Buying the TLG Import, Importing TLG and using the Interface

[JAS]

I confess to being a wee bit disappointed by the TLG interface; it's not at all what . Quiet apart from that, I also am having trouble accepting that it appears that I have to import manually, one-by-one, each of the few thousand txt files from the TLG CD, if I want to do a global search across the literature.

 

Surely this can't be the case, though the documentation suggests it is. But I keep thinking that there must be some other way. So I'm throwing this out there in the hope that perhaps, just maybe, there is indeed a better way.

 

Word to the wise, if you're wondering about buying the interface module, as I was, then note that it's not a module at all. It's actually just a code which allows you to import some of the data from the TLG CD using the Import User Files function; it's not software. The Accordance website says it's an "Import Feature Unlock," so it's described accurately enough, if you think about it; it's just that I didn't realize what an Import Feature Unlock was (caveat emptor). When you import texts, what you really have is basically (very basically!) a TLG text decoder. You don't have anything approaching the web version or other up-to-date interfaces. You can still search for a word and then link to dictionaries and tools, etc (which is handy and the other interfaces don't do that). However, the above question should also alert you to the fact that it's not the friendliest of resources (which I assume has something to do with wacky licensing), insofar as where the website accurately describes the ability to "select and import texts" from TLG, it means doing that only one text at a time and there are a few thousand of them. And each text is a separate tool, so if you don't want a few thousand tools, you then need to merge them all.

[Joe Weaks]

When you import texts, what you really have is basically (very basically!) a TLG text decoder. You don't have anything approaching the web version or other up-to-date interfaces. You can still search for a word and then link to dictionaries and tools, etc (which is handy and the other interfaces don't do that).

Hi, JAS,

I'm confused on what feature is missing once you have the text imported. Having the TLG texts in Accordance allows you to do much more sophisticated searches than the web interface allows. The results are so much more useful. And, as you almost reluctantly confess, you have quick access for amplifying to other tools in your Accordance arsenal. All of these factors and more make having the text in Accordance far superior to using the web interface.

 

What feature is there on the web interface that is missing from or superior to using Accordance?

[Rick Bennett]

JAS,

 

I'll concede to allow others with more experience in the User Tools to attempt to answer your question about an easier way to import the texts. But, I can say that if you ever have a question about a module (or in this case 'unlock feature') before you purchase, by all means ask. You can email anyone in our sales staff, or post it as a question on the forum and I'm confident you'll get a prompt response.

A related topic to this has come up in regards to the PHI texts, but it is something that would require a lot of future conversations regarding the 'wacky licensing.' For the now, we have to be content to be able to have these texts searchable (that is if you're one of the select few to have access to the TLG CD) in the same program as all our other great Accordance texts/tools, which as you mentioned does have its advantages.

[Helen Brown]

JAS:

 

I have to agree that if you need to search the entire TLG corpus it will be a lot of work to import every text. You can import into an existing file, though, so you will not need to merge so many together. Once you have done the work you will have a very flexible corpus.

 

You can amplify to All User Tools at once, or even better, set up a Search All Group for your TLG files. In the Search All window you can search them, see your results listed for each text, and then choose the text you want to examine.

 

Sadly the TLG CD-ROM is no longer being supported by the project, so there seems no point in investing resources to improve this feature which is of interest to relatively few people (who have the license for the old CD-ROM).

[R. Mansfield]

A couple hundred years ago when I was working on my M.Div, I had a professor who had us use the TLG for one of our Greek papers. They had a CDROM in the campus computer lab. That's been my only experience with the TLG.

 

So do I understand correctly that the CDROM's are no longer available and when they were, they were inaccessible to most individuals because of price?

 

Makes me wonder if I shouldn't keep a saved eBay search for it for one day when some library decides to get rid of their old copy.