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Results screen

This screen is used to display the results of a search.

Relevance score

Beside each item in the list, you may see some small pictures (the ones supplied as standard are 'weather' pictures). These indicate the relevance score on a scale from 0 to 10. Therefore, if the item found is 100% relevant, you will see a picture of (for example) a bright sun. If the item found is not very relevant, you will see a picture of (for example) a storm cloud.
The pictures you see here depend on how your system administrator has configured the system; you may see a different set of symbols here, or a percentage rating.

Clustering (dynamic categorization)

If this feature has been switched on, all documents shown in the results screen will be identified as belonging to groupings (they have the same relevant words). To show the various groupings, Dialog Alert/Dialog Discovery displays an icon alongside each document. Please refer to the online user manual for pictures showing examples of cluster icons.
This should make it easier for you to quickly identify similar documents. Documents not included in a cluster are tagged with another type of icon.
The cluster icons are displayed next to each document shown in the results list.
If you click on any of these cluster icons, a clustered results screen will be displayed. This screen contains a list of all documents that belong to the same cluster type.

File types

The file type of each item that appears in the results list is distinguished by the use of small icons. These are displayed alongside each item. Please refer to the online user manual for pictures showing examples of file type icons (click on the Manual button at the top of this help page).

Browse buttons

To see the next page of items, or to go back to a previous page of items, click on the next button or the previous button.

Page numbers

If the search produces more than one page full of items, a list of page number graphics will be displayed at the bottom of the screen.
For example, if numbers 1 to 3 are displayed, this means that three pages of items have been found. You can click any of these page numbers to show that page of document items. The button corresponding to the page you are currently on will appear in a lighter colour to the other buttons.
Only a small number of items will be displayed at once, depending on the number of items per page that has been set (typically, this will be 10 items).

Edit search button

If you wish to edit your current search click on the edit search button on the left side of the screen.

Create agent button

Click on this button if you wish to turn the search into a personal agent; this will open the create an agent screen.

Ranked category filters

Three ranked category filters are displayed on the left side of the screen - for companies, market sectors and locations.
Unlike the category filters which are displayed on the edit search screen, the terms displayed in these boxes are ordered by how often a term appears in a sample of top documents in the hit list. The most common term is displayed highest.
To update your search after you have made your selections, click the blue search button on the left-hand side of the screen. The terms in the ranked category filters will re-order as your search is updated.
When your search is filtered with a new selection, the number of hits is dramatically reduced to home in on information you desire.

Options button

You can set the number of items displayed on the page, by clicking on the options button, displayed at the top of the screen.

Search button

To start a new search, click on the search button in the button bar.
If you want to update the current search (after you have selected one or more categories), click on the blue search button on the left-hand side of the screen.

Improve

Beside each item in the results list is a check box. These boxes are initially unchecked.
Check the boxes by the side of items you are interested in, and click on the Improve button. The search will be automatically modified to return more items similar to those you have checked.

Top Terms

Top Terms allows you to choose words that Dialog Alert/Dialog Discovery has identified as being important to your query. After you have performed an initial search, a short list of words (shown in their stemmed form) is presented at the top of the results screen.
Select the words that you feel are most relevant to your interests, and click on the search button.
Note that you can increase the power of the Top Terms feature by using it in conjunction with the Improve feature. Each time you click on the Improve button, the list of words in the Top Terms box will change.