How do I use this?

Step 1: Enter an initial query.

To start using HotMap, enter a few terms to describe what you are looking for. If you like, you can use quotes around specific phrases. Once you have written your initial query, either hit the enter key, or click on the search button.

 

Step 2: (Optional) Refine your query using WordBars.

WordBars provides a list of the top 30 terms appearing within the search results list. You can use this list to remind you of terms that you think might be good to add to your query. Click the +/- icons to add/remove terms from your query. When you are ready, click the search button to submit the query and view the new set of search results.

 

Step 3: Explore the search results.

There are three ways in which you can explore the search results:

A. Re-sort the search results using WordBars

By clicking on the terms in the WordBars list, you can re-sort the search results so that the documents that make frequent use of these terms are moved to the top of the list.

 

B. Visually inspect the search results set using HotMap

HotMap provides an abstract representation of the entire set of search results retrieved. The colour codes represent the frequencies of each of the terms in your query. Dark red is used to represent the query terms that appear frequently; light yellow is used to represent the query terms that are infrequently used.

The scroll box shows which search results are currently being viewed. Clicking anywhere in the HotMap will scroll the search results to the location of interest.

 

C. Re-sort the search results using the query terms

If you are interested in seeing which documents make the most frequent use of a specific term or phrase in your query, you can click on the query term label above the search results list. To return the sort order to the default setting, click on the WordBars button.

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