Synonym Highlighting
Once a research query has been formulated and submitted, you receive hits which need to be checked for their relevance. In most cases the search will need to be modified and limited. Synonym Highlighting supports you with this task.
When performing a text search, the search terms will automatically be highlighted and displayed in a way that the best hits are shown at the beginning of the result list.
For this purpose the SIP Ranking is used. Hits which contain the highest amount of the search terms in certain sections of the texts are rated higher in the ranking and thus are displayed at the beginning of the list. If search terms are found for example in the title, the abstract or the main claims then this hit will be rated higher than a hit found in the descriptions. With the help of this ranking and the simple automatic highlighting in the search you can see easily if a rough search delivers relevant results.
You can turn on /off the highlighting feature in the menu tab View. Please note that automatic highlighting and ranking of the results is not applicable when
combining searches, lists or when searching in other fields than text fields. In these cases you will have to actively create Highlighting schemes.
Synonyms, creating synonym groups and assigning colours
Words to be highlighted in colour can be highlighted as entire term or as part of the word. Terms, for example different spellings, the terms in different languages or synonyms of a term can be combined in a synonym group and marked with a specific colour scheme (background, text, Italic, Bold).
To mark a word or word stem, select the term with the cursor (turns blue) and right click. A context menu will open. Now you can compile a new group. If you have already created groups they are displayed in a list (coloured according to the highlighting). With a simple left mouse click on the group you assign the new synonym to an existing group. You can hereby choose if you want to include the exact term or the word stem (left/right truncated, or left and right truncated) as a synonym.
Edit Highlighting
The procedure explained here can be very fast and efficient. However, it can sometimes be sensible to create, edit or extend synonyms or synonym groups independent of the hitlist.
Via the menu item Edit highlighting (yellow button in the menu) or by right clicking on the text and selecting the item Edit highlighting you open a new window in which highlighting can be edited.
Add new group
Click on New group and then on the menu item Add. Here you can enter a group name. Select the colour and attributes of the font and save by clicking OK. Another even easier method is to right click in the left section of the window and select New Ins. Select a group with your cursor (blue) and open the context menu with a right click. You can now edit, rename or delete the group.
Edit or add synonyms to groups
Select the group in which you would like to include new synonyms by clicking on it (blue). In the right column a list will open in which previously created synonyms are displayed. Here you also choose the term by selecting it with a mouse click and by editing it using the context menu (right mouse click). Using Drag-and-Drop you can also drag synonyms in a different group. In order to do this click on the term and pull it into the synonym group. By right clicking in the synonym column you can add new synonyms.
By using the menu item „Add more“ you can enter an entire list of synonyms (divided by comma/semicolon or one below the other). You need to decide if these terms should be added to a group or if a new group should be created for every synonym.
Hint!!
Synonym lists (divided by comma) created in programms capable of Drag-and-Drop can simply be dragged into the synonym list.
Priority, case sensitivity, regular expression
Another often interesting possibility is to limit highlighting to regular expression or case sensitivity or to define the priority of different terms.
Case sensitivity is easily explained. You would like to highlight the terms Vitamin A, Vitamin B, Vitamin C in the same colour. Choose the term A as a synonym and check the box „Case sensitive“. By selecting this feature you avoid that the „a“ in a sentence like „a vitamin complex“ is highlighted.
Regular expression
Much more difficult but very interesting for certain issues is the „regular expression“. Regular expressions are exactly defined search patterns. For example you would like to highlight wave lengths between 200 and 600 nm in a specific colour. To do that enter the regular expression [^0-9] [2-5][0-9][0-9][^0]. This means that the numbers 2–5 need to occur, after that the numbers 0-9 need to occur and after that the numbers 0-9 need to occur again. The expression [^0-9] signifies that the numbers 0-9 must not occur before or after. This means that numbers between 200-599 are found. For the number 600 simply use a new synonym of the same colour and you will then find the number 600 highlighted in the same colour. Regular expressions are not too easy to use but provide a powerful tool. You can find a lot of information and help about this topic in the internet.
Priority
Priority helps you to determine which terms are highlighted if, for example other groups use the same word stems. Example: You create a highlighting group, which contains the word lampshade and a second group which contains the term lamp*. By default all terms have the same priority (15). If a document contains for example the terms lampshade, lamp stand, these terms will all be highlighted in the colour of the group lamp*. Now, if you set the priority of the term lampshade higher than the priority of the term lamp* the group colour lampshade will overwrite the group lamp*. In SIP’s future developments the priority will have great significance.
Save, open and use highlighting for research
When sifting through patents, highlighting is an important feature to classify a patent as interesting at first sight and to view it more closely. You can edit highlighting schemes in the window Highlighting and save them via the menu tab File. In this menu you can create a new highlighting scheme or open a saved scheme. Users of the Invention Navigator Professional Version 6.0 can open their saved highlighting schemes created in this version. These will automatically be converted in the new format but can not be used with Version 6.0 anymore.
You can save highlighting schemes as .inavHI files on your computer or send them to other users.
You were interrupted in your work and forgot to actively save your highlighting scheme? No problem. As soon as you log in again you can access the last unsaved version by using the feature „Open last scheme“, as the programme temporarily saves the most recently used highlighting version.
Merge Highlighting Schemes
It is also possible to merge highlighting schemes. Drag a saved highlighting (inavHI-file) into the highlighting window using Drag-and-Drop. The groups of both highlighting schemes will be merged. Via the menu tab File and the menu item “Merge schemes” you can also combine highlighting schemes. In this menu you can also use other functions. Decide whether you only like the activated groups (checked box) to be imported in the highlighting scheme when merging the schemes and assign a prefix as desired. This prefix precedes all groups of the imported highlighting scheme. For example select as a prefix the name of the saved highlighting scheme to see precisely see which saved highlighting file the groups were transferred from.
Highlighting in the local database
If you are working with the Invention Navigator Professional and are using a local database you can also use all previously described features in the local database. By double clicking on a text field in the Invention Navigator a text field will open in a separate window. In this window you will find a button Edit highlighting on the top right. A click on this window will open the synonym menu already known from Search4ip, which you can use to create synonyms, groups, etc. The context menu, which can be opened by right click, is also available.
Highlighting features in the global database Search4ip and in the local database interact. As soon as you activate highlighting in the global database and then open the local database the last highlighting will be applied to the local database and displayed.