Support : Dialog Search Aids : Successful Searching : VISUAL RANK

VISUAL RANK

The VISUAL RANK command brings the functionality of the classic Dialog RANK into a graphical format. Use VISUAL RANK to perform trend or statistical analysis on terms appearing in a specified field(s) in a search results set.

When you enter a VISUAL RANK command, the Dialog system extracts the terms occurring in the specified field(s) in records in the set. DialogLink opens a Rank window and displays the terms ranked in descending order by frequency of occurrence in the set.

Function buttons in the window then make it easy to work with the Rank result:

• To sort the Rank list alphabetically by term in ascending or descending order, click the Term column heading.
  
  
• To sort the Rank list by number of items in ascending or descending order, click the Items Rank column heading.
  
  
• To display additional detail, click Details.
  
  
• To consolidate list entries, click the check boxes beside list entries then click Combine. The Items Rank numbers are summed and the total appears beside the first-selected term. Terms other than the first-selected term are removed from the display but if you select the first term and use the Save Terms or Search functions, all the terms that were combined are included.
  
  
• To save terms found in the Rank list, click the check boxes beside list entries or click the Check All button then click Save Terms. DialogLink opens the Save As window so that you can name and save the term list as a script. You can then use File > Load Script in the DialogLink toolbar at any time to upload the saved terms into the Type-Ahead buffer to construct a new search.
  
  
• To search using terms found in the Rank list as query terms, click the check boxes beside list entries or click the Check All button then click Search. DialogLink submits a search that ORs the selected terms and looks for them only in the Ranked field. The search result displays in the Retrieve buffer.
  
  
• To copy the Rank table to the Retrieve buffer, click Retrieve Buffer in the Copy Results to section. Enter a title in the Title text box before copying if you would like a title to display above the rank table in the Retrieve buffer.
  
  
• To save the Rank table as an HTML file, click HTML File in the Copy Results to section. Enter a title in the Title text box before copying if you would like a title to be included in the saved data.
  
  
• To save the Rank table as an Excel file, click Excel File in the Copy Results to section. Enter a title in the Title text box before copying if you would like a title to be included in the saved data.
  
  
• To view records in which Ranked terms occur, click the check boxes beside list entries or click the Check All button, select a record format from the Format pull-down list, enter the number of records you want to see in the Items checkbox and click View.

Summary of VISUAL RANK commands:

• VISUAL RANK <field> — Analyzes records in last set
• VISUAL RANK <set number> <field> — Analyzes records in specified set
• VISUAL RANK <set number> <field>,<fieldn> — Analyzes more than one field

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