Operations with dictionaries

You can create a dictionary, rename it or edit, delete dictionaries, etc. All these actions are available from the context menu of dictionaries. To open the menu, choose a dictionary type and right-click an existing dictionary.

dict context menu

Creating a dictionary

To create a dictionary:

  1. Right-click an existing dictionary and choose the Create new dictionary…​ option. Optionally, click the Create new dictionary button (the plus button) in the upper toolbar.

    dict new dict right click new

  2. You will see a new window that appears, i.e.

    dict new dict

  3. Enter a title for the dictionary. You will need to choose a name that is unique among other dictionaries of the same type in order to distinguish between them.

  4. Optionally type a description of the dictionary.

  5. Optionally check a dictionary from the Source dictionaries field to inherit terms from. Rather than starting a new dictionary from scratch, without any terms, you can reuse the terms of an existing dictionary. When choosing to inherit terms from another dictionary, the terms from that other dictionary are virtually copied into your new dictionary. This technique has the added benefit of making it easy to change a child dictionary to a particular analysis but avoid having those specific changes affect all of your projects that use the parent dictionary (and the projects of other users who may be using the same dictionaries).

  6. You can check multiple dictionaries to inherit terms from. This is equivalent to copying all the words from each of the parent dictionaries into your new dictionary, less the duplicated terms.

  7. Click OK. You will be returned to the Dictionary Manager window. A new dictionary should appear in the list of the dictionaries for the selected category.

A dictionary must have a unique name. Dictionaries with the same name are not allowed.

Deleting a dictionary

To delete a dictionary, right-click an existing dictionary and choose the Delete option.

dict delete

The deleted dictionaries go to the Trash folder. From there you can delete them permanently (by clicking Delete permanently) or restore the dictionaries to their folders (by clicking Restore).

dict delete from trash

There may be a situation, when you create a new dictionary and give it the same name as of a deleted one. In this case it is needed to give a different name for the dictionary or empty the Trash folder.

It is not recommended to delete the Server dictionaries as it may spoil the results of text nodes execution.

Editing a dictionary

To edit a dictionary:

  1. Select the folder containing the dictionary in the list of folders on the left side of the window.

  2. Right-click the dictionary you want to change and select Edit…​.

    dict edit

  3. Alternatively, choose Open dictionary editor in the Operations field to the right.

    dict operations edit

The dictionary editor window will open. Loading a dictionary may take several seconds during which time PolyAnalyst may appear unresponsive or frozen. Wait for the dictionary to finish loading.

The view of the editor window depends on a type of a dictionary. Certain dictionaries, such as the Semantics dictionary, have a specific editor because of their nature. There are similar editors, such as the editor for the StopLists dictionary or the WordClasses dictionary.

dict edit example

When you are finished editing a dictionary, click the save button in the upper toolbar to save the changes. More information on a dictionary editor will be given further for each type of the default dictionaries.

Cloning a dictionary

A new dictionary is created when users clone, merge or intersect dictionaries.

To clone or, in other words, make a copy of a dictionary:

  1. Click the dictionary and select Clone.

    dict clone

  2. A window titled Clone dictionary appears.

    dict make new clone

    • Enter a name for the copy in the New dictionary name field;

    • Optionally, edit a default description;

    • Check the dictionary in the Source dictionaries, which a new dictionary should inherit entries from.

  3. Click OK.

PolyAnalyst creates a copy of the dictionary. Copying usually completes within a few seconds but may take longer for larger dictionaries. During this time PolyAnalyst may be unresponsive and appear frozen. Wait for the operation to complete. The copy appears in the same folder. Users may edit, delete the copied dictionary, etc.

Creating a project copy of a dictionary

When working with other users, or when working with a dictionary you use in several projects but plan to make one-time changes that are only relevant to a particular project, it can be convenient to create a copy of the dictionary that is specific to the project. To do so:

  1. Locate the dictionary you wish to copy into the project (this should not be a dictionary that is already used in your project).

  2. Right-click the dictionary and select Copy to project.

dict copy to project

This particular dictionary will be added to the Project dictionaries folder.

Project dictionaries are attached to specific projects and are exported together with them. For more information on server and project dictionaries click here.