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. Evaluations
. . Navigation
. . Editing
. . Terms
. . Relationships
. . Import/export
. . Collaboration
. Summary
INF440: Introduction to Information Architecture
Assignment 3
Timothy Godfrey
Student no 11348115
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Term management features evaluation
Term management features include the capacity of the software to:
- allow an unlimited number of thesauruses, hierarchical levels and terms
- allow an unlimited number and range of characters in term names and scope notes
- automatically assign a unique, preferably user defined notation to each new term
- allow the user to define custom numeric, date or alphabetical fields
- allow the inclusion of markers to related terms mentioned in scope notes
Term Tree 2000
The Dog's star rating: 
Term Tree 2000 evaluation version supports a maximum of 50 terms. Although not mentioned in supporting documentation, the full version of the software appears to allow an unlimited number of terms and hierarchical levels. Terms of unlimited length are admissable as are special characters. An unlimited number of thesaurus can be created by opening and saving a new database file in the file menu.
TermTree does not allow user defined fields but allows custom labels for the 11 fields available in the term editing screen. The relationship pane can hold scope notes of any length and includes formatting tools to customise scope note fonts, formats and colours. Scope notes do not allow markers to other term records referred to in the scope notes field.
Notation is supported to a limited extent by allowing users to assign at least one style of notation to terms through the pre-defined codes field. Additional code fields can be added by customising one of the 11 available fields.
MultiTes Pro
The Dog's star rating:
MultiTes Pro, according to user documentation, allows an unlimited number of terms and hierarchical levels, limited only by computer configuration. The package allows terms of unlimited length and supports a range of specialised characters in term names. An unlimited number of thesauruses can be created from the file - new menu.
MultiTes allows users to set up user defined fields through the relationships management menu, by defining a new comment or category field in record properties. It is possible to set up a user defined numeric code or notation in this way, although reports and displays cannot be sorted on a user defined field.
The software supports scope notes and allows for additional custom notes fields. Scope notes do not allow the inclusion of links or markers to other thesaurus terms referenced in notes. It includes an option in the preferences menu to automatically assign a unique number to new terms as they are created. The software does not allow users to customise the format of the unique number, however.
Webchoir TCS-10
The Dog says: "Congratulations - it's a dogonomy!" 
As well as boasting an unlimited number of terms and hierarchical levels,
TCS-10 allows an unlimited number of separate hierarchies within a thesaurus and and unlimited number of thesauri. The software allows terms of more than 100 characters and terms can include any number of specialised characters.
The maintenance – lookup table supports a range of user defined fields and relationships. An unlimited number of user defined notes fields of unlimited length can be created in this menu. Scope notes can also be of any length. Markers to records of another term mentioned in scope notes are not supported.
The software supports the assignment of system defined unique identifiers through the Tools – generate class notations option. It also allows user defined fields of either character, number or date data types. Is is possible through this method to assign manually a user defined alphabetical or numeric notation code to each term.
TCS-10 can support an unlimited number of user defined fields in a range of formats. For this reason it is the preferred software package for the management of terms.
Some external sites
Software sites:
Term Tree 2000
MultiTes Pro
Taxonomy sites:
QUT Controlled vocabularies page
Guidelines and standards: