Navigation and Interface
Unlike MultiTes, there are no additional windows that open for term editing. The term, any notes that may have been added by the taxonomist (such as scope notes) and its relationships appear at the bottom of the split screen. Keyboard shortcuts enable a limited set of standard editing functions.
Editing
As mentioned above, editing is done in the main window, using columns that can be organised alphabetically. Items can be moved to another location in the hierarchy in a single step by dragging and dropping the selected term. The tool will automatically paste the child terms in the correct location and edit other contingent relationships to reflect the change (LGOSystems., n.d., p. 33). Cognatrix automatically flags duplicates and highlights circular references and orphan terms for manual review by the taxonomist. Authority terms and variant terms are also indicated in this display.
Building Relationships
As well as the standard fields as authority, definition, and scope notes , Cognatirix has an unlimited number of possible user-defined fields. This is a benefit to the information architecture as “managing a classification structure that includes more relationships among terms can be a very powerful avenue for translating your business strategy—e.g., promoting products using broader clusters”(Hagedorn, 2001, p. 12) for example, suggesting to users that they may be interested in another product as it is in the same category as the one they have chosen.Groups can be created and classifications can be added to items. These can be conceptual labels determined by the taxonomist that allow for customised groupings that relate to the intended use or user groups of the thesaurus. Output of the vocabulary can be delimited by facets, which are known as node labels and in the display are placed in brackets next to the term.
Taxonomy Display
The two main views for the vocabulary are list view and tree view which can appear either hierarchically or alphabetically. Clicking on a column will sort by that particular trait, which is also how the taxonomist can find and edit duplicate entries. When a term is selected, its notes and relationships do not appear in a new window, but at the bottom of the screen display. A very useful functionality that could benefit the information architect is that the user-defined fields mentioned above are enabled to display URLs. These could be used to link to further information, which could be to a company site, a copyright notice or any other location.
Importing, Exporting and Reports
Terms can be imported from a free text document, spreadsheet or standard text editor. Free text entries need to be separated with tabs, a function that spreadsheet applications automatically include (LGOSystems., n.d., p. 33) but would otherwise require some manual editing that would need to be included into the project time frame. With the add-on mentioned above, other XML type documents can also be imported (Hedden, 2010, p. 153). Vocabularies can be exported to both XML and HTML formats. The XML output includes a special MultiTes format.
Reports can be generated by audience type. Reports for the taxonomist include all items plus notes and other structural or record-keeping items whether published or concealed. Reports for the end user only include published items.
Software, Support and Spelling
Cognatrix supports multilingual entries in that it allows equivalence relationships to between concepts in different languages. A user guide of 71 pages is supplied that includes short tutorial-like instructions with screenshots, for completing certain tasks and lists of keyboard shortcuts. There is no online support offered, but users can submit a problem report form. This tool allows users to toggle between automatic and selective spell checking.
As with MultiTes, this thesaurus tool is only usable on a single operating system, Mac OS X. The information architect would likewise need to discuss platforms with the IT department before committing to this product.
References
Hagedorn, K. (2001). Extracting Value from Automated Classification Tools: The Role of Manual Involvement and Controlled Vocabularies. Argus Centre for Information Architecture.
Hedden, H. (2010). Accidental Taxonomist. Retrieved from ebrary Academic Complete
LGOSystems. (n.d.). Cognatrix user guide. Retrieved from http://www.lgosys.com/products/Cognatrix/userguide.html