Using Entities to Embed Labels within Other Fields and Further Customisation

Using Entities to Embed Labels within Other Fields and Further Customisation

Entities can also be used for situations where labels need to be embedded within other fields, as is the case for, for example, the French ‘f’ (“feminine noun”) and ‘m’ (“masculine noun”) gender labels. In a bilingual English – French – English dictionary one may for instance find the following entry:

contrivance (noun) [ ① tool, machine] appareilm , machinef; [ ② scheme] inventionf, combinaisonf

In an electronic environment, one would want users who click on the ‘f’ and ‘m’ gender labels to be sent to the correct meanings of those labels, rather than to random abbreviations. In existing electronic English – French – English dictionaries it is not uncommon to click on the ‘f’ and ‘m’ gender labels, and to be presented with an array of possibilities. Following up on each of them, may lead to:

• Clicking on ‘f’ may lead to: • F, f ... nom masculin ... F, f • F ... abréviation ... F, fr ... F • Clicking on ‘m’ may lead to: • M, m ... nom masculin ... M, m • me, m’ ... pronom personnel ... me; myself • m ... abréviation ... m • m’ ► me • M. .. abréviation ... Mr

In other words, if one does not already know what these abbreviations stand for, one receives no guidance at all, with the first option for ‘f’ as “nom masculin” definitely confusing. To avoid such problems, the ‘f’ and ‘m’ gender labels could be defined as entities (e.g. ‘&f;’ and ‘&m;’ respectively) which are replaced in the output with labels configured in a single, central place, i.e. on the “Entities” tab, as shown below:

Figure 51: “Entities” tab in the Styles dialog: Adding new entities for the ‘intelligent’ use of gender labels, in this case the raised ‘f’ for “feminine” and the raised ‘ m ’ for “masculine” [with ‘%r’ for “superscript”]

In the next screenshot, the use of the ‘f’ and ‘m’ gender labels as entities is illustrated.

Figure 52: Example of the use of entities (here ‘&f;’ and ‘&m;’) for situations where labels need to be embedded within other fields