Sidebars: Set Focus

Focus is a global concept that affects all tools of IN-SPIRE. Focus provides a way to direct your attention to a subset of data. Focus allows you to show a set of documents in detail without the influence of the rest of the documents in the dataset. Focus also allows you to "ignore" documents that are not useful in the visualization.

Components

At the top of the main (central) window you will see a Focus Bar (sometimes referred to as a headliner) which shows the current state of focus, and allows you to return to previously viewed states. The Set Focus panel on the right sidebar enables you to define and execute a new focus.

The numbers below correspond to the image:

Focus Bar (Headliner)
Selection – drag the current selection to Set Focus.
Set Focus
1. Set - Identify groups of documents that become the focus for the visualization
2. Ignore - Identify groups of documents that should be ignored in the visualization
3. Focus - Click the button to reset the focus
4. Clear Focus- Click the button to clear the current focus
Groups – drag one or more groups to Set Focus

Setting Focus

Set Focus can use the Groups functionality. The top section is for groups you want to focus on while the bottom section is for groups you want to exclude from your focus.

Examples
A simple focus addressing the context-setting need:	Document in Group A
Another simple focus addressing the outlier need:	All the documents excluding the documents in Group D
A more complex focus chaining concepts together using “OR” logic:	Documents in either Group A, B, or C, but excluding documents in Group D or E
A more complex focus chaining concepts together using “AND” logic:	Documents in Group A, B, and C, but excluding documents in Group D or E

Using Current Selection

The text from Selection can be dragged and dropped just like groups. You can drag the current selection from Selection, which is above Set Focus, into the "show" box to focus on just those documents or the "ignore" box to exclude those documents. You can also click on the Focus button to show only selected documents.

Adding Groups to Focus

Select one or more groups
Drag and drop to add groups to Set Focus.
Click the Focusbutton. A yellow border will be set around Set Focus when the content matches the currently active focus.
The visualization will recalculate. The description of the current focus will appear in the Focus Bar. The Focus Bar will be gray when the visualization is not focused and will turn yellow when the visualization is focused.
To clear the current focus, click on the Clear Current Focus button on the right side of the Focus Bar or in Set Focus.

Adding Current Selection to Focus

Select some documents in the Galaxy.
Click on the Focus button in Selection to show only the selected documents.
The number of selected documents will be added to upper Set Focus box and any previous groups will be removed from Set Focus.

Additional Details

Small details contribute to the effectiveness of Set Focus.

Simple Boolean Logic

You have the option to switch between “OR” and “AND” logic. Clicking the word “any” provides a drop down between “any” and “all”. “Any” is used as the “OR” logic while “All” is used as the “AND” logic.

Editing and Removing the Focus

The Focus boxes do not clear after the Focus Focus button in Set Focus button is clicked. The groups will remain for you to change and update the previous focus. To remove a group from focus, click the “x” next to the group’s name. To remove all groups, right-click in the first or second box and select “Clear All”.

Focus History

The Focus Bar contains a pull down list of your focus history, and it keeps a list of the last 10 descriptions. The list is present when you click on the Focus Bar. Clicking on one of the descriptions in the list resets the focus back to that description.

Shortcuts

Shortcuts items have been added to the right-click menu for Groups:

Add to Focus: Adds the current group(s) to the upper focus box. This provides an alternative drag and drop.
Set as Focus: Clears the Set Focus boxes, adds the group to the upper focus box, and sets the focus to the selected group. This provides a very rapid way of setting and changing focus without using the complex focus box.
Ignore: Adds the current group(s) to the lower focus box. This also provides an alternative to drag and drop.

Restoring Focus

When you open a dataset, any focus that was previously active when the dataset was closed will be restored.