Dictionaries Cheat Sheet

The key functions you can incorporate into a Dictionary are summarised below.

Wordlist Definition - creates a wordlist
- Comments – add comments to a dictionary
- Example – embed test data into a dictionary
- Special Characters – escape special characters
Features – add useful information to a tagged text reference (entity)
Conditions
- Case Sensitivity – title, upper, lower, exact (default: all)
- Context – check for terms in (or note in) the text block before annotating
Generalisation
- Plurals – include plurals
- Reduce (Spelling Variations) - include spelling variations
Columns

Example

Below is an example of a simple wordlist in a dictionary, where each word listed will be tagged as an Illicit Drug.

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#wordlist tag:Illicit Drugs
fentanyl
heroin
morphine
opium
oxycodone
ecstasy
cocaine

Sample Text:

Fentanyl, morphine, opium and oxycodone were also discovered during the raid of the heroin dealer's home.

Result:

Fentanyl, morphine, opium and oxycodone were also discovered during the raid of the heroin dealer's home.

The syntax for each of the Dictionary functions are summarised below. More detailed explanations and examples are provided in later topics.

Creates a wordlist, giving it a name.

#wordlist <label>:<name>

<label>

tag (creates a text reference)
any text (creates an annotation with the text as the label and there is no visible text reference in the document. Can be referenced in EES.)
no label (creates an annotation without a label (listed under the generic label wordlist) and there is no a visible text reference in the document.)

<name>

the text that appears after the highlighted text reference when using tag as the label.

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Code:

#wordlist tag:Animal
Cat

Result:

A cat is an animal.

See Wordlist Definition.

You can add comments into your dictionary.

Single Line Comments

// Adding a comment on a single line

Can be on its own line or following code

Multi Line Comments

/* Adding comments on multiple lines. */

Can be on its own line or over several lines.

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Code:

/*******************************/
/*  Drugs – Illicit Drugs      */
/*******************************/

#wordlist tag:Illicit Drugs
// add more illicit drugs
heroin
ecstasy  // check for different names 
morphine
opium
oxycodone
/* See separate list for prescription drugs */

See Comments.

You can embed sample text inside the EXAMPLE tags to use when testing the dictionary.

/*
#EXAMPLE
Text placed between the example tags will be used as test input when testing the dictionary.
#EXAMPLE END
*/

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Code:

/*
#EXAMPLE
During the attack, a bomb and several missiles were used to disable the aircraft carrier.
#EXAMPLE END 
*/

See Test Examples.

Special characters included within a wordlist entry need to be entered in specific way (known as escaping special characters).

Special characters include:

# (hash)
* (asterisk)
, (comma)
// (two back slashes)
*/ (asterisk back slash)
/* (back slash asterisk)

Escaping Special Characters

Use double quotes to escape special characters.

Escaping “ and \ in escaped text

To use “ and \ contained in double quotes, use \ (forward slash) before the " or \.

Escaping Special Characters

"#ab"       // tags #ab

"a , b"     // tags a , b

"a * b"     // tags a * b

"a // b"    // tags a // b

Escaping “ and \ in escaped text

"a \" b"     // tags a " b

"\\ab"       // tags \ab

See Special Characters.

You can add additional information to text references created by dictionaries, called features.

A text reference can have more than one feature added.

Set Feature:

#feature <label>:<type>:<value>

Clear Feature:

#clear feature <label>

<type>

string (default, can be omitted)
boolean
integer
long float
double

Setting a new feature with the same label automatically overrides the previous feature.

A feature is applied to all the following entries until the feature is overridden or cleared.

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Code:

#wordlist tag:Weapon

#feature:"Weapon Type" "Artillery" 
artillery
#clear feature:"Weapon Type"

#feature:"Explosive Type" "Remote Detonation"    
bombs
#clear feature:"Explosive Type"

#feature:"Missile Type" "Long Range"
missiles

#cond:context missile
trident

See Features.

Conditions control which entries are annotated depending on if the condition is met. There are two types of conditions you can add: case and context.

Set Condition:

#cond:<type> <+/-><condition> <condition> <condition>

Clear Condition:

#clear cond: <type>

#cond on a new line clears the #cond on a previous line of the same type.
you can include multiple <conditions> of the same type on the same line.
when you want to stop using a condition you can clear the condition.

<type>

case - defines the case sensitivity of the entry.
context - defines terms that must or must not be in the text block with the entry.

<+/->

each condition defaults to the plus symbol
since the plus symbol is the default, you only need to add the minus symbol when you want to exclude a condition
you can combine position and negative conditions on the same line

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Code:

#wordlist tag:SynonymsForForces

#cond:context -line
front
#clear cond:context

#cond:case exact
Force
Revolution Force
#clear cond:case

#wordlist tag:Aircraft
#cond:context aircraft plane planes aircrafts flew fly flying 
"Boeing 747"
"Lockheed L-1011 TriStar"
"Macchi C.205 Veltro"
"Airbus A380"
"Macchi C.202 Folgore"
"Reggiane Re.2000 Falco I"
"Fiat G.50 Freccia"

See Conditions.

Case Sensitivity is a type of Condition, described above.

By default all case variations are annotated. To limit annotations to only certain cases, you can include a conditional case statement.

Set case:

#cond:case <+/-><condition> <condition><condition>

Clear case:

#clear cond: case

If not defined, all case variations are annotated.

title – capitalised version of entries only
exact – entries exactly as written
upper – fully uppercase version of entries
lower – fully lowercase version of entries

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Code Example 1:

#cond:case -lower  
/* excludes lower case, and 
includes upper case, title and exact */

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Code Example 2:

#cond:case lower upper 
/* includes both lower and upper case, 
and excludes title and exact */

See Case Sensitivity.

Setting a context condition allows you to only annotate an entry if a word or phrase exists (or does not exist) in the same text block as the entry.

Set Context:

#cond:context <+/-><condition> <condition><condition>

Clear Condition:

#clear context: <type>

<+/->

If not defined, term must be in the text block (assume plus sign by default).
See conditions above.

<term>

If term contains more than one word, enclose the term in double quotes (e.g. “New Zealand”)
You can include multiple terms, leaving a space between terms.

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Code:

#wordlist tag:Aircraft
#cond:context aircraft plane planes fly flew flying 
"Boeing 747"
"Lockheed L-1011 TriStar"
"Macchi C.205 Veltro"
"Airbus A380"

/*
#EXAMPLE
There were reports of multiple aircraft flying around the front line, with one witness stating they saw a Boeing 747!

While not as large as an Airbus A380, the Boeing 747 is an unexpected sight to see at the front.
#EXAMPLE END
*/

See Context Sensitivity.

By default, if the entry is singular only the singular form is annotated. If the entry is plural, only the plural is annotated.

If you want to include both singular and plural forms of a word, you need to enable plurals.

#generalize:plural <true/false>

Default: Plurals are not included by default.

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Code:

#wordlist tag:Weapons
#generalize:plural true
fighter jet
bomb
missile

#generalize:plural false
aircraft carrier

Sample Text:

During the attack, a fighter jet, bombs and missiles were used to disable the aircraft carriers.

Result:

During the attack, a fighter jet, bombs and missiles were used to disable the aircraft carriers.

See Plurals.

Names can often have many spelling variations. To include spelling variations you can enable to the Reduce function.

#generalize:reduce <true/false>

Clear Reduce:

#clear generalize: reduce

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Code:

#wordlist tag:Person
#generalize:reduce true
Mohammad
Khalid
Michael

Sample Text:

Mohammad

Mohamad

Muhammad

Muhamed

Khalid

Khaled

Michael

Michel

Michal

Result:

Mohammad

Mohamad

Muhammad

Muhamed

Khalid

Khaled

Michael

Michel

Michal

See Reduce (Spelling Variations).

Using columns, you can apply unique functions to each entry.

For example, for each entry, you can apply unique feature values, specify case and set conditions.

Set Columns:

#cols col-definition, <col-definition>, <col-definition>

Clear Columns:

#clear cols

One of the columns must be text, representing the dictionary entry.

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Code:

#wordlist tag:Weapon

#cols text, feature:"Threat Level", feature:"Threat Value"    
artillery, medium, 4
bombs, medium, 4

#clear cols //clear the previous column structure

#cols text, feature:"Top Speed"
missiles, 200mph
aircraft carrier, 30knots

See Columns.

Dictionaries Cheat Sheet

Function Summary

Function Cheat Sheet

Wordlist Definition

Result:

Comments

Single Line Comments

Multi Line Comments

Example

Special Characters

Escaping Special Characters

Escaping “ and \ in escaped text

Escaping Special Characters

Escaping “ and \ in escaped text

Features

Set Feature:

Clear Feature:

Conditions

Set Condition:

Clear Condition:

Case Sensitivity

Set case:

Clear case:

Context

Set Context:

Clear Condition:

Plurals

Sample Text:

Result:

Reduce (Spelling Variations)

Clear Reduce:

Sample Text:

Result:

Columns

Set Columns:

Clear Columns: