AnswerWorks synonym file responses
> We currently use AnswerWorks to add a natural language interface to
> our
> Windows help. I am looking into creating a synonym file in AnswerWorks
> and wanted to get feedback from anyone who has done so already...what
> went well, what did not go well, etc. (Your opinion on the
process as
> well as the
> result.)
Four of those responses stated that they were interested and asked for
a summary of info. So, It seems that there is not much experience
in this area. I did receive two responses from those who have used the
feature, and I have pasted thsoe responses below. If anyone has something
to add, please e-mail me directly at brenda -at- mccabe -dot- com -dot-
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1998 07:17:18 -0400 From: "Steve Wexler"Subject: RE: AnswerWorks synonym file Brenda, One very important way to see if your synonyms are working, so to speak, is to use the automated testing feature. This feature allows you to determine if all the questions that might be asked get the correct answers. The testing feature is very straightforward: you create a text file containing all the questions you want to ask, then use AnswerWorks' batch mode to process the questions. AnswerWorks will produce a report showing what hits will be produced for each question. If a question produces bad hits -- or no hits -- then you know you have more work to do before you release the help system. Specifically, there are three things you may need to do to fix a "bad hit" problem. 1) Modify the synonym file (this changes things on a global level) 2) Add keywords to topics (AW *does* look at keywords. This changes things on a topic-specific level) 3) Consider adding a new topic, or changing the wording of a topic. The testing feature us the best tool you have for verifying the content of your help system. I think you will be very happy with how it will help you "know" that your help system is as good as it should be. Steve
Hi Brenda, I saw your query about Answer Works on Techwr-L. I don't personally have any experience with the product, but several of my co-workers do, so I circulated your question among them (as you can see from the forwards below). We are currently in the process of upgrading to AW 2.0, so in the future we may spend more time with the synonym file. Hope this helps you out, and feel free to email me with more specific questions if they arise. Colleen McKenna Publications Department SPSS, Inc. >-----Original Message----- >From: Healy, Jonathan >Sent: Monday, July 27, 1998 2:46 PM >To: McKenna, Colleen >Cc: Scanlan, Ann >Subject: RE: from the listserv > >It really depends on how specialized the vocabulary for your product/help >system is. The potential is there, I think, if you can afford to put in the >time. I spent less than a day working on our synonym file, which wasn't >enough, but that was all the time I had. For the most part it worked fine -- >certainly a didn't hurt anything. There were a few cases where adding a >particular synonym failed to produce the expected result, but I didn't have >time to investigate. I was hoping to spend more time on this for the next >release, but didn't want to mess with it until we upgraded to 2.0.
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