Suggest Tool

OrcaTec Suggest Tool

The OrcaTec Suggest Tool returns a list of index terms that match the provided substring. For example, if you provide three letters, such as “man” it will return all words in the index that start with “man” (e.g., man, manual, manufacturing). Any or all of these words can be used as suggested search terms. The tool takes the partial string that is submitted and looks in the index for actual words in the collection that match that partial string. The only words it suggests are words that have actually been indexed so the user has complete control over what gets searched.

This tool can be used to anticipate a user’s intention. For example, if a form requires the entry of a state and the user types in “CAL” the computer can predict that the person will be typing “CALIFORNIA” and fill in the remaining letters. If there are multiple possible continuations in the index, then each of the alternatives can be presented in a list, and the user can pick from this list.

The suggest feature decreases the need to use wildcards in search. Wildcards, such as “plan*” often lead to undesirable consequences, such as retrieving documents containing words like “plant,” “planes,” and “planet,” in addition to the intended words like “plans,” “planning,” or “planned.”

The suggest features allows users to identify many spelling variations. For example, in Britain, “Mohammed” and its 14 spelling variations was the second most common name given to newborn baby boys in 20061. Variations included (with their frequencies):

• Mohammed 2,833
• Muhammad 1,422
• Mohammad 920
• Muhammed 358
• Mohamed 354
• Mohamad 29
• Mahammed 18
• Mohammod 13
• Mahamed 12
• Muhammod 9
• Muhamad 7
• Mohmmed 6
• Mohamud 5
• Mohammud 5

Submitting “Ma”, “Mo,”, and “Mu,” to the Suggest Tool would reveal immediately which of these variations are used in a collection.

The suggest tool helps the user to focus in on the information that is desired and to avoid retrieving documents that have similar words with very different meanings.
The Suggest Tool provides a powerful means to understand the content of a collection and to identify the terms that should be the target of investigation.