Cognatrix is a thesaurus management application suite designed to run specifically on a Mac operating system. Unlike MultiTes, the database is not located on a local server but is stored as an XML file in ‘Property Lists’, which are a special XML file type unique to Mac OS X (LGOSystems, 2012). The application provides all of the standard functions of a thesaurus management tool. However, if the information architect wishes to allow for interoperability between the thesaurus documents produced by Cognatrix and other thesaurus software, such as MultiTes Pro, then a secondary ‘helper application’ called CognatrixImporter needs to be downloaded. Cognatrix is an indexing thesaurus (Morville & Rosenfeld, 2006, p. 211) in that it manages a controlled vocabulary but searching is not enabled without a third application, CognatrixSearch. This application uses Apple’s own built-in search functionalities to act as a dedicated search engine for the thesaurus/thesauri.
The Cognatrix application costs US$ 499 for a single-user and unlimited terms. They provide a cheaper ‘education’ version for US$ 149, which is limited to only 500 terms. The add-on applications and user’s manual are provided as downloadable freeware on the LGOS systems website.
References
LGOSystems. (2012). Cognatrix Retrieved 10 Sep 2012, from http://www.lgosys.com/products/Cognatrix/index.html
Morville, P., & Rosenfeld, L. (2006). Information architecture for the World Wide Web. (3rd ed.). Sebastopol, Calif.: O'Reilly Media.