How to define an export format

The below example shows how to define an export text format in the following form:

Blood disorders

UF: Haematologic disorders

BT: Diseases

NT: Anaemia

NT: Haemophilia

NT: Leukaemia

RT: Lymphatic system disorders

Dan: Blodsygdomme

Nld: Bloedziekten

Far: اختلال خوني

Fin: Veritaudit

Fra: Maladie du sang

Deu: Blutkrankheiten

Ell: ΑΙΜΑΤΟΛΟΓΙΚΕΣ ΔΙΑΤΑΡΑΧΕΣ

Ita: Malattie del sangue

Nor: Blodsykdommer

Ptg: Doenças do sangue

Esp: Enfermedades de la sangre

Sve: Blodsjukdomar

 

Haematologic disorders

Use: Blood disorders

 

  1. Click on the User Defined Text Format button in the Preferences group of the Tools ribbon tab page.

  2. Put the cursor in the 'Format' box, and clear the current format.

  3. Start the example by adding a 'Main Term' tag in the 'Format' box. To do this, set the field tag item to 'Main Term' and click on 'Add' button. The current format in the 'Format' box will be changed to "<#MT>".

  4. Now we need a line feed/carriage return character after the main term. There are two ways: a) put the cursor at the end of main term tag and press 'Enter' to move the cursor to the beginning of the next line. b) Set the 'Special Character Tag' to the 'Carriage return/Line feed' item click the 'Add' button to insert the proper CRLF tag at the end of the format string. We use the first method to add the CRLF in the format string.

  5. Now we need to add the USE and UF fields. These are repeatable fields. Set the 'Field Tag' item to the 'Used For Terms' and click on 'Add' button. Again, Set the 'Field Tag' item to the 'Use Terms' and click on 'Add' button. The format string in the 'Format' box should be like this:
    "<#MT>
    {~<#UF>[CRLF]}{~<#USE>[CRLF]}"
    Notice to the above repeatable fields. They both are between curly brackets. There is a tilde (~) before UF and USE simple tags to determine them as the primary tags. Usually we separate the items of the elements by a separator (e.g. a comma, a semicolon or a line feed). by default the application adds a 'Carriage return/Line feed' for each item of the repeatable field. If you prefer to use another separator, you can delete the [CRLF] tag and insert your favorite separator.

  6. To add "USE:" and "UF:" symbols before each line of these repeatable tags, simply write them exactly after the left curly brackets of the current format. So the content of the 'Format' box will be"
    "<#MT>
    {UF: ~<#UF>[CRLF]}{USE: ~<#USE>[CRLF]}"

  7. As you can see, before each element there is a tab character to make an indent at the start of each line. So put a TAB tag after the left curly brackets. Now the 'Format' content is:
    "<#MT>
    {[TAB]UF: ~<#UF>[CRLF]}{[TAB]USE: ~<#USE>[CRLF]}"

  8. If you export you current thesaurus using 'Export to user define text format', the result would be like this:

    Blood disorders

UF: Haematologic disorders

 

Haematologic disorders

Use: Blood disorders

 

  1. Repeat the steps 5 to 7 to add other repeatable tags (BT, NT, RT, etc.) to the 'Format' box.

  2. The only remaining step is adding the main term translations tags. To do so, simply write the [TAB] and language symbol followed by a semicolon and a space and its proper tag (each one in a separated line).

The final format should be like this:

<#MT>
{[TAB]UF: ~<#UF>[CRLF]}{[TAB]USE: ~<#USE>[CRLF]}{[TAB]BT<#BTL>: ~<#BT>[CRLF]}{[TAB]NT<#NTL>: ~<#NT>[CRLF]}{[TAB]RT: ~<#RT>[CRLF]}
[TAB]Dan: <#Dan>
[TAB]Nld: <#Nld>
[TAB]Far: <#Far>
[TAB]Fin: <#Fin>
[TAB]Fra: <#Fra>
[TAB]Deu: <#Deu>
[TAB]Ell: <#Ell>
[TAB]Ita: <#Ita>
[TAB]Nor: <#Nor>
[TAB]Ptg: <#Ptg>
[TAB]Esp: <#Esp>
[TAB]Sve: <#Sve>