TextGridLab - Beta Version

With the beta version of TextGridLab, the client application from TextGrid, you can access services and tools in the grid and edit text files. The software is and will continue to be available free of charge. Download TextGridLab to your computer today. Installation is easy! As portable software the TextGridLab will not modify your computer´s operating system; for example, it can also be started from a USB drive.

Current Version: Revision 6135 (2010-05-06) - Changelog

Feedback & Support

Please test the beta version thoroughly and report bugs or make suggestions for improvement. Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions: support(at)textgrid.de.

Tutorials & Reference

Tutorials for a quick introduction to TextGridLab.
Further References: User’s Manual TextGrid-Tools (Release: October 25, 2009).

Video Demo

For a quick overview of the TextGridLab, please have a look at our English-language TextGridLab Demo Video 2 - beta release, June 2010.

Tools and Services which are currently available in the TextGridLab:

Tools and Services for Specific Subject Areas		Common Tools and Services
	Edit XML files with an easy-to-use XML Editor. The files can reside on the local computer or in the grid. Users can switch easily between a more technical view with tags and attributes and a structural view that is oriented towards standard text editing applications. A Unicode Character Table enables the user to search, copy and insert symbols from the Unicode character set.		The Project Browser / Navigator is always present in TextGridLab. It gives users easy access to all the material related to the project(s) to which they are assigned. In addition, the Navigator allows their easy administration. Thus, it can be a starting point in TextGridLab.
	A Text-Image-Link Editor supports the XML Editor by linking text sequences with image sections in order to create files that contain text elements and topographic descriptions.		The Search Tool retrieves structural data and metadata. Semantic searches based on RDF are also possible.
	The Dictionary Search Tool allows you to search in a number of different dictionaries within the TextGrid virtual research environment. The dictionary network “Wörterbuchnetz” (www.woerterbuchnetz.de) at the Competence Centre for Electronic Publishing and Information Retrieval in the Humanities at the University of Trier has been integrated into the interface for this purpose.		A powerful Project and User Management (file and rights management module) allows users to create new projects in the Project Management Module. Existing projects can be managed i.e., project members can be deleted or added and endowed with predefined roles. Users can also set access rights for TextGrid objects.
	The Lemmatizer analyzes (German) word forms (tokens) and returns the respective lemma or the token is reduced to its basic morphologic form and other morphologic characteristics (number, gender, etc.). This tool can be used via the Workflow Editor.		The Metadata Editor is used to create and manage the metadata for TextGrid objects. This metadata is used in TextGrid for cross-project searches. The metadata input form can be easily adjusted to meet individual needs.
			The Workflow Tool is used to coordinate other non-interactive tools so that you can automatically set up a procedure for dealing with a large number of objects. For example, you could use the Workflow Editor to automatically lemmatize and tokenize an entire data set.
			With the Aggregation Composer users are able to choose and put together objects via drag and drop instead of looking for single objects dispersed in several projects. Objects relevant for a certain topic or research interest can now be aggregated in the TextGridLab. These objects appear in the Navigator as an aggregation, which can be edited, expanded and dismantled again -- without deleting the objects within.
			The Upload Tool enables the importing of local data into the Repository and creates an easy-to-use entry mask for metadata.

Services which are currently available and can be used externally or via the Workflow Tool:

Tools and Services for Specific Subject Areas		Common Tools and Services
	The Tokenizer sequences a text into a stream of logical units (tokens) or words and punctuation elements, and marks them with start and stop marks. The tokens to be used can be defined in the tool configuration. The definition of predefined tokens like abbreviations, proper names, or regular expression (such as for calendar dates) can also be adjusted to individual needs. The Tokenizer can be used via the Workflow Editor.		The Streaming Editor enables rule-based file transformation, such as the enrichment of potentially unstructured texts with XML structures. Input files do not have to be in XML, but can be any text format (OCR raw text for example); output texts may be XML or any other text format.
			The Service Registry is an essential tool to localize services within TextGrid. Keywords will identify these specific services. Via different interfaces (SOAP and REST) the Service Registry provides the opportunity to retrieve certain URLs through which these services can be accessed.
			The Sort Tool can be used to sort data in a flexible way. The sort keys can be configured using XPath expressions. This tool can be used via the Workflow Editor.

Tools and Services which are under development and will be published in a further version:

Tools and Services for Specific Subject Areas		Common Tools and Services
	Musicology: The Note Editor provides the opportunity within the context of TextGrid to illustrate MEI encoded scores and to display them in a simplified format. The focus is not on the standard of exposure quality but rather the timesaving data input. Unique features of the Note Editor are located in the editorial field, such as the visualisation of variants.		A Text Publisher Web can be used to present project results and publications on a project website. TextGrid provides standard components for web publishing and an interface to TextGridRep.
	Classical Philology: Gloss Editor: This tool facilitates a) the description of specific text structures in gloss comments, b) the synoptical presentation of different gloss comments regarding the same text, c) the synoptical presentation of gloss comments and related digital manuscripts.		In the context of German Research Association projects XML Print is a module to print scientific texts with complex typesetting layout requirements based on XML-data, with a particular view towards the specification of critical editions and dictionaries. The program will support the user with the creation of stylesheets for rule-governed formatting of data and the creation of PDF. A WYSIWYG graphic user interface will help the user to create rules for the arrangement of the text.
	Art History: The Digilib Tool will be integrated into the Virtual Research Environment to enhance the retrieval and annotation of image data.		The Bibliography Tool can import bibliographical data from existing data inventories, capture, process and administer bibliographies via a definable mask and to insert or store them at a freely-defined location within data. You can also export bibliographical data into certain standard formats (for example, TEI or MODS).
	Philology: LEXUS and COSMAS, which are relevant data bases for philology, will be integrated into TextGrid.		OCR for black letter: For automatic character recognition the service of OCRopus will be enhanced and integrated. This service advances research in the text-based Digital Humanities by enabling the optical character recognition of black letters in large historically-diverse amounts of text.
	The Collationer compares two or more files encoded in XML (or TEI) and annotates any differences in TEI format. This tool can be run in batch mode.		The Text-Text-Link Editor is an input assistant for links into XML data and it connects elements of the Search Tool and XML Editor. User have the opportunity to input links to user-defined elements within TextGrid documents into TEI data; the appropriate URI together with a fragment will then be generated for input into the source document of the link. The basic function to copy URIs is already integrated into the current beta version.
	The Dictionary Link Editor enables the linkage of lemma in different dictionaries.