using a Word Wheel? Some of the most common problems are listed below.
The Word Wheel buttons on a search form don't appear or don't work.
Check your browser version and type. To display Word Wheel buttons and run the Word Wheel, you need version 3.0 or later of Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer. To check the version of the browser, open the browser, click on Help, then click About Internet Explorer or About Communicator or About Navigator (whichever is appropriate for your browser). The display screen will indicate the version number for the browser.
The Word Wheel dialog is empty.
Try selecting a different field from the "Field" drop-list in the Word Wheel dialog. If the drop-list does not contain any other fields, the database may be inaccessible, missing, or damaged. To verify that the problem is with the Word Wheel itself (and not with the search screen), do a simple search in the same search box. If the search does not work, then the problem is not specifically with the Word Wheel. Contact the site's webmaster.
Another possibility is that your web browser does not the requirements listed above. To check the version of the browser, open the browser, click on Help then click About Internet Explorer or About Communicator or About Navigator (whichever is appropriate for your browser). The display screen will indicate the version number for the browser. If the browser is not up to date, you will need to obtain a newer version of the browser.
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The * character is a wildcard character. That means that it represents a string of one or more characters in a word. The wild card character can only be placed at the end of a search string. It can not be placed in the middle or at the beginning of the string. For example: Bio* is a valid search string that will yield all entries that begin with Bio. B*o is not a valid search string, it will yield no results. Another invalid search string is *io. No results will be found.
The most powerful way to use the database is to combine terms within a search.
This can be done either by entering multiple parameters in a single search box or by entering parameters in several search boxes.
To enter multiple parameters in a single box, type in a word to search on, then type in the one of the following symbols between the words:
- / (for OR)
- & (for AND)
- ! (for NOT)
For example, the following entry:
Company Name Bi* / Gen* ! Bio*
will search for all companies whose names begin with Bi or Gen but not start with Bio.
To combine entries from several different search boxes, use the drop down list just to the right of the field label. The drop down lists are used to select one of three boolean search values: AND, OR, and NOT. For example, a search of the company database with the following entries:
AND Company Name: ="ABC"
AND Company Location: ="USA"
will give results where the company name is and exact match for ABC and the company location is in the USA. Removing the = and " " will give results where the company name contains ABC and the company location contains USA.
If you find that you are getting too many results, add additional search parameters to the search boxes to narrow down the search. This will give more specific results. For example, if entering Pharmaceuticals into the company name field gives too many results, try adding more criteria to the same search box, like A* Pharmaceuticals. That will limit the search to companies that start with an A and contain the word Pharmaceuticals in the name.
If you find that you are not getting any results on your search, try one or more following:
- Remove the = and " " that the Word Wheel inserts around the entry. This will result in a search for all instances of the search words and not just exact matches.
- remove one of the search criteria. For example, if a search on ABC Pharmaceuticals does not give results, try entering only ABC.
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Word Wheel technology supplied by Inmagic, Inc. http://www.inmagic.com. Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries.
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