Datasets whose documents contain a date field can be analyzed using the Time Slicer. The Time Slicer facilitates a study of the relationship between document topics and time, and allows you to track those changes. When the Time Slicer is open, instead of showing all documents in the dataset, both the Galaxy and the ThemeView show only documents that are contained within the time period highlighted in the Time Slicer’s histogram. This histogram can be one, more than one, or many bars.
Note:
The annotation
"Time filter active" displays in the upper left hand corner
of the Galaxy when the Time Slicer is open.
In the image above, no Groups are visible, because none are highlighted in the Groups tool. To understand how Groups are represented in the Time Slicer see Groups in the Time Slicer.
To access the Time Slicer
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Click the Time Slicer button on the IN-SPIRE main window toolbar, or |
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From the IN-SPIRE main window Windows menu, select Time Slicer. |
| What | Why | How |
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Control how much of the dataset is displayed in the Time Slicer. |
To constrain your view of the dataset to include only certain subsets of the data.
Groups Alone will give you the Time Slicer view of any groups you defined for the dataset.
Group Ratings Alone will display only the Ratings or Valences for the groups you defined. |
Select a dataset view from the drop-down menu. Select from:
|
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Manually step through the slices, forward or backward. |
Display documents in the desired time period only. |
Use the Step buttons |
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Set the length of time represented by each bar or time slice. |
Control which documents are displayed together during a particular time period. |
Set the Bar Unit by selecting a unit (second, minute, hour, day, week, month, or year) from the Bar Unit drop-down menu. |
|
(Play and Step
setting) |
Ability to sample at regular intervals. For example, set the Bar Unit to Day, and the Step Increment to 7. |
Set the Step Increment by typing a positive integer in the text box to the right of Step Increment. During Play or Step, the time slice will move the number of bars specified. The default is 1. |
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Keep the width of the slice the same. |
Show each period's documents in turn, without combining them with adjacent period's documents. |
Click the |
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Add each succeeding step to the width of the slice. |
Show total accumulation of documents over time. |
Click the Grow button |
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Play through slices automatically, forward or backward. |
Get an overview of trends in types of documents found. |
Use the Play buttons |
To change the location of the slice, in other words, to jump from one time period's documents to another's, click anywhere in the area of the label for the time period you want to see.
Move the cursor near the edge of the slice you want to move. The cursor changes to a green double-headed arrow. Click and drag the side as far as desired, then release the mouse button.
You can easily view the groups and related group information within the Time Slicer.
Highlight the group in the Groups Tool. Use Ctrl-click or Shift-click to select multiple groups. The proportion of the bar representing documents in the highlighted Group will be drawn in the Group color. Notice the order of groups in the Time Slicer is the same as those shown in the Groups Tool.
Hold the cursor over the slice of interest. A pop-up window displays the highlighted group names and statistics.
You may also display the groups separately. Select Groups Alone from the drop-down menu at the window's top left.
Select Group Ratings Alone to display only the ratings or valences for the groups you selected.
, or
Move button. This is the default.
. Each step will make the slice larger.
.