Using dictionaries
What are dictionaries?
netXtract dictionaries are lists of words identified by a name. netXtract ships with several such dictionaries, of two different types:

How are dictionaries used?
The purpose of the "Ignored words" is to make netXtract skip common words that are unlikely to be useful in determining relevance. The purpose of a "custom" dictionary is to allow you to filter the words in a document. A custom dictionary should be created for a specific area of expertise or interest. For instance, you may create a dictionary called "Sports" with related words, such as "soccer", "football", "basketball", "score", etc. When indexing a document, netXtract will be able to tell you whether the document you are looking at has any significant relevancy for "Sports" based on the frequency and relationships of the words from your "Sports" dictionary in the current Web document.

How do I use a specific dictionary?
If you want to see only the words from a given dictionary in the index, and no other words, simply right-click in the netXtract bar and select "Use dictionary", then the dictionary you want to use to filter the index. As a result, only words that are from the selected dictionary AND are also present in the document will be displayed in the index.

When you want to see all the words in the index again, right-click in the netXtract bar and select "Use dictionary", then "None".

Managing dictionaries
netXtract allows you to create new custom dictionaries, delete them, or edit any existing dictionary. Editing a dictionary means renaming it and / or adding to or removing words from it.
To manage the netXtract dictionaries, right-click on the netXtract bar and select the "Dictionaries" menu. A dialog box pops up, displaying all the dictionaries that netXtrat knows about. Notice that the first one ("Ignored words") has the "built-in" type and is marked "in use". Remember that "built-in" means that you cannot delete it, and it will be always used by netXtract when indexing.

Note that you do not need to close the Dictionaries window in order to go back to IE. You may keep it open and it will stay on top of your browser, while you interact with netXtract and IE.

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