Visual Text Explorer Info
Welcome to the Visual Text Explorer!
The VTE allows you to search a text for a list of words or characters and then highlight the words within the text. To get started, upload the text you would like to search as the SOURCE file (the file must be in a text file/.txt format). Then upload the words, phrases, or characters you would like to search for as the LIST file (this must also be a text file). You can list as many words, phrases, or characters as you'd like; just make sure you list each term you would like to search for on a new line. After you have uploaded your files and selected a few options, hit the run button.
A few lines of text will pop up to give you updates on what step of the process the VTE is currently on. After a few steps a loading bar will appear and the rows will begin to render. Once the bar is at 100%, the rendering is complete. A List Key will also pop-up to show you how each of the terms in your list file will be highlighted.
If you would like a PDF of the output from the VTE, just hit the PDF button. Another loading bar will pop up and show you how far along the VTE is in the rendering process. Don't worry if the loading bar stops around 95%. This just means the VTE is in the final steps of preparing you PDF.
To try the VTE, download the files from one of the demos below and upload them to their correspoding areas:
Sherlock Holmes Demo
ENGLISH SOURCE
ENGLISH LIST
Chinese Demo
Note: To properly render this demo, make sure to select the "Split on Characters" option in the Basic Options Menu.
CHINESE SOURCE
CHINESE LIST
Specialized List and Demo Source Files
SENTIMENT ANALYSIS: POSITIVE & NEGATIVE (English)
Positive terms: blue (medium-length bar); Negative terms: pink (short bar); Topic #1: red (long bar); Topic #2: green (medium bar).
SAMPLE SENTIMENT ANALYSIS SOURCE: NYTimes Article (English)
LIST FILE OF IPA SYMBOLS (English Received Pronunciation).
SAMPLE IPA SOURCE : Robert Frost "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
Also requires "Split on Characters"; set for English Received Pronunciation
For assistance or further information, please contact webmaster@edoc.uchicago.edu
The VTE allows you to search a text for a list of words or characters and then highlight the words within the text. To get started, upload the text you would like to search as the SOURCE file (the file must be in a text file/.txt format). Then upload the words, phrases, or characters you would like to search for as the LIST file (this must also be a text file). You can list as many words, phrases, or characters as you'd like; just make sure you list each term you would like to search for on a new line. After you have uploaded your files and selected a few options, hit the run button.
A few lines of text will pop up to give you updates on what step of the process the VTE is currently on. After a few steps a loading bar will appear and the rows will begin to render. Once the bar is at 100%, the rendering is complete. A List Key will also pop-up to show you how each of the terms in your list file will be highlighted.
If you would like a PDF of the output from the VTE, just hit the PDF button. Another loading bar will pop up and show you how far along the VTE is in the rendering process. Don't worry if the loading bar stops around 95%. This just means the VTE is in the final steps of preparing you PDF.
To try the VTE, download the files from one of the demos below and upload them to their correspoding areas:
Sherlock Holmes Demo
ENGLISH SOURCE
ENGLISH LIST
Chinese Demo
Note: To properly render this demo, make sure to select the "Split on Characters" option in the Basic Options Menu.
CHINESE SOURCE
CHINESE LIST
Specialized List and Demo Source Files
SENTIMENT ANALYSIS: POSITIVE & NEGATIVE (English)
Positive terms: blue (medium-length bar); Negative terms: pink (short bar); Topic #1: red (long bar); Topic #2: green (medium bar).
SAMPLE SENTIMENT ANALYSIS SOURCE: NYTimes Article (English)
LIST FILE OF IPA SYMBOLS (English Received Pronunciation).
SAMPLE IPA SOURCE : Robert Frost "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
Also requires "Split on Characters"; set for English Received Pronunciation
For assistance or further information, please contact webmaster@edoc.uchicago.edu
Display Options
These options dictate how the VTE will display the output.
Line Thickness: This option controls how thick the output bars will be as well as determine the size of font, so if you choose a line thickness of 10 px, then the output bars will be 10px wide and the font will be 10px tall.
Display Width: This options will changes how wide the rows will be. If 1000px is chosen as the width, then display will be separated into increments that are 1000px wide.
Basic Options
The basic options are tools you can use to change how the VTE searches for and displays your search terms and your text. Here is a breakdown of the basic options available.
Horizontal/Vertical Display: This option dictates how the rows will be displayed. Horizontal rows will run from left to right, and then break once they reach the designated Display Width. Vertical rows run from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen and break once the Display Width is reached.
Split on Spaces/Characters: This option changes how the source text is parsed. The VTE will search for the objects in the list file, but once that is done this option decides how the rest of the text is parsed. If splitting on spaces, the VTE would parse "Visual Text Explorer" like this...
Visual / Text / Explorer
If splitting on characters, the VTE would parse it like this...
V / i / s / u / a / l / T / e / x / t / E / x / p / l / o / r / e / r
Case Sensitive: If turned on, then the matching done by the VTE will be case sensitive. Without case sensitivity, if "vte" was on the list file then it would match with "VTE" in the source file. With case sensitivity, "vte" would not match up with "VTE".
Bar Height Frequency: If selected, then the height of the bars will be dependent on how frequently they are found in the text.
Orient Right-to-Left: This option only works when the Vertical Display option is selected. This option displays vertical rows from right to left.
Remove Punctuation: This feature will be added at a later date. When added, it will give the option to remove punctuation from a text before the VTE searches for the terms in the list file.
These options dictate how the VTE will display the output.
Line Thickness: This option controls how thick the output bars will be as well as determine the size of font, so if you choose a line thickness of 10 px, then the output bars will be 10px wide and the font will be 10px tall.
Display Width: This options will changes how wide the rows will be. If 1000px is chosen as the width, then display will be separated into increments that are 1000px wide.
Basic Options
The basic options are tools you can use to change how the VTE searches for and displays your search terms and your text. Here is a breakdown of the basic options available.
Horizontal/Vertical Display: This option dictates how the rows will be displayed. Horizontal rows will run from left to right, and then break once they reach the designated Display Width. Vertical rows run from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen and break once the Display Width is reached.
Split on Spaces/Characters: This option changes how the source text is parsed. The VTE will search for the objects in the list file, but once that is done this option decides how the rest of the text is parsed. If splitting on spaces, the VTE would parse "Visual Text Explorer" like this...
Visual / Text / Explorer
If splitting on characters, the VTE would parse it like this...
V / i / s / u / a / l / T / e / x / t / E / x / p / l / o / r / e / r
Case Sensitive: If turned on, then the matching done by the VTE will be case sensitive. Without case sensitivity, if "vte" was on the list file then it would match with "VTE" in the source file. With case sensitivity, "vte" would not match up with "VTE".
Bar Height Frequency: If selected, then the height of the bars will be dependent on how frequently they are found in the text.
Orient Right-to-Left: This option only works when the Vertical Display option is selected. This option displays vertical rows from right to left.
Remove Punctuation: This feature will be added at a later date. When added, it will give the option to remove punctuation from a text before the VTE searches for the terms in the list file.
Advanced Options
These options are more technical and advanced options.
UTF-8: The default character encoding is UTF-8. This allows the VTE to parse text from practically any language. Turning this off turns off the UTF-8 encoding and reverts the VTE to ASCII characters.
Display Text: If turned off, the VTE will no longer display the text in the rows.
Show All Steps: If turned off, the VTE will only display the chart.
These options are more technical and advanced options.
UTF-8: The default character encoding is UTF-8. This allows the VTE to parse text from practically any language. Turning this off turns off the UTF-8 encoding and reverts the VTE to ASCII characters.
Display Text: If turned off, the VTE will no longer display the text in the rows.
Show All Steps: If turned off, the VTE will only display the chart.
Future Additions
These are some additions that will be made in the future. Some of them have already been added as options in the VTE; however, they are currently disabled.
Font colors and styling of source text: This allow source text to also be used to visualize certain criteria (frequency of terms, additional word lists).
Customization of colors in bars: This will allow the user to change the colors of various bars/elements in the output on the fly.
Output as CSV (JSON/XML): This will allow the user to download the visualization matrix as a flat text file, in various formats.
Use of Wildcards: This option will allow you to include wildcards in terms in your list file. An example of this would be "jump*". This term would then match up with "jump", "jumps", "jumped", and any other words that use "jump" as the root word.
NLP Parsing: This will introduce Natural Language Processing into the VTE's text processing.
These are some additions that will be made in the future. Some of them have already been added as options in the VTE; however, they are currently disabled.
Font colors and styling of source text: This allow source text to also be used to visualize certain criteria (frequency of terms, additional word lists).
Customization of colors in bars: This will allow the user to change the colors of various bars/elements in the output on the fly.
Output as CSV (JSON/XML): This will allow the user to download the visualization matrix as a flat text file, in various formats.
Use of Wildcards: This option will allow you to include wildcards in terms in your list file. An example of this would be "jump*". This term would then match up with "jump", "jumps", "jumped", and any other words that use "jump" as the root word.
NLP Parsing: This will introduce Natural Language Processing into the VTE's text processing.