SIL FieldWorks Language Explorer
Last corporate release: version 2.0, released December 2007.
Work currently in progress
The following features are being implemented in the program code at present:
- Export of a 2-column dictionary to Word and Open Office
Already implemented in the program code, and will be available in the next stable release, Language Explorer version 2.4:
- Editing the baseline of a text in Concordance view.
- Combining of the Texts and Words areas.
- An additional interlinear view (tab) set up for word-level interlinearzing.
- An optional mode for adding words directly to the lexicon when adding word glosses.
- Display of reference numbers in the interlinear.
- Improvements and bug fixes in the Text Chart (discourse analysis), including allowing text to be marked as pre/post-posed from a different clause (row).
- Spelling checking (see below)
- Improved Change Spelling tool.
- Bulk Edit Words includes editing Spelling Status.
- Choices for merging data when importing a LIFT file.
- Improvements to options on the Parser menu, and parser performance.
- Changed Writing System Properties dialog, aimed at making it easier for you to add additional writing systems for a single language.
- Improvements to your control of the cursor - conventional tabbing and arrowing in browse panes.
- Export interlinear text to Word 2007.
- Export the Text Chart (discourse analysis) to MS Word.
- 2 column Dictionary view export to XHTML (use Firefox).
- More commands to "show in concordance", including from the Lexicon.
The spelling checking feature will make use of any Open Office dictionaries you have installed, or you can download a variety of spelling dictionaries from Open Office or other online spelling dictionary providers. This allows checking and correcting the spellings of e.g. definitions in English, French etc. Language Explorer will also support checking spelling in your vernacular texts. For this, you build the spelling dictionary by specifying the Spelling Status of words, which you will be able to do efficiently through Bulk Edit Words. You can also add words to the spelling dictionary through the context menu on words highlighted as misspelled (a red squiggle).
What Was New in prior versions of Language Explorer.
Limitations in Version 2.0
The following is a list of features missing from FieldWorks Language Explorer 2.0. It is not a comprehensive list, but it may help you decide whether to wait before taking advantage of Language Explorer. Please refer to the FieldWorks Language Explorer ReadMe for more details about the latest features added, and for a discussion of known issues with this release.
General
- Futher speed improvements
- Tracking the user who created and modified the data
- Confidence tags, and other notes
- Global orthography changer
- Task pane which can set up views and walk you through a series of tasks, such as the Dictionary Development Process
- Merge and resolve differences when colleagues have worked remotely
- Integrated features with other FieldWorks programs
- Improved support for dialects
- Broader back-up coverage, such as optional inclusion of external linked files, fonts, keyboards.
Concordance
- Concord on specific morphemes/lexemes etc (in addition to whole words) (Available in v. 2.2)
- Export concordance view to HTML/Microsoft Word
- Specify context in a concordance search (e.g. within two words of)
Grammar and Parser
- Derivational affix glossing assistant
- Paradigms
See the endnotes of the Conceptual Introduction to FLEx Grammar for details and longer-range goals.
Interlinear Text
- Import of interlinear texts in standard format
- Export of selected annotation lines for charting in Microsoft Excel or other programs
- Adding variants to the Lexicon directly from texts.
- Tagging phrases
- Add custom annotation lines
- Manually edit the text segment breaks (segments are currently based on a guess at sentence boundaries)
- Better integration of the morphological parser into the interlinearizing task
- Additional information fields, such as author
- More discourse analysis tools, such as participant tracking.
Lexicon
- Two column, draft quality dictionary publication view and/or export of formatted dictionary to Word or Open Office (in progress)
- Enhanced support of variants.
- Paradigms.
- More and enhanced import/export options (LIFT for example; will be available in v. 2.4.)
- Enhanced Dictionary view, including more options (where some are missing.)
- More sophisticated control of which entries are published.
- Enhance export to Lexique Pro
- Link to a segment of a sound file (currently only to a complete sound file)
- Multiple customized views (there is currently just one, customizable lexical entry view)
- Integration with the concordance tool (will be available in v.2.4.)
- Expanded custom field support.
- Simple lexicon statistics view.