Problem: multiple keyword search in Plot function not working

[Eva Andersen]

Dear Laurence,

I've used AntConc extensively during my research in the field of history and use the app on a daily basis. But now I've run into a serious problem, and can't do my research.

I can't search for multiple keywords within the "Advanced Search" option in the "Plot" view. I can load the words in, but when I hit "start" it says "no hits found". When I only search with one term it does work. I also know that the multiple keywords I look for should give a result as I used the same words in an older version of Antconc the other day (only upgraded to the latest version today). I've tried re-opening and re-loading everything but nothing seems to work.

Can you tell me what I might do wrong? Or is this an actual bug? I rely tremendously on the "plot" function and the use of multiple keywords, so all help is welcome.

Thanks in advance and kind regards,

Eva Andersen

[Laurence Anthony]

Hi Eva,

To help you, first, can you answer the following questions:

1) What OS are you using?

2) What version of AntConc are you using?

3) What language are your corpus texts?

4) When you say "keywords", can I assume you mean "search terms"?

5) Do you find the Advanced Search option is working correctly in the other tools? In other words, is it not working for you in *only* the Plot tool?

6) You say that the advanced search works with one word. If you try *two* words, do you get the same "no hits found" error?

While we work on this problem, it's useful to remember that the results for AntConc 3x and 4x will be the same, so if you find something not working in AntConc 4x that was working in AntConc 3x,  in the short term, you can return to the older version.

Laurence.

###############################################################
Laurence ANTHONY, Ph.D.
Professor of Applied Linguistics
Faculty of Science and Engineering
Waseda University
3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan
E-mail: antho...@gmail.com
WWW: http://www.laurenceanthony.net/
###############################################################

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[Eva Andersen]

Dear Laurence,

Thanks a lot for the quick reply.

To answer your questions:

1) OS: MacOS version 12.2

2) AntConc: version 4.0.5

3) Corpus language: French

4) I indeed mean "search words"

5) I tried the Advanced search in the following two tools:

In the "KWIC" tool:

- Searching with one word works

- Searching with a very large number of search terms (circa 20-30) I get the message "The number of search terms exceeds the span size setting". Not sure how to adapt this span size.

- Searching with 5 words: I get different results depending on if I put in the words one by one, or if I copy-paste a few in one go (dragging and dropping I can't seem to use with my text file with keywords). With 5 words it says "no hits found". These search terms were copy-pasted in one go to AntConc. In the window to add words, they appear all in one line with a space between them. When I click "add" they properly appear one after the other in the query list. When I add these 5 words manually one by one, I don't get the "no hits found" pop-up. But it does only show one of the words that I put into the search query.

In the "collocate" tool:

- Searching with one word works

- Searching for two words: "No search term has been entered"

6) one/two/more search words in the Plot tool: In the meantime, I've tried a few other things, and now it did half and half work. I figured out that for some reason I had a "target" corpus and "reference" corpus loaded (when experimenting with the new AntConc interface) and did not see before that I had accidentally loaded two corpora. Without a  "reference" corpus it does show the results.

However, some aspects still do not function as before (see also my answers to your questions below):

- The loading time from the moment that I hit "start" is pretty long with the typical spinning "beachball" from Mac. My corpus is relatively large (612 txt files) but in the older version of AntConc this took less time.

- When I try to click on the barcode lines (the hand icon appears) nothing happens, and I'm not guided to the actual file.

- Another minor detail: in AntConc v3 I got 491 plots with a set of search words. AntConc v4 tells me there are 551 plots with the same set of search words. As long as it doesn't show fewer results compared to another version, this is not so problematic.

Thanks and kind regards,

Eva

[Laurence Anthony]

Hi Eva,

Thanks for the replies.

The first and most obvious issue is that you seem to be not searching for multiple words properly across any of the tools. You must first learn how to do this. I recommend you ignore the advanced search initially, and just learn how to do it in the file view tool (so you can see what is happening). Type the following:

1) Open the "AmE06_J_learned" corpus"

2) Click on the File tool

3) Click on the "AmE06_J01.txt" file

4) type "the" and check to make sure the word "the" is highlighted

5) type "the||a" and check to make sure the words "the" and "a" are highlighted

6) Click the Adv Search option and *add* "for" and "in" as search queries. If you type multiple words on a single line, that will be treated as a single query, which is why you are probably getting no hits.

7) Click apply and then start in the main interface and check to make sure the words "for" and "in" are highlighted

If you are successful with the above, you now know how to search for multiple words across all tools. 

If you have any other problems let me know.

Laurence.

###############################################################
Laurence ANTHONY, Ph.D.
Professor of Applied Linguistics
Faculty of Science and Engineering
Waseda University
3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan
E-mail: antho...@gmail.com
WWW: http://www.laurenceanthony.net/
###############################################################

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/antconc/82b791db-5b63-4a09-9dcb-2744e4855099n%40googlegroups.com.

[Eva Andersen]

Dear Laurence,

Thanks again for your quick reply and the explanation ( I followed it and it worked). But I don't think it is a matter of knowing how to do a (advanced) search. I've been using previous versions of AntConc for about 5 years now without ever having any problems with searching for one or multiple words. It is probably more about that I need to get used to the slightly new interface and its options.

Two main problems remain:

• How to add multiple search words at once

I understand that if multiple words are typed on one single line, the tool won't recognize them. But in Antconc 3 I could copy-paste a long list of words to AntConc without any problems. They would appear in a neat list and all words were recognized by AntConc. When I try to copy-paste the same terms in AntConc 4 they appear in one line in the "add field", and (falsely) appear as a neat list in the field below. When clicked they appear again as a long string of words. So this is slightly confusing (see attached screenshots if my explanation sounds confusing).

How can I copy-paste multiple search terms at once in AntConc 4? Needing to type in a large number of keywords one by one is a bit tedious.

• Clicking on the barcode lines in the Plot Tool not working

When I used the Plot Tool in AntConc 3 I could click any of the "barcode lines" and was directed towards that particular file/word in the File View Tool. In AntConc 4 this does not happen at all for me. I reread the AntConc help guide and it clearly says "Double-clicking on any cell in the results window will cause the software to jump to the File tool". I've tried this also with the pre-build corpus you mentioned, and here it also does not take me to the designated file/words in the File View tool.

Thanks in advance and kind regards,

Eva

[Eva Andersen]

Dear Anthony,

I figured out why I had difficulty with adding multiple keywords at once: I presumed I had to place the cursor in the "add" field or in the empty box below it in order to add multiple words. But when I did not place the cursor anywhere and copy-pasted multiple words they now neatly appeared in the search query list.

As for the barcode lines: after installing version 4.0.6 I'm still not able to click the lines to go to the file view.

Thanks and kind regards,

Eva

[Laurence Anthony]

Hi Eva,

Sorry for the super slow reply. We started the new academic year here and my focus had to be on my admin work.

I just had a look at the issues again and it is confusing. Here's what is happening

1) The new Advanced search allows you to add multiple *search queries* (not just words). Here's what the help page says:

>>>

The "Search Query List" option allows you to import a set of search queries, either by typing them one per line, or by copying/pasting them directly into the window. Here, each line will be treated as a separate

search term. This feature allows you to use a large set of search terms without having to re-type them each time. Any search query accepted in the main interface can be used.

>>>

I need to slightly revise this as below:

>>>

The "Search Query List" option allows you to import a set of search queries. You can do this in one of three ways:

1) Type each individual search query in the entry box and click "Add"; 

2) Drag and drop the list of search queries into the viewer below the entry box;

3) Copy and paste the list of search queries into the viewer below the entry box;

When dragging and dropping or pasting your list of queries, each line will be treated as a separate

search query. This feature allows you to use a large set of search queries without having to retype them each time. Any search query accepted in the main interface can be used.

>>>

Don't that clarify things? If it makes things clearer, I'll add this to the documentation in version 4.0.7.

2) The Plot tool 'jump' feature isn't working. I'm not sure when I introduced the bug, but it is an easy fix. I already have it working on my local computer. I'll introduce this as soon as possible in a new version (4.0.7). Sorry about that.

Laurence.

###############################################################
Laurence ANTHONY, Ph.D.
Professor of Applied Linguistics
Faculty of Science and Engineering
Waseda University
3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan
E-mail: antho...@gmail.com
WWW: http://www.laurenceanthony.net/
###############################################################

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/antconc/dd0b30b0-332e-44cf-bd9b-143f4ec7e6fdn%40googlegroups.com.

[Eva Andersen]

Dear Anthony,

No problem at all about the slow reply.

1) about the copy-pasting: that indeed does clarify things some more. :-) I think what also made me confused about the copy-pasting is that when you put the cursor in the entry box a blinking line appears, so it is clear you can type something. While this blinking line does not appear when you try to put the cursor in the viewer box in order to paste a list of queries. So then it seems like it is not selected and you won't be able to copy-past something into it.

2) And great it will be fixed when the newer version is published!

Thanks and kind regards,

Eva