How Orlando Works

Features

Tabbed screens

Much of our material is presented as sets of tabbed screens that offer multiple views of search results.

For author entries:

Overview: provides a summary of the writer's significance, a few key dates, and headings hyperlinked to corresponding sections of the Life and Writing documents.
Writing: the writing document for that individual, with headings. Citations and notes appear in pop-up boxes; lists of Works Cited at the end. Clicking on a hyperlink from within a document replaces the current screen with a Links screen.
Life: the biography document for that individual; same features as the Writing tab.
Life & Writing: both discussions side-by-side, scrollable so they can be read in parallel.
Timeline: all distinct events from within the Life and Writing documents, plus any events from outside the writer's documents which nevertheless name her (or him).
Links: all mentions of the writer in other documents, organized by context.
Links Excerpts: provides excerpts from all mentions of the writer in other documents
Works By: selective lists of works by the writer, chiefly first editions.

For excerpts:

Lives & Writing: material excerpted from documents on Lives and Writings.
Events: free-standing events drawn from Orlando's contextual historical materials as well as chronology material excerpted from author documents.
Bibliography: bibliographical entries drawn from Orlando's database of primary and secondary materials.

For hyperlinks:

Links: links to all author entries in which the hyperlink occurs, organized by context.
Excerpts: short portions of author documents in which the hyperlink occurs.
Timeline: events containing the hyperlink, drawn from contextual materials and from author documents.
Bibliography: bibliographical entries containing the hyperlink.

Hyperlinks

Any name, organization, place, or title that is tagged and exists elsewhere in the system is automatically hyperlinked to other mentions of it. Clicking on a hyperlink, which is designated by grey-blue text, replaces the current screen with a Links screen, in which hyperlinks are organized by the context in which they occur. This is part of a set of Tabbed screens along with an Excerpts tab, a Timeline tab, and a Bibliography tab.

Alternatively, you can use the other tabs provided here to read just the portions of the documents in which the hyperlinks occur, in the form of an excerpts screen, to view timeline materials, or to access bibliographical items in which the hyperlink occurs.

Links screens

Links screens provide organized access to all occurrences of hyperlinks within Orlando. Links screens occur as the default view of the tabbed hyperlink results, and as one of the tabbed screens available as part of author entries.

The screen heading provides the standard term for the hyperlink within the system. Occasionally, the tagging produces equivalents between different words. For instance, some links to London are the names of areas within London, such as Holborn or Chelsea. In such cases, the equivalent term is highlighted, as with all hyperlinks.

image of upper portion of hyperlinks screen

The screen provides:

A heading showing the standard name for the hyperlink within the system. Writers' names are hyperlinked to their entries, where they exist.
The author summary from the overview screen of the writer's entry, where available.
A link to the main entry, if one exists.
The left column lists the contexts in which the hyperlink occurs within other author entries, with the number of times the hyperlink occurs in these contexts in brackets. These can be expanded all together by clicking on the link provided at the top of the column, or expanded individually by clicking on a context.
The names of the writers in whose entries the hyperlinks occur appear in the right column. Clicking on a name replaces the Links screen with that writer's document, at the point at which the hyperlink occurs.

Note: the 'crumb trail' on the title bar ends with the Links screen. To return to the Links screen from a document, use your browser's Back button. To return to the document from which you linked in the first place, also use your browser's Back button.

Contexts for links

The contexts provided down the left side of links screens are generated from the tags in which the hyperlink occurs. Where context names are identical to tag names, that indicates that the hyperlink occurs within that tag.

Some of the contexts combine several tags. These are:

Intertextuality and Influence: intertextuality, influences her, she influenced
Family and Intimate Relationships: family, intimate relationships
Characters: characterization, character type or role, character name
Literary Setting: setting place, plot
Publishing: serialization, advertising, copyright, relations with publisher, submissions, rejections, earnings, contract, periodical publication, place of publication,

Some of the contexts are based on tag and attribute-attribute value combinations. These are:

Subscriptions: mode of publication tag with attribute publication mode and attribute value subscription
Residence: location tag with attribute relation to and attribute value lived, moved, or migrated
Travel: location tag with attribute relation to and attribute value visited or travelled

Search options

Limit by date

All searches can be performed on a specific range of dates, whether entered manually or selected as a historical period, the reign of a monarch, or the lifetime of a particular author.

Time-spans take in all writers alive (or presumed to be alive) during this time.

Year-only dates are listed before January dates; month-only dates are listed before the first of the month. This means, e.g., that if you want year-only dates, you should not fill in the mm-dd values in the date range screen.

Scope

All searches (except Tag search: in bibliography) can be narrowed according to the type of material being searched. The Scope choices vary by entry point as follows:

People: search for entries

narrow by type(s) of writer - British women writers, male writers, other women writers

People: search for names

narrow according to where you want to search - in lives, writings, free-standing events, or bibliography

Chronologies

narrow by event type (British women writers, writing climate, social climate, national or international)

image of scope:selectivity panel in chronologies search

narrow by degree of selectivity (most comprehensive, fairly comprehensive, fairly selective, most selective)

Tag search: in lives, in writings

narrow by type(s) of writer - British women writers, male writers, other women writers, or free-standing events

Tag search: by core tags, text only

narrow according to where you want to search - in lives of British women writers, writings of British women writers, male writers, other women writers, free-standing events, or bibliography

Tag search: combined

narrow by type(s) of writer - British women writers, male writers, other women writers

Results type

For most searches you can choose the format of your search results. The Results Type choices vary by entry point as follows:

People: search for entries by occupation, by genre, combined

choose between results in the form of excerpts or lists of authors with entries

Chronologies

choose between short form and long form results

Tag search: in lives, in writings, by core tags, text only, combined

choose between short form and long form results

Results order

A further option available on the Tag Search entry point (except for Tag Search: in bibliography) allows you to choose the ordering of your results - chronological or reverse chronological.

Results

Results come in several forms:

Author entries with tabbed screens

Overview

The overview screen is generated from various parts of the author's documents:

The brief author profile is the content of the author summary tag.

The milestones are a small subset of the chronology events for that author generated using the tags, where present, for birth and death dates, best known work, landmark text, and first and last literary activities.

The highlights are the headings from Life and Writing discussions: click on them to go to that point in those screens.

Writing

Writing discussion for that author. (In some cases, writing careers are represented in free-standing events and no Writing screen is available.)

Life

Life discussion for that author. (In a few cases nothing is known about the writer so there is no Life screen.)

Life & Writing

Both discussions side-by-side, scrollable so they can be read in parallel.

Timeline

All events mentioning the writer in the textbase.

Links

A list, organized by topic and identical to the Links screen for the writer, of mentions of the writer elsewhere in the textbase.

Links Excerpts

Excerpts from all mentions of the writer in other documents

Works By

A list of all bibliography entries for which the writer is an author.

Lists of entries

a list of writers, with entries, relevant to your search criteria. (You can click on any name to go to that author entry)

Excerpts with tabbed screens

Lives & Writing

material excerpted from author documents (for more context, you can click on the author name to go to the entry, or click on 'profile' to read the author summary)

Events

free-standing events drawn from Orlando's contextual historical materials as well as chronology material excerpted from author documents

Bibliography

bibliographical entries drawn from Orlando's database of primary and secondary materials

Timelines

a set of search results consisting of excerpts from within Life and Writing documents as well as free-standing chronology materials

Help

Orlando's documentation is designed to help you get the most out of the system.

The Help system, when accessed via the button (pictured above), opens in a new window. The left portion of the screen consists of two tabs: Table of Contents and Alphabetical Index. Use the headings under these tabs to find and access the desired information. When a heading is clicked on, the information will appear in the right portion of the screen.

There are several ways into the Help system. Clicking on the Help button on the upper right of any screen will open Help at the point specific to the screen you are currently viewing. Clicking on Introduction, Credits, About the Oak Tree, Subscribe, or Request a Trial on the homepage will open Help at the relevant discussions. Clicking on Tutorial under People, Chronologies, or Tag Search will open Help at the appropriate tutorial. Clicking on sample search under Chronologies or Tag Search will open Help at the appropriate set of sample searches.

Screen elements and miscellaneous information

General screen layout

Orlando tries to maintain a consistent general screen layout.

At the top of every screen is a horizontal panel, which contains the Cambridge Online logo, the oak tree icon, an Orlando header, the crumb trail (when active), and a Help button. (Note: there is no Help button in the horizontal panel on Help screens.)

The left hand portion of search screens contains a vertical navigation panel which provides access to the various entry points. The right hand portion of search screens contains a vertical Search Options panel which provides access to relevant means of narrowing your search. The centre portion of search screens contains the main search.

The top portion of results screens contains the horizontal panel. The remainder of the screen is devoted to the search results themselves. This is designed to allow maximum results per screen and to improve readability.

The left hand portion of help screens consists of two tabs, Table of Contents and Alphabetical Index, which provide access to the help material. The right hand portion of the screen contains the help information relevant to the item selected on the left.

Cambridge Online logo

At the top of every screen, immediately to the left of the oak tree icon, is the Cambridge Online logo. Image of Cambridge Online logo

Clicking on this logo will take you to the Cambridge Online homepage.

Oak tree icon

At the top of every screen, immediately to the left of the Orlando header, is the oak tree icon. Image of Oak Tree icon

Clicking on this icon will take you back to the homepage. (Note: clicking on the oak tree icon in the Help system will take you back to the Help system homepage.) To find out more about the oak tree icon, see About the Oak Tree.

Orlando header

At the top of every screen, immediately to the right of the oak tree icon, is an Orlando header.

The header on search and results screens appears as follows: Image of header on search and results screens

The header on help screens appears as follows: Image of header on help screens

Help button

At the top right of every screen (except those within the help system) is the Help button. Image of Help button

When clicked on, this will open Help at the point specific to the screen you are currently viewing.

Crumb trail

When you are anywhere other than the homepage you will see a 'crumb trail' at the top of the screen, immediately under the Orlando header. Image of sample crumb trail

The 'crumb trail' is a navigation tool. It allows you to see where the screen you are currently on is in relation to the site's hierarchy and provides an easy means of moving back up the hierarchy. (Note: you can also use your web browser's Back and Forward buttons for navigation.)

Because the interlinking structure of Orlando means that the 'crumb trail' could go on forever, 'crumb trail's are truncated at Links screens. However, if you wish to return to a previous screen from a Links screen, just use your browser's Back button. Note too that the Help system has its own independent 'crumb trail'.

Search options

The right hand portion of search screens contains a vertical Search Options panel which provides access to relevant means of narrowing your search. For more detail see Search options.

Event type icons

Chronology search results are labelled with an icon to indicate the type to which they belong. The icons are:

British women writers:
writing climate:
social climate:
national and international:

Further explanation of these event types can be found under Search Options, Chronologies Entry Point.

Thumbnails

Each search screen in the Tag Search entry point includes diagrams of the relevant tag set(s). These are immediately visible as small thumbnail sketches. Image of sample thumbnail sketch

When clicked on, this will scroll down the screen to a larger version of the tag diagram.

Further information on these diagrams can be found in Tag Diagrams.

About the tags button

Each search screen in the Tag search entry point contains an About the Tags button. Image of About the Tags button

When clicked on, this will open Help at About the Tags, which explains every tag and attribute.

Cite/hide citation button

On the majority of results screens, at the top right of the active area, is a Cite/Hide Citation button. Image of Cite/Hide Citation button

When clicked on, this will refresh the results screen, displaying (or hiding) the correct form for citing your search.

Show markup button

On the majority of results pages, at the top right of the active area, is a Show Markup button. Image of Show Markup button

When clicked on, this will refresh the screen, displaying the underlying markup (prose text plus tags) of documents or search results.

To learn more about markup, see What is markup? and What is markup for? To learn about Orlando's specific tags and attributes see About the Tags.

Show/hide tag context button

On the majority of results pages, at the top right of the active area, is a Show/Hide Tag Context button. Image of Show/Hide Tag Context button

When clicked on, this will refresh the screen, displaying (or hiding) the immediate tagging context of the search results.

Bibliographic citations icon

Scattered throughout search results and documents you will see the Bibliographic Citations icon. Image of Bibliographic Citations icon

When clicked on, this will open a small pop-up window containing bibliographic information for the source(s) of the preceding quotation or piece of information.

Scholarly note icon

Scattered throughout search results and documents you will see the Scholarly Note icon. Image of Scholarly Note icon

When clicked on, this will open a small pop-up window containing a very brief discussion of tangential or debatable issues.

Tabbed screens

Our materials are presented as sets of tabbed screens that offer multiple views of search results. Tabs that appear with a blue background are 'active'; you can view relevant results by clicking on the tab. Tabs that appear with a grey background are 'inactive'; there are no relevant results. The tab you are currently viewing appears with a white background. More on tabbed screens.

Link button

Bibliography items (in list of Works Cited, on the Works By tab, in bibliography search results) are followed by a Link button. Image of Link button

When clicked on, this provides a Hyperlinks screen for the item.

Profile button

Search results excerpted from life and writing documents are labelled with the name of the author, the birth - death dates, and a profile button. Image of profile button

When clicked on, this will open a small pop-up window containing a brief summary of the author's literary career.

Results headings

Search results screens begin with a results heading detailing the exact nature of the search. Image of results heading

Results indicators

Search results screens contain a results indicator. Image of Results Indicator

This lists the total number of search results and allows you to navigate through the results set, choosing to display any single page (twenty hits per page) of results or to display the entire results set at once.

Back to Top button

A Back to Top button appears on results screens as well as on many screens within the help documentation. Image of Back to Top button

When clicked on, this will return you to the top of the current page.

General tips

Searches are not case-sensitive; i.e. a search on "Smith" and a search on "smith" are seen as the same.

To search for an exact phrase enclose your search term in quotation marks (" ").

Pressing the "Enter" key is equivalent to clicking the "GO" button.

Even if you've reached the end of a crumb trail, for instance by moving from an author Entry to a Links screen, you can get back to where you came from by using the Back button on your web browser.