GB2366893A - Handling acronyms - Google Patents
Handling acronyms Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- GB2366893A GB2366893A GB0022023A GB0022023A GB2366893A GB 2366893 A GB2366893 A GB 2366893A GB 0022023 A GB0022023 A GB 0022023A GB 0022023 A GB0022023 A GB 0022023A GB 2366893 A GB2366893 A GB 2366893A
- Authority
- GB
- United Kingdom
- Prior art keywords
- acronym
- word processor
- meaning
- glossary
- tool
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Granted
Links
Classifications
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F40/00—Handling natural language data
- G06F40/20—Natural language analysis
- G06F40/232—Orthographic correction, e.g. spell checking or vowelisation
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F40/00—Handling natural language data
- G06F40/20—Natural language analysis
- G06F40/237—Lexical tools
- G06F40/242—Dictionaries
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F40/00—Handling natural language data
- G06F40/20—Natural language analysis
- G06F40/274—Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F40/00—Handling natural language data
- G06F40/20—Natural language analysis
- G06F40/279—Recognition of textual entities
- G06F40/289—Phrasal analysis, e.g. finite state techniques or chunking
- G06F40/295—Named entity recognition
Abstract
A word processor system or the like capable of displaying textual material, comprises an acronym facilitator tool which facilitates access to a 'dictionary' data store of acronyms and their meanings, the facilitator tool being arranged to provide for acronym identification in textual material displayed, so that a screen tip display is produced consequent upon such identification when the facilitator tool is in operation, the screen tip display comprising an acronym meaning derived from the 'dictionary' data store which corresponds to and which is displayed alongside an acronym thus identified.
Description
2366893 Improvements in or relating to word processor systems or the like.
This invention relates to word processors systems or the like 5 such as web authoring packages for example, which are capable of displaying to a user/reader, textual material.
In recent times, the technical press seems to have been seized by acronymania to the extent that textual material tends increasingly to include acronyms which are not generally understood, and quite 10 commonly, the meaning of acronyms used (i.e. words, the initial letters of which comprise the acronym) is not immediately apparent to a reader. This may be because the meaning is so obvious to the author of the textual material in which they are included that an explanation is believed to be unnecessary, or alternatively because an 15 explanation is contained elsewhere in the material, perhaps in a glossary, which is not readily available to the reader. Moreover, in some cases, acronyms may have several alternative meanings and even when the meaning is made clear, a definition, which explains the meaning, is not usually given to facilitate a proper understanding of 20 the acronym. For example in a particular passage of text, the ascribed meaning of the acronym 'IP' may be 'Intellectual Property' and a definition of IP in this case may be 'Patents, Trade Marks, Registered Designs or Copyright'.
It is an object of this invention to provide in a word processor 25 system or the like capable of displaying textual material, a tool which may be used to facilitate an understanding of the meaning and/or definition of acronyms used in textual material displayed.
According to the present invention a word processor system or the like capable of displaying textual material, comprises an acronym 30 facilitator tool which upon selection facilitates access to a 'dictionary' data store of acronyms and their meanings, the said facilitator tool being arranged to provide for acronym identification in textual.
material displayed, so that a screen tip display is produced consequent upon such identification when the said facilitator tool has been selected, the screen tip display comprising an acronym meaning derived from the 'dictionary' data store which corresponds to and which is displayed alongside an acronym thus identified.
The acronym facilitator tool may be arranged to be included in a tool menu or the like, with other word processor tools such as a spell checker for example and to be selected as and when required from the menu.
10 The acronym facilitator tool may be arranged to operate for acronym identification purposes in accordance with a predetermined algorithm.
The algorithm may serve to identify as acronyms, words in upper case (i.e. capitals letters) which are longer than one character, 15 wherein the final character may be in lower case if there are three or more characters.
The means for selection may comprise a cursor which is moveable about the display under the control of a mouse for selection purposes.
20 When the acronym facilitator tool is selected, textual material may be scanned progressively for the purpose of acronym identification, stepping from acronym to acronym under control of the mousel so that the meaning (or possible alternative meanings) of each acronym identified is provided by means of the screen tip display.
25 The said store may be arranged to include for each acronym a meaning(s) and for each meaning an appropriate definition.
Glossary compilation means may be provided so that the meaning and definition of each acronym identified can be added to a glossary appertaining to the textual material displayed for inclusion 30 therein if required.
When an acronym identified has two or more possible meanings which are identified in the screen tip display, provision for making a choice between the alternatives may be provided so that a user may select an appropriate meaning, for inclusion in the glossary accompanied by an appropriate definition.
It may be arranged that to facilitate glossary compilation, 5 consequent upon acronym selection, a hyper-link is automatically added to the acronym linking it to an appropriate line in the glossary.
One embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which; 10 Figure 1, is word processor screen display showing a screen tip as produced by operation of a word processor acronym facilitator tool; Figure 2, is word processor screen display showing a dialogue box produced by the word processor acronym facilitator tool, and; Figure 3, is a flow diagram showing operational steps perfonned 15 by the acronym facilitator tool.
In order to provide for an understanding of acronyms, an acronym facilitator tool is included in a word processor and is arranged to be conventionally selectable as required from a tool menu.
The facilitator tool includes a dictionary data store of acronyms 20 accompanied by the meaning or meanings of each acronym, and for each meaning an appropriate definition is included, provision being made for the addition of acronyms to the store. It is contemplated that the acronym facilitator could be included as a standard facility in web authoning packages or word processing software so as to make any 25 document displayed easier to read by ensuring that the meaning of acronyms used can be displayed to a user when required.
As shown in Figure 1, this may be done automatically by adding a screen tip to the acronym so that the meaning is shown when a mouse controlled cursor is placed over an acronym.
30 Additionally, provision is included for adding an acronym glossary to documents. When the facilitator tool is selected from the tool menu, a document currently displayed by the word processor is searched for acronyms. For this purpose, acronyms are selected in accordance with a predetermined algorithm which defines them as comprising at least two consecutive upper-case letters which may be followed by one lower-case letter. For each acronym found, the 5 acronym dictionary data store is interrogated for corresponding meaning(s) which are displayed to the user so that an appropriate meaning for each can be included in a glossary before proceeding to the next acronym and repeating the procedure. One such display is shown in Figure 2, which comprises a dialogue box 1, (with textual 10 material in the background) including a glossary which has been compiled by the acronym facilitator. In the dialogue box 1, the acronym'IP'has been selected and two alternative Meaning options 2, and 3, are shown. In this case, Meaning option 2, (Internet Protocol) has been selected and highlighted so that a corresponding Definition 4,
15 of this Meaning option 2, is displayed which is included in the glossary.
As shown 'in the flow diagram of Figure 3, the following Steps numbered 5, to 14, are performed for the purpose of constructing an acronym glossary using the functions: Include, Include All, Ignore, 20 Ignore All, Add or Remove, as appropriate, which are as shown on the right hand side of the dialogue box 1, in Figure 2:
Step 5, click button to select acronym facilitator. The acronym facilitator will be initialised by clicking a button from a tool bar or selecting it from a drop down menu. Alternatively, it could operate in 25 the same way as a spell/grammar checker - whilst the document is being edited; Step 6, check to see if a glossary heading is included in the document and if not add one. The acronym facilitator adds a glossary to the end of the document. If there is not a section in the document titled 30 "Glossary", then the title will be added to the document at this stage; Step 7, find acronym in the document An Acronym is identified as a word longer than I character made up of capital letters. A lower case 44 s" may appear at the end of the word, but this will not be considered as part of the acronym; Step 8, display dialogue box. The dialogue box is similar to Figure 2.
The user can select which acronym they mean from the choices in the 5 dictionary, or they can use the "Add" and "Remove" buttons to customise their acronym dictionary. If the selected acronym is not appropriate for including in the glossary they may choose the "Ignore" button. The "Include All" and "Ignore All" buttons will apply this choice to all other instances of that acronym found in the text; 10 Step 9, select an appropriate meaning from those listed or add a new meaning. In instances where a user has more than I meaning for the same acronym in their dictionary, the appropriate acronym must be chosen from a list displayed in the dialogue box before they select "Include" or "Include All".
15 Step 10, add the acronym its meaning and definition to the glossary if it is not already included. A glossary entry consists of the acronym, the fall expansion of that acronym, and an optional definition of that acronym.
Step 11, add hyper-link from the acronym to the relevant line in the 20 glossary. Providing a hyper-link from the acronym to the glossary enables a user to easily interrogate the glossary to determine the meaning of the acronym. A screen tip is also added to the acronym, so the full meaning is shown when the mouse is placed over the acronym.
This is shown in Figure 1; 25 Step 12, if no more acronyms proceed to; Step 13, for print options (N.B. Options for printing. A user will not automatically get the benefit of the screen tips when viewing a hard copy of the document. Therefore, a user will be given the option to expand the first or all uses of the acronyms used.) or go to; 30 Step 14, to repeat for the steps 7 to 11 for the next acronym.
Claims (11)
1. A word processor system or the like capable of displaying textual material, comphi sing an acronym facilitator tool which facilitates access to a 'dictionary' data store of acronyms and their meanings, the 5 said facilitator tool being arranged to provide for acronym identification in textual material displayed, so that a screen tip display is produced consequent upon such identification when the said facilitator tool is in operation, the screen tip display comprising an acronym meaning derived from the 'dictionary' data store which 10 corresponds to and which is displayed alongside an acronym thus identified.
2. A word processor or the like as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the acronym facilitator tool is arranged to be included in a tool menu or the like, and to be selected as required from the menu.
15
3. A word processor or the like as claimed in Claim 1, or Claim 2, wherein the acronym facilitator tool is arranged to operate for acronym identification purposes in accordance with a predetermined algorithm.
4. A word processor or the like as claimed in Claim 3, wherein the algorithm serves to identify as acronyms, words in -upper case (i.e.
20 capitals letters) which are longer than one character, wherein the final character may be in lower case if there are three or more characters.
5. A word processor or the like as claimed in any preceding claim, comprising a cursor which is moveable about the display -under the control of a mouse for acronym selection purposes.
25
6. A word processor or the like as claimed in Claim 5, wherein textual material is scanned progressively for the purpose of acronym identification, stepping from acronym to acronym under control of the mouse, so that the meaning (or possible alternative meanings) of each acronym identified is provided by means of the screen tip display.
7. A word processor or the like as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the said store is arranged to include for each acronym a meaning(s) and for each meaning an appropriate definition.
8. A word processor or the like as claimed in any preceding claim, 5 including glossary compilation means so that the meaning and definition of each acronym identified can be added to a glossary appertaining to the textual material displayed for inclusion therein as required.
9. A word processor or the like as claimed in Claim 8, wherein when 10 an acronym identified has two or more possible meanings which are identified in the screen tip display, provision for making a choice between the alternatives is provided so that a user may select an appropriate one of the possible meanings, for inclusion in the glossary accompanied by an appropriate definition.
15
10. A word processor or the like as claimed in Claim 8, or Claim 9, wherein it is arranged that in order to facilitate glossary compilation, consequent upon acronym selection, a hyper-link is automatically added to the selected acronym, linking it to an appropriate line in the glossary.
20
11. A word processor or the like as claimed in Claim 1, and substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Priority Applications (4)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
GB0022023A GB2366893B (en) | 2000-09-08 | 2000-09-08 | Improvements in or relating to word processor systems or the like |
US10/468,459 US20040148156A1 (en) | 2000-09-08 | 2001-08-02 | Word processor systems or the like |
PCT/EP2001/009024 WO2002021306A2 (en) | 2000-09-08 | 2001-08-02 | Word processor with acronym facilator |
EP01969570A EP1342164A2 (en) | 2000-09-08 | 2001-08-02 | Word processor with acronym facilitator |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
GB0022023A GB2366893B (en) | 2000-09-08 | 2000-09-08 | Improvements in or relating to word processor systems or the like |
Publications (3)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
GB0022023D0 GB0022023D0 (en) | 2000-10-25 |
GB2366893A true GB2366893A (en) | 2002-03-20 |
GB2366893B GB2366893B (en) | 2004-06-16 |
Family
ID=9899069
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
GB0022023A Expired - Fee Related GB2366893B (en) | 2000-09-08 | 2000-09-08 | Improvements in or relating to word processor systems or the like |
Country Status (4)
Country | Link |
---|---|
US (1) | US20040148156A1 (en) |
EP (1) | EP1342164A2 (en) |
GB (1) | GB2366893B (en) |
WO (1) | WO2002021306A2 (en) |
Families Citing this family (13)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US7236923B1 (en) * | 2002-08-07 | 2007-06-26 | Itt Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc. | Acronym extraction system and method of identifying acronyms and extracting corresponding expansions from text |
US20040044517A1 (en) * | 2002-08-30 | 2004-03-04 | Robert Palmquist | Translation system |
CN100555264C (en) | 2003-10-21 | 2009-10-28 | 国际商业机器公司 | The annotate method of electronic document, device and system |
CN1894685A (en) * | 2003-12-17 | 2007-01-10 | 思比驰盖尔公司 | Translation tool |
US7627816B2 (en) * | 2005-04-12 | 2009-12-01 | International Business Machines Corporation | Method for providing a transient dictionary that travels with an original electronic document |
US7831423B2 (en) * | 2006-05-25 | 2010-11-09 | Multimodal Technologies, Inc. | Replacing text representing a concept with an alternate written form of the concept |
GB0611303D0 (en) * | 2006-06-08 | 2006-07-19 | Ibm | A method, apparatus and software for selecting terms for a glossary in a document processing system |
US20130174030A1 (en) * | 2012-01-04 | 2013-07-04 | Freedom Solutions Group, LLC, d/b/a Microsystems | Method and apparatus for analyzing abbreviations in a document |
US20130174029A1 (en) * | 2012-01-04 | 2013-07-04 | Freedom Solutions Group, LLC d/b/a Microsystems | Method and apparatus for analyzing a document |
US9171069B2 (en) | 2012-07-31 | 2015-10-27 | Freedom Solutions Group, Llc | Method and apparatus for analyzing a document |
KR101509727B1 (en) * | 2013-10-02 | 2015-04-07 | 주식회사 시스트란인터내셔널 | Apparatus for creating alignment corpus based on unsupervised alignment and method thereof, and apparatus for performing morphological analysis of non-canonical text using the alignment corpus and method thereof |
CN108170660B (en) * | 2018-01-22 | 2021-08-06 | 北京百度网讯科技有限公司 | Multi-language typesetting display method, device, browser, terminal and medium |
US11734507B1 (en) * | 2022-05-25 | 2023-08-22 | Microsoft Technology Licensing, Llc | Acronym identification and definition in messages |
Citations (3)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US5161105A (en) * | 1989-06-30 | 1992-11-03 | Sharp Corporation | Machine translation apparatus having a process function for proper nouns with acronyms |
US5404507A (en) * | 1992-03-02 | 1995-04-04 | At&T Corp. | Apparatus and method for finding records in a database by formulating a query using equivalent terms which correspond to terms in the input query |
WO1996022594A1 (en) * | 1995-01-20 | 1996-07-25 | Centigram Communications Corporation | Text to speech reader for electronic mail messages, address books and the like |
Family Cites Families (6)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
CA2102325A1 (en) * | 1992-11-04 | 1994-05-05 | Edwin R. Addison | Method for resolution of natural-language queries against full-text databases |
US6092068A (en) * | 1997-08-05 | 2000-07-18 | Netscape Communication Corporation | Marked document tutor |
GB2340008A (en) * | 1998-07-24 | 2000-02-09 | Ibm | Method and tool for generating and displayin a descriptive annotation of selec ted application data |
US6279018B1 (en) * | 1998-12-21 | 2001-08-21 | Kudrollis Software Inventions Pvt. Ltd. | Abbreviating and compacting text to cope with display space constraint in computer software |
US6708311B1 (en) * | 1999-06-17 | 2004-03-16 | International Business Machines Corporation | Method and apparatus for creating a glossary of terms |
US6966030B2 (en) * | 2001-07-18 | 2005-11-15 | International Business Machines Corporation | Method, system and computer program product for implementing acronym assistance |
-
2000
- 2000-09-08 GB GB0022023A patent/GB2366893B/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
-
2001
- 2001-08-02 US US10/468,459 patent/US20040148156A1/en not_active Abandoned
- 2001-08-02 WO PCT/EP2001/009024 patent/WO2002021306A2/en not_active Application Discontinuation
- 2001-08-02 EP EP01969570A patent/EP1342164A2/en not_active Withdrawn
Patent Citations (3)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US5161105A (en) * | 1989-06-30 | 1992-11-03 | Sharp Corporation | Machine translation apparatus having a process function for proper nouns with acronyms |
US5404507A (en) * | 1992-03-02 | 1995-04-04 | At&T Corp. | Apparatus and method for finding records in a database by formulating a query using equivalent terms which correspond to terms in the input query |
WO1996022594A1 (en) * | 1995-01-20 | 1996-07-25 | Centigram Communications Corporation | Text to speech reader for electronic mail messages, address books and the like |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
GB2366893B (en) | 2004-06-16 |
WO2002021306A2 (en) | 2002-03-14 |
US20040148156A1 (en) | 2004-07-29 |
WO2002021306A3 (en) | 2002-12-05 |
GB0022023D0 (en) | 2000-10-25 |
EP1342164A2 (en) | 2003-09-10 |
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Legal Events
Date | Code | Title | Description |
---|---|---|---|
PCNP | Patent ceased through non-payment of renewal fee |
Effective date: 20050908 |