Rapid Data Entry Using Semantically Categorized Data
Through the language learning process, a word-collection workshop or simply through daily collection of data, you may accumulate a significant quantity of data that needs to be entered into FieldWorks. To speed this process, FieldWorks includes the Categorized Entry feature.
Data Entry Steps
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Open your FieldWorks project.
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In the Navigation Pane, click Lexicon and then click the Categorized Entry tool in the list of tools under Lexicon. The first time you do this an information box pops up. If you do not want to see it again, select the check box that says, “Don't show this again,” and then press OK.
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The Categorized Entry tool is displayed. The middle pane displays a nested list of semantic domains. The Semantic Domain pane displays questions to help elicit words, which you enter in the Words field at the bottom of the pane.
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In the Semantic Domain pane click on the category of your choice. Categories can be expanded for additional choices.
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In the lower right pane, click the empty field in the Word column.
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Type in your vernacular term and then press Tab to move the cursor to the Definition column.
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Type the definition in the definition column in your primary analysis language
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Press Enter. A new row is added and the cursor appears in an empty cell in the Word column.
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After you have completed your data entry click Lexicon Edit in the Navigation Pane. The words you entered are now lexical entries. Click one of them in the Entries pane, and look at the various fields in the Entry pane. Notice that the Lexeme Form, Definition (under Sense 1) and Semantic Domain each have content you entered in the Categorized Entry tool. Further, Language Explorer automatically chose the default Morpheme Type, stem and Entry Type, Main Entry. Lexical entries can be entered very quickly in this manner, but there are basic fields in these entries that need to be filled in such as the Gloss field.
To populate the Gloss field from the Definition field do the following:
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In the Lexicon pane, click Bulk Edit Entries.
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Filter on the Gloss field to show only blank fields. The only entries that appear should be the ones without glosses now. If your database is large you can also filter on Definition for Non-blanks to further narrow down the data that will be acted on during the Bulk Edit process.
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Click the Bulk Copy tab at the bottom of the screen.
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In the Source Field box, select Definition.
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In the Target Field box, select Glosses. Bulk Copy is now set up to copy the information in the Definition field to the Gloss field of every check-marked entry in the browse view pane.
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Click Preview to see what will happen if you proceed with the Bulk Copy operation. The contents of the Definition fields should appear in the Gloss fields with arrows to the left of each gloss. The arrows indicate the change that will happen if you press the Apply button. If the change is not what you want, press the Clear button (the Preview button changes to Clear after you click it) and adjust the Bulk Edit parameters as needed.
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Click the Apply button to perform the Bulk Copy.
To learn the many other Bulk Edit operations available, see Bulk Edit Senses and Bulk Edit Entries under Lexicon Tools in Language Explorer Help.