When you frequently use a certain linguistic type with a limited number of annotation values, it might be a good idea to associate a Controlled Vocabulary (CV) with it. Such a CV consists of a number of predefined values that a user can choose from when editing an annotation, thus making the task of the annotator less error-prone. E.g. one can choose to create a controlled vocabulary for part of speech tagging, as the tags that are used often reoccur. In order to do this select . The following dialog will appear:
Figure 5.23. Edit controlled vocabulary
The CV being edited
Import option to retrieve a CV from a template
Option to link to an External CV
Annotation value as it is going to be filled in
A loose description of the value
Association with a ISO Data Category
Buttons to move the selected entry in the list (respectively to the top, one place up, one place down and to the bottom).
Undo/redo changes to the CV
Buttons to sort the entries in the list
To create a new CV, do the following:
Enter a CV Name and a description
Click on the button
Now enter each CV entry and its description.
Confirm every entry addition by clicking on the button or by hitting
Note
The undo function in the CV dialog window only works as long as that window is active. Once it is closed changes cannot be undone anymore.
By clicking (not yet shown in the figure above) you can choose a color that will fill the lower part of every annotation frame containing the selected CV entry. Moreover, you can choose a shortcut key to edit an annotation with a single key stroke.
The color chooser has four tabs. The last three contain different ways to choose a color, which is subsequently displayed in the lower part of the window. In the first tab you can add or insert the color displayed below and you can copy, paste and delete the selected color. The list of favorite colors is saved and used the next time you start ELAN.
In ELAN it is possible to associate an entry of a controlled
vocabulary with a data category of the ISO Data Category Repository
(DCR). To do so click on in the ELAN
main menu and select . In the window that now appears, click
the button to the right of the
ISO Data Category option. In the next window (Figure 5.24, “Local Data Category Selection”), first select a
profile in the left panel and then select a data category in the
middle panel. Finally click on Apply to associate the selected data
category to the CV entry.
More information about the ISO DCR and how to use it can be found in the section called “Data categories”.
Instead of creating a Controlled Vocabulary again every time
ELAN also supports the possibility to reuse existing CV's. A first
way to achieve this is to use a template file that contains a CV
when creating a new *.eaf file. (See the section called “Creating a new document”) Alternatively you can
import a CV for already existing files:
select
Click on
Select the template from which you want to import a CV
Choose
Now all CV's that are stored in the selected template file will be imported
If you try to import a CV with the same name as an already existing CV a dialog will pop up asking what to do:
: ignore the CV from the template
: overwrite the existing CV with that from the template
: opens a dialog asking you to give a new name for the imported CV
: entries from the imported CV that are not in an existing CV are imported.
A created or imported controlled vocabulary is part of the
current transcription and is therefore part of the
.eaf file when the transcription is saved.
However, there are situations in which a controlled vocabulary is
shared between two or more transcriptions and change to that CV
should be propagated to all transcription that use that CV. For this
purpose, ELAN enables you to link to a controlled vocabulary that is
either on your local or attached harddisk or somewhere on the
network or the Internet:
select
click
Do one of the following:
click on and browse to and select the file containing the External CV
enter a URL that point to an External CV somewhere on the Internet
Click to make the link
Similar to the Import CV process, if you try to import a CV with the same name as an already existing CV a dialog will pop up asking what to do (see Figure 5.25, “Controlled vocabulary already exists warning”).
The entries of an External CV cannot be edited nor their ISO Data Category. Also the order of the entries cannot be change. The possibility to add a color and shortcut key to an entry via the button is still there.
A CV can be exported by saving the current file as a template. (See the section called “Saving a selection as .eaf file”)
When editing an annotation that belongs to a linguistic type associated with a CV, a drop down box appears. Just select the value to be filled in:
Note
It is possible to by-pass the controlled vocabulary constraints by holding shift and double clicking on the active annotation (right clicking and selecting “Modify annotation value” while holding shift does the same).
Note
If a CV entry is associated with a data category of the ISO DCR (see the section called “Associating a CV entry with a Data Category”), the annotation is also associated with that data category.
