About Authoring Keywords

A keyword is an attribute describing a chapter or an item. You can search and filter the chapters and the items using the keyword values.

This page discusses:

Keyword Characteristics

The following are the characteristics of keywords:

  • Keywords have a given type. You can choose from the list of keyword types. (e.g. Boolean, real, integer, string, length).
  • Keyword values: A keyword value is the data itself, e.g. Diameter = 5 mm.
  • Keywords are defined on chapters. All the items classified in the chapters inherit values from their parent chapter keywords.
  • Child chapters inherit keywords from the parent chapter.
  • Keyword values are carried by chapters and items. The chapters and the items can be searched and filtered using the keyword values.

Special Keyword Values

The following are the special keyword values:

  • Unset value: It means that the value is not set and <Unset > is displayed.
  • Default value: The term default value is applicable only to the items. All the item keyword values are inherited from the parent chapter. If the keyword value of the parent chapter changes, the default keyword value of the item also changes.

Manage Keywords User Interface

When the Manage Keywords command is activated, the Keyword Edition toolbar appears.

The following are the details about the Keyword Edition toolbar:

  • Add Keyword: adds the keywords to the chapters.
  • Remove Selected Keywords: removes direct keywords from the chapters.
  • Activate Edit Mode: modifies the name and the value of keywords.
  • Activate Propagate Mode: propagates the modification of the keywords to the sub-chapter default values.

Note: It is possible to select the chapters on the fly when the Manage Keywords panel is launched.

The left part of the immersive Manage Keywords on Chapter panel displays the tree view of keywords.

  • The chapter is displayed as the root.
  • All keywords defined on the chapter are displayed as the tree nodes.
  • Keyword types are displayed as the leaves of the tree with their associated type icons.

The following are some of the most frequently used keyword types and its icons:



The immersive Manage Keywords on Chapter panel displays the detailed view of keywords the chapters and its items. Sub-chapters are not displayed in the panel. Following are the characteristics of the Manage Keywords on Chapter panel.

  • The chapter keyword values are displayed in the first row. If a keyword is inherited, a is displayed.
  • The item names are displayed in the first column.
  • If an item value is a default value, a is displayed.
  • If applicable, units are displayed with the keyword values.
  • Sorting of rows is available by clicking the column header.
  • The bottom part of the panel is a work area, where the keywords and their values are modified.
Notes:
  • You cannot add keywords to items, you can only modify the values of existing keywords.
  • Keywords are propagated to sub-chapters and can only be renamed or removed at the level of their creation.
  • When a keyword is added on a chapter, the keyword and the keyword value are propagated to the items under the chapter and to all sub-chapters.
  • For later modifications of keyword values, selecting the propagate option causes the keyword values to be propagated to sub-chapters and to all items using the default value.
  • The propagate option does not affect the values of items for which the value has been modified or is different from the default value.
  • The display mode buttons at the upper-right corner of the Manage Keyword panel enable you to modify the presentation of the item table.

Considerations

This section mentions about the points to be considered in relation to keywords.

  • Keyword names are not NLS-compliant, e.g. if a keyword is defined with Japanese characters it will not be translated.
  • Keyword type cannot be modified (Only keyword names and values can be modified).
  • User changes cannot be undone (The Keyword Edition supports short transaction only).