Overview

There may be times during your searching when you find it hard to locate your required document(s) due to the fact that you don't quite know what it is you should be searching for. This may be due to the fact that you cannot think of the required term(s) to search for, or maybe because you don't know what searchable terms the field actually contains. In these situations you will want to be able to look at a list of what searchable terms are contained within a particular field. This is where the Index Page comes in useful. The Index Page allows you to look at EVERY term that is searchable within a particular field. However, it is no good just to show you a list of terms and expect you to browse aimlessly through them - some fields can contain nearly a million entries! The Index Page tries to give you the features to make the locating of terms as simple and quick as possible. It does this by showing sections of the index at a time, and then giving you the features to move around and locate your required terms easily. It also allows you to build up your query from terms you select from the index.

Using the Index Features

You will enter the Index Page from the appropriate icon within the Normal Search Page. Lets take the example that we want to look at the list of searchable terms for the Standards No field (within the Standards Infodisk Database).

We start by clicking on the Index Icon for the Standards No. field (as shown above). This takes us to the Index Page (part of which is shown below):

From this diagram we can see that there are two main sections to the Index Page, the Commands section and the Index section. These are discussed in detail below. We will start with the Index section as you will need to understand this before going on to the Commands section.

Index Section

The Index section consists of basic navigation bars and the list of currently displayed index terms. These are described as follows:

• Navigation Bars - The navigation bars allow you to move around the index using your mouse. The structure of the Top Navigation bar is shown below:
  
  
  
  Some of the parts labeled above are fairly obvious as to their usage, but all of them will be described below for completeness.
  
  
• First - Clicking this icon takes you to the first page of items in the list. (Note: This icon is only displayed if you are not already at the first page.)
  
  
• Prev - Clicking this icon will take you to the previous page of index items. (Note: This icon is only displayed if you have previous pages to go to).
  
  
• Drill - This is a special feature of large lists within the ILI Intranet that allows you to navigate through 100's of thousands of items (in order to find a particular item) with only the use of your mouse. It makes mouse navigation though large lists a simple matter of between 1 and 6 clicks to find your required term (depending on your current configuration). It does this by dividing your list of index entries by the number of index items you are currently viewing on your index page (def=10).
  
  Lets take a simple example, suppose we have an index with 1 million key terms and are displaying 10 items per page (the default). By clicking the Drill icon we will be shown a list containing the index keys at 100,000 intervals (1000000/10). We then decide which of these 'partitions' our required key lies in and 'drill' into that one. We will then be shown a list containing the index keys in THIS partition at 10,000 intervals (100,000/10). We then decide which of these 'partitions' our required key lies in and 'drill' into that one. We will then be shown a list containing the index keys in THIS partition at 1,000 intervals (10,000/10). And so it goes on. This means that, in an index of 1 million keys, we are only a maximum of 6 mouse clicks away from any keyterm!
  
  Let us now show this in a practical example. We will try and locate 1 standard (ISO 9000) out of the total of 739533 standards listed in the Infodisk Standard Number index. We start by clicking the Drill icon and get the following screen (suitably labeled):
  
  
  
  Here you can see the total list of standards divided into 10 partitions. To enter a partition we use the Goto Icon, to select a record we use the Normal Link, and we are being told that we are drilling! As we are after the ISO 9000 standard, we need to enter the IEC 60027-4 partition (as ISO 9000 is between IEC 60027-4 and MIL M 28787/428). So we click on the Goto Icon for IEC 60027-4. Continuing this approach, we get the following sequence of screens:
  
  
  
  So, in five clicks of the mouse, we have located ISO 9000 - item 397684 out of a total of 739533!
  
  
• Name - This is the field name (and field code) that you are currently viewing the index for.
  
  
• Location - This shows you where you are within the total range of entries for this index. (Note: The number of index entries shown per page can be altered through the Index Preferences Page.)
  
  
• Next - Clicking this icon will take you to the next page of index items. (Note: This icon is only displayed if you have more pages to go to).
  
  
• Last - Clicking this icon takes you to the last page of items in the list. (Note: This icon is only displayed if you are not already at the last page.)
  
  

On the Bottom Navigation bar you only have the First, Prev, Next and Last icons.

• Index Listing - The index listing show you the current list of index items you are browsing. It has the following format:
  
  
  Each of these sections is detailed below:
  
  
• Index Entries - This shows you the actual index entries (i.e. searchable terms) that are contained within this index. To select one of these and add it to your current list of selected items, just click on it.
  
  
• Hits - This shows you the number of records in which this keyterm exists for this field. If you were to search of this term only, in this field, then this is the number of documents you would retrieve.

Commands Section

The Commands Section consists of the Goto Field, Selections Field and the Combine Field, as shown below:

These are described in more detail below:

• Goto Field - The Goto field provides quick methods for moving around the Index. The most useful of these is the ability to move directly to a term (or the closest match) in the Index. In order to do this, simply type in the keyterm (or beginning of a keyterm) into the Goto Field and press the Enter key on your keyboard (or click the Goto button). For example, to find our ISO 9000 keyterm directly (instead of using the Drill method above) we can type ISO 9000 into the Goto Field and press the Enter key. This will give us the following screen:
  
  
  The required term (or its nearest match) is highlighted in the Index Listing. It is important to notice that Goto Field will try and match EXACTLY what is type in. This means that trying to locate ISO9000 is NOT the same as trying to locate ISO 9000.
  
  As well as the standard goto facility, the Goto Field supports some special commands for moving around the index. These special commands are shown in the hint information for this field. These are not used as frequently but can still be useful in the right circumstances. They are described below:
  
  
• #n - This command is used to go to the n'th item in the index. For example, entering #256 and pressing the arrow icon takes you to the 256'th item in the index listing.
  
  
• %n - This command is used to move to the n'th percentage of the index listing. For example, entering  %50 and pressing the arrow icon takes you 50% of the way through the index listing.
  
  
• +n - This command lets you move forward an arbitrary number of index entries. For example, entering   +100 and pressing the arrow icon moves you 100 more index entries forward.
  
  
• -n - This command lets you move backwards an arbitrary number of index entries. For example, entering   -100 and pressing the arrow icon moves you 100 index entries backwards.
  
  

These commands are designed to allow you greater flexibility when moving around the index listings.

• Selections Field - This field allows you to build up queries from your selected index terms. Whenever you click on an Index Entry in the index listing, it is added to the Selections field. If terms already exist, then these are automatically combined with the operator specified in the Combine Field (default is OR). For example, suppose  you located the index term for ISO 9001 and click on it. The Selection field would be as follows:
  
  
  
  If you now also selected ISO 9002, you would get:
  
  
  
  Here you have the two terms selected combined with the OR operator (+). You can continue moving around the index, selecting required terms, until you have built up your required query. You are also free to modify the contents of the Selection(s) Field as required. When you are happy with your built up query, press the Transfer button in order to transfer the query back to the Search Page. You can then search for these terms or re-enter the Index Page for another field and select terms out of the index for that field.
  
  You can also click the View button if you wish to search for the current contents of your Selection field directly. This will perform the search without the need for returning to the Search Page. However, it will ONLY search for the current contents of the Selection Field. You will be taken to the Summary Page or Display Page as appropriate.
  
  
• Combine - The Combine field allows you to alter the default operator used when joining terms you have selected from the index (see above). If you wish to use a different operator, then simply select it from the list BEFORE clicking on your required term in the index listing.