Creating selections
Every time Categories is started, an And/Or-tree is loaded from a file and a default selection becomes activated. In user mode, you should modify the current selection and fill out activated text leaves. This can be done as follows:
Start at the root node of the tree and follow the activated edge(s) below. An activated edge is displayed thick and black; activated nodes (below activated edges) are displayed black, while inactivated nodes and edges show gray.
At activated ramifications (And nodes) every child edge has to be followed; there is no alternative to choose. At an activated (multi-)decision node you have to distinguish among two cases:
If the decision node is displayed with a question mark inside, none of its alternatives (leaving edges) has been chosen yet. Put the mouse-pointer on the node and read the help text displayed at the bottom of the document. Then, choose one of the alternative child-edges below the node (put the mouse pointer on an edge to get help on it). Activate the edge by double-clicking on it.
If you find that none of the given alternatives complies with your need, below edges with label „other“ you can add new alternatives with the <New alternative> command in the <Edit> menu. Those new branches can be used in selections only, they cannot be stored in a file.
If the decision node appears as an attention mark, there is already one of its leaving edges activated. If the decision node is a multi-decision node, you can select another of its children in addition. Otherwise, you can leave it as it is or select a different alternative by activating another edge as shown above. The previous selection is cancelled.
If you reach a text leaf, you will find it filled with text or not. In the latter case, double-click on the text area to the right of the edge (if Categories runs in form mode, and there is a coloured frame around the text area (inplace mode), simply click once inside and enter/edit text. The size of the text area gives you a hint about how large your input approximately should be. Click on the <Ok> button to confirm your input resp. push the <Enter> key if you are in inplace mode (if the text area has more than one rows, push the <Ctrl> key together with <Enter> to confirm). If the leaf already contains text, leave it as it is or modify it as appropriate. (* for technical reasons, in current versions of Categories the edge leading to the text node has to be marked before any changes can take place!)
If all of the activated decision nodes appear with attention marks and all activated text leaves contain text, you are finished. Quit the program (command <Close> in menu <File>). You will be asked to save your selection in a file before exiting. Choose an unambiguous filename (ending with .sel) if there is no given default filename. At any time before, you can save your selection using the command <Selection>-<Save as...> or send it to the applet host (command <Selection>-<Send to host>).
More Selection commands (only available if Categories has been invoked in Frame-Mode).
The <Selection> menu contains the following commands:
(Note: All <Selection>-commands that refer to the whole current selection (<Load>, <Merge>, <Save as>, <Store at host>, <Delete at host>, <Request completion>, <Constraints>) operate on the content of the selection text view instead of the tree if the <Selection text view> window is open.)
<Leaf text>
Prompts the user to enter resp. modify the content of a text leaf (same as double-clicking on a leaf, if the textual content is not HTML-encoded).
<Toggle activation>
Toggles the activation state of an edge between activated and inactivated (same as double-clicking on an edge).
<Reset activations>
Deactivates all edges that don't must be activated (an edge must be activated if there is no decision node in the path between the edge and the root since the root node is always activated). The content of text leaves is not affected by this command.
<Constraints>
(under construction, see technical source documentation for details)
<Enter commentary>
This allows you to enter an note at any decision node. All commentaries are send to the applet host with <Store at host>.
<Load>
Resets activations and loads a new selection from a file.
<Merge>
Loads a selection from a file without a reset of the activation state before. Previous activations are removed only if they contradict activations found in the selection.
<Bookmarks>
See bookmarks.
<Save as>
Stores the current selection (activation state of the tree and the textual content of all activated text leaves) to a .sel-file.
Sends the current selection (activation state of the tree and the textual content of all activated text leaves) to the applet host via internet.
Removes the current selection (activation state of the tree and the textual content of all activated text leaves) from the database at the applet host. This can be dangerous if the selection hasn't been stored with <Store at host> by the same user before!
Sends the current partial selection (incomplete activation state of the tree and the textual content of all activated text leaves) to the applet host via internet and displays the host's answer.