Keyword

Keyword

n. Keywords—sometimes also called “flags”, “labels”, “tags”, or simply “keys”—are a way to identify groups or collections of one or more GLOSSARY ENTRIES. Just click on a Keyword and you can instantly select, extract, and inspect the whole bunch.

The Keywords listed in italic fine print underneath each ENTRY tell you to which Keyword groups that particular ENTRY belongs. The slightly larger Keywords listing at the upper left side of each page tells you which Keywords are in use on that particular TAB, along with a number in parentheses that is the tally of how many ENTRIES on that page are in each Keyword group.

Note that Keyword usage is limited to the current TAB. For instance, if you click on one of the active Keywords you see in the upper portion of the left panel on this page, it will gather related ENTRIES from to this page only! Thus,...

IMPORTANT: To pull Keyword-linked ENTRIES from the entire GLOSSARY, you must first go to the “*” (“ALL ENTRIES”) TAB.

Which words are in which group headed by which Keyword is initially determined by the AUTHOR. However, Keywords may also be suggested by interested CONTRIBUTORS. The relationships among Keyword ENTRIES is arbitrary. This is A Very Good Thing, and differs from the results of using a simple search because it brings into play the intelligence of the person creating the KEYS. For an example, see the discussion on CUTS under the heading, “Topical Keywords,” below. To us, CUTS and BLADES are clearly related, even though a simple search would not put them together, since the entry for CUT does not mention BLADES, nor vice versa. It's only by the power inherent in defining arbitrary relationships using Keywords that they are so easily brought together. Viva KEYS!

NOTE: At one point in time (when there were 438 ENTRIES in all), these were all of the Keywords in effect across the entire GLOSSARY. They are shown here to demonstrate underlying organizing principles, even though it's certain details, such as the tallies of occurrences across all TABS, have long since changed. More about the table headings and curious looking entries, below.

(NB. Keywords listed in this table are not active.)

Regular-			Meta-Keywords
TOPICAL			STRUCTURAL			ALPHABETIC			SPECIAL
#	Keys		#	Keys		#	Keys		#	Keys
12	3RD PARTIES		13	~c:caution		5	~~?		1	~~~CONTACT INFO
32	ACRONYMS		42	~c:edits X		12	~~#		1	~~~DISCLAIMER
80	ACTIVITY		11	~c:graphic		7	~~A		1	~~~HELP
23	CARTS		1	~c:invitation		48	~~B		1	~~~LICENSE INFO
53	CASES		127	~c:note		48	~~C		1	~~~WHAT'S THIS?
13	CLEANING		5	~c:steps		23	~~D
20	CUTS		13	~c:story		9	~~E
63	DISPLAYS		6	~c:table		10	~~F
33	EQUIPMENT		16	~c:tm		18	~~G
38	EXPLANATIONS		109	~c:usage		9	~~H
31	HOW-TO		3	~c:warning		9	~~I
1	HUMOR		6	~c:weblink		4	~~J
21	MARKS		88	~d:multi		3	~~K
15	MATERIALS		324	~d:single		14	~~L
16	PA		23	~i:adj.		21	~~M
25	PAPERWORK		9	~i:adv.		14	~~N
37	PEOPLE		49	~i:multi		9	~~O
69	PLACES		365	~i:n.		39	~~P
6	PROCEDURES		3	~i:other		0	~~Q
12	REFERENCE		86	~i:v.		27	~~R
24	SECURITY		50	~r:changed		60	~~S
43	SIGNAGE		99	~r:new		19	~~T
85	THE SHELF		289	~r:unchanged		7	~~U
17	TOOLS		146	~r:update		4	~~V
2	—		46	~r:wip		15	~~W
						3	~~X
						1	~~Y
						0	~~Z
						438	~~ALL

Topical Keywords are those that relate to a particular subject, for instance CUTS. There are many kinds of CUTS (e.g., TOP-CUT, WINDOW-CUT, and X-CUT, to name just a few) as well as things (like BLADES, HOLSTERS, etc.) that relate to CUTS. The tally shown in the table is 20. Instead of hunting them down, you can just click on the CUTS keyword and they are presented to you. If you're on an alphabet TAB, you'll get all ENTRIES relating to CUTS that start with that particular letter. If you're on the Star “*” (i.e., “ALL ENTRIES”) TAB, you'll get all 20 of them (or whatever the current number happens to be).

Structural Keywords are meta-Keywords. That is, they provide an additional level of information about the GLOSSARY ENTRIES themselves. All meta-Keywords begin with one, two, or three tilde (“~”) characters to set them apart from regular, Topical Keywords.

The meta-Keywords' leading tilde character forces them all to be nicely separated in the sorting order. The following, second character further categorizes the KEYS, and the colon immediately following that visually offsets the name of the Keyword flag.

For instance, all Keywords beginning with “~c:” are Content flags, which tell you things you can “see” (the pun is to help you remember: “c” and “see”, get it?) by looking at the kind of content and structure the ENTRIES display.

Here's a complete list of Structural KEYS current at the time of this writing:

(NB. Keywords listed in this table are not active.)

CONTENT FLAGS
Key	Meaning
~c:caution	Contains an important CAUTION:
~c:edits X	Contains previous EDITS/version(s) (= ~r:changed)
~c:graphic	Contains GRAPHIC element(s)
~c:invitation	Contains INVITATION to contribute
~c:note	Contains at least one additional NOTE:
~c:steps	Contains instruction(s) or procedure STEPS
~c:op-ed	Contains OPINION and/or EDITORIAL comments
~c:story	Contains a true STORY
~c:table	Contains data in a TABLE
~c:tm	Contains TRADEMARK(S): i.e., ®, TM, or SM.
~c:usage	Contains “quoted examples of USAGE”
~c:warning	Contains a very important WARNING:
~c:weblink	Contains an external LINK to another website
DEFINITION FLAGS
Key	Meaning
~d:multi	Definition is MULTIPART
~d:single	Definition has only a SINGLE part
PARTS OF SPEECH
Key	Meaning
~i:adj.	Is an ADJECTIVE
~i:adv.	Is an ADVERB
~i:multi	Is MULTIPLE parts of speech
~i:n.	Is a NOUN
~i:other	Is something OTHER than a keyed noun, verb, etc.
~i:v.	Is a VERB
ENTRY STATUS FLAGS
Key	Meaning
~r:changed	CHANGED (= ~c:edits; i.e., has back version(s) X )
~r:new	NEW ENTRY
~r:unchanged	UNCHANGED from previous edition
~r:update	⋅UPDATES (= ~r:new, or (+) ~r:changed)
~r:wip	WORK-IN-PROGRESS

Alphabetic Keywords are the second category of meta-Keywords. Their main purpose is to provide a cross-check tally, or count, of the number of ENTRIES listed under each GLOSSARY TAB. See the first table, third column group for the tallies current at the time of this writing. Notice that for each TAB, the tally of all ENTRIES, e.g., ~~X = ~r:unchanged + ~r:update, providing a convenient cross-check on those particular status flags.

Special Keywords are the third category of meta-Keywords. Their sole purpose is to provide a kind of safety net for anyone that somehow manages to miss other opportunities to access the indicated information.

PLEASE REMEMBER: All of the examples shown here are just that—examples. For the actual lists of keys and tallies, be sure to consult the appropriate GLOSSARY TAB themselves. Its a near certainty that the “live” information will be more current than these static explanations.