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Information Management Consultants

Comparison of thesaurus management software for PCs

Table of features

The following table lists some of the features which ought to be considered when choosing a software package for thesaurus development. It should be read in conjunction with the descriptive information about each package and the general notes given there. A detailed list of criteria was published by Jochen Ganzmann in 1990, and the list given here draws upon that work.

This table includes only those packages which can be bought as stand-alone software, not part of a complete database management system. If a thesaurus is being developed for use with a particular information storage and retrieval system, it is important that the combined system should be evaluated as a whole. This table does not include criteria for the use of thesaurus software when indexing and searching a database, but these are included in Ganzmann's list and should be referred to.

In most cases objective data have been given in this table; these have been obtained either from the suppliers' documentation of by experiment. For some of the ergonomic aspects a subjective rating for quality has been given as a mark out of 5, shown in square brackets, e.g. "[3]".

TCS is no longer available in the version described here - it has largely been replaced by the Web Choir family of products, although a version called TCS-8 is still available.

Hierarch is no longer available. It has been replaced by Term Tree 2000.

Name of package	Beat	MultiTes	STRIDE	TAT	TCS	Term Manager	Term Tree 2000
Terms and their attributes
Maximum term length	60	125	80	120	60	63	255
Length of scope notes	2000	64000	1024	32000	64000	630	unlimited
Classification codes	yes	yes	can be implemented as a user-defined relationship	no	no	yes	yes
Notes on term history	yes	yes (user-definable note type)	yes	no	yes (user-definable note type)	no	items from two user-definable lists ("reference" and "code"), can be associated with each term and could be used for these purposes. Term creation and modification dates are maintained automatically.
Notes on term usage	no	yes (user-definable note type)	no	yes	yes (user-definable note type)	no
Origin/authority for terms	yes	yes (user-definable note type)	no	yes	yes (user-definable note type)	no
Term status (e.g. candidate)	no	yes	no	no	no	no
Other predefined attributes	no	no	no	yes	no	no	no
User-defined attributes	no	4 note types, including SN	no	no	note types	no	no
Case preserved	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	optional	yes
Case significant	no	no (optional for search)	optional	no	no	no	no
Symbols and spaces allowed in terms	not all symbols	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes, but spaces are replaced by underlines in printouts	yes
Name of package	Beat	MultiTes	STRIDE	TAT	TCS	Term Manager	Term Tree 2000
Term relationships
BT/NT, RT/RT, USE/UF	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
USE X AND Y (semantic factoring)	multiple USE terms allowed but no special function	can be recorded and displayed using user-defined relationships such as USE_AND/USED_IN and USE_OR/USAGE_OF		no	yes, but searching for a "UF+" term gives "no match"	no	no
USE X OR Y (alternative terms)	multiple USE terms allowed but no special function			no	no	no	no
Multiple BT links per term (polyhierarchy)	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes, but NTs shown under only one occurrence	yes	yes
No. of hierarchical levels	40	unlimited	100	9	unlimited	10	unlimited or limited to 1, 2 or 3
User-defined relationships	no	yes	yes	no	yes, for RT types only	existing relationships can be renamed but not added to
Top term indicator	no	yes	no	yes	yes = "hierarchy name" (but this is not treated as a "term")	no	yes
Orphan term indicator	no	yes	no, though orphans may optionally be deleted when created by removing links	no	orphan terms can not be created	yes	yes (bottom term symbol with top term flag)
Multilingual thesauri	no (but handles and sorts accented characters according to the rules for Catalan and Spanish)	yes	no, though user-defined relationships may be used to link terms in different languages	yes	no	no	no
Name of package	Beat	MultiTes	STRIDE	TAT	TCS	Term Manager	Term Tree 2000
Input and editing
Import from file	yes	yes	yes	yes	can import a list of terms without relationships	yes	yes
Input from keyboard	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Editing of terms individually	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Consistency checks	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Loops detected	no	yes	no	yes	yes	no	yes
Terms multiply linked detected	yes	yes	yes	no (BT and RT allowed between same terms)	yes	no	yes
Name of package	Beat	MultiTes	STRIDE	TAT	TCS	Term Manager	Term Tree 2000
Output to screen
Selection criteria for display of sub-set	no	yes	no subset display	yes (for alphabetical display)	no	wildcards	all top terms, all preferred terms or all non-preferred terms only
Hierarchical display	no	yes	yes	yes (only NT relationships shown)	yes	no	yes (from top terms only)
Alphabetical display	yes	yes	no	yes (no relationships shown)	yes, but no relationships are shown and non-preferred terms are omitted	no	yes
Facet indicators	no	yes	no	no	yes	no	no
Sibling terms sorted in hierarchical display	yes (in single term display)	yes	yes	no	yes	no	yes
Classified (systematic) display	yes	yes	no	no	yes	no	no
KWIC or KWOC display	yes	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Scrolling and browsing	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	no	yes
Hypertext navigation (jumps between terms)	yes	yes. Also provides HTML output for use with a standard WWW browser	yes	no	no	yes	yes
Editing of terms while displayed as list	yes	no	yes, for single tree only	no	yes	no	yes
Name of package	Beat	MultiTes	STRIDE	TAT	TCS	Term Manager	Term Tree 2000
Output to printer or file
Selection criteria for printing	yes	yes	yes (range of terms only)	no	not a range, but can limit hierarchical display to terms narrower than a chosen term	wildcards	manual selection from top terms (hierarchical list) or from all terms (alphabetical list)
Hierarchical printout	yes	yes (two-way)	yes	yes (only NT relationships shown)	yes, full and brief formats	yes, but BT and RT are also shown at every level	yes
Alphabetical printout	yes	yes	yes	yes (no relationships shown)	yes	yes (same as hierarchical but showing one level only	yes
Facet indicators in printout	no	yes	no	no	yes	no	no
Sibling terms sorted in hierarchical printout	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	yes, if configured when thesaurus is first created	yes
Classified (systematic) printout	yes	yes	no	no	no	no	no
KWIC or KWOC printout	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	no	yes (both)
Export to file in a data exchange format	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	yes
Name of package	Beat	MultiTes	STRIDE	TAT	TCS	Term Manager	Term Tree 2000
Ergonomics
Ease of installation	[4]	[4]	[3]	[3]	[4] Demo version gives no choice of destination directory	[3]	[4]
User interface	[3]	[4]	[3]	[3]	[3] Non-standard Windows controls	[3]	[4] Editing can be done on tree display
Simultaneous creation of terms and relationships	yes	yes	yes	some	some	no	yes
Drag and drop relationships	no	no	no	no	no, though families can be moved by cut and paste	yes	yes
Printed documentation coverage	[0] (none included with shareware package)	[4]	[4]	[3]	[3]	[3]	[3] Illustrated MS Word file is a copy of the on-line help.
Printed documentation quality	[0]	[4]	[4]	[2]	[3]	[3]	[4] .
On-line help	[3]	[3]	[3]	[0]	[3] Help file is the same as the printed manual. Doesn't use Windows Help: no hypertext or "find" functions. Doesn't work in dialog boxes.	[3]	[3]
Name of package	Beat	MultiTes	STRIDE	TAT	TCS	Term Manager	Term Tree 2000
General factors
No. of terms	2 billion	100,000,000	unlimited	MS Access limit (?)	unlimited	64,000	unlimited
Related database available	no	Inmagic mentioned, but relationship not clear	has been integrated with STATUS	Possible links to Access; import/export to Tinlib	no	Cardbox for Windows	no

This document is at http://www.willpowerinfo.co.uk/thestabl.htm
Revised (but not fully updated) 2004-12-28 21:25

Comments and feedback on content or presentation are welcome and should be sent to Leonard Will

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