How to navigate the database

Our database has two ways in which you can choose to display your search results:

Card view
Table view

Let’s take a look at each view individually so you can determine which best fits your preferences, and to understand how to move between them.

Card View

Upon entering our Database, you will note our results are, by default, displayed with what we call “cards” (the rectangles you see), each of which corresponds to an entity. Each card then shows a preview of the properties from each of these entities. In addition, in this view entities are easily identified as each card is labeled with its entity type in pink (document) or blue (paragraph) at the bottom left-hand corner.

You can also use the Zoom in/out function (top right-hand corner of the results section) to make the cards larger or smaller.

Table view

To switch to table view, you will see a group of 3 buttons at the top right-hand part of the results section – one with a grid of small squares, one with several rows of lines, and one with a geographical marker. To move into table view, simply click on the second button (it also says table view if you hover your mouse over it).

Results will now be displayed in a table. Filters originally found on the right-hand side of the screen as a side-bar will become hidden, however you can uncover them using the “Show filters” button in the top-right hand corner of the screen.

Along the same line of where you have the “show filters” button, you will see a drop-down menu, with XX columns. When you select this drop-down, you can select which properties you wish to have displayed in the table or hidden. This means, if there are some properties which are not relevant to your search parameters, you can remove them from your view. This allows table view to be fully customizable.

Note that both views allow you to export your results as a csv. Or excel file by simply clicking the “export results” button at the bottom of your screen.

So you have conducted a primary search which has yielded some results for you to examine. Now, let’s say you have found a result which is particularly relevant to your search, but you want to see more information related to this result than that which is previewed on the card. You have two options to do so:

Click on the card OR
Click on the small “view” button in the lower right-hand corner of the card

The first option will bring you to a “side-bar view”.

This varies slightly for documents and entities, but ultimately this view will list all the information previewed on the result card, as well as the rest of the information connected to this result. For example, paragraphs seen in a side-bar view will include information such as its paragraph number or topics and persons affected. Documents in side-bar view will also have links to downloading the full document pdf.

This view is most useful for those who are interested in the key properties of the selected result.

The second option will give you a “full view”.

This will bring you to a new page, on which the full paragraph or document is displayed, with a side-bar listing the corresponding properties of the result. Documents will be displayed as a full pdf, and paragraphs will now have their text shown in full screen.

This view is most useful for those who want a more in-depth view of the content for each result.