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Keyword
Updated in Version 5.2

When you create or modify a Log CLIFF automatically generates keywords for the following data fields:

  • First Name and Last Name of authors entered in the Log and Additional Authors.
  • Company
  • Subject
  • The user-defined text fields
  • The user-defined pop-up fields

    Keywords are generated by extracting all the unique words in the above data fields. Note that all non-numeric and non-alphabetic characters are excluded when generating keywords. The only exception to this is '/' and '-' if they are bordered by numbers.

    Examples:

    Text to be keyworded Keywords
    Bob/Tom/Sue Bob, Tom, Sue
    01/01/1999 01/01/1999
    Re: 1995 agreement between Acme/Government signed by-John, Sue(Minister)-10-11-95 Re, 1995, agreement, between, Acme, Government, signed, by, John, Sue, Minister, 10-11-95
     

    The resulting keywords are compared to a table of exceptions, or noise words, contained in the Noise Word table maintained by your Administrator. Any keywords, except those from First Name and Last Name, that found in the Noise Word table are not saved as keywords for the Log. Noise words are words you would not normally search on, such as 'and', 'the', 'to', and 'a'. Single character keywords are also dropped. For each keyword saved a phonetic equivalent of the keyword is also saved. This will allow you to search for keywords that 'sound like' the specified keyword.

    To search for Logs by keyword

    1. Click on the Keyword Search button in the CLIFF Toolbar.
      The Search by Keyword window is displayed. Unlike other search functions in CLIFF, all the fields are cleared and the date range reset to your Active Period.


    2. Enter the keywords you want to search for.
      A search on two or more keywords is called a compound search. When you do a compound search, you combine separate search conditions using a conjunction operator. The conjunction operator tells CLIFF how to combine the results of the individual searches.

      There are three conjunction operators:

      • & (AND): Finds all the Logs that meet two conditions. A keyword search of 'John & Smith' will list only the Logs that contain both those keywords. & is the default conjunction operator so entering a keyword search of 'John Smith' is the same as 'John & Smith'.
      • | (OR): Finds all the Logs that meet either of two conditions. A search for the keywords 'John | Smith' will list all Logs containing 'John' and all Logs containing 'Smith', including all Logs that contain both names.
      • # (EXCEPT): Searches by exception. For example: a search for 'John # Smith' will list all Logs containing 'John' except those that also contain the keyword 'Smith'.

      You can also combine the conjunction operators to create compound search conditions that are extremely specific. For example: 'John | Fred & Smith & taxes # 1996'.

    3. If necessary, change the date range to search in. The date range defaults to your Active Period.
    4. Click on Search.

      If the search is successful, CLIFF displays a list of all Logs that contain the keyword(s) you entered.
      If the search is not successful, CLIFF will display a message. Click Back to modify your search and try again.

      TIP: You can use the '@' wildcard with keywords. For example: 'Ander@' will find 'Andersen', 'Anderson', 'Andersson' and other names beginning with 'Ander'.

      Phonetic Searches

      A keyword search for 'Smith' would not find 'Smyth' or 'Smythe'. But if you click on Phonetic Search in the keyword search window, the search will include all Logs that contain phonetically similar keywords. A phonetic search for 'Smith' will bring up both 'Smyth' and 'Smythe'. Phonetic searches may select many more logs than you expect. For example, in the above tip of searching with 'Ander@' a phonetic search for 'Anderson' would find all the variations of Anderson plus anything that sounds the same, for example Andrew, Andreason, etc.

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